Noteworthy News Articles on Mental Health Topics, July 11-17, 2000

Where Heroin Lives: A Small New Mexico Town is Devastated
Julia Campbell, ABC News- 7/11/2000

CHIMAYO, N.M.--Venessa Valerio was just 9 years old when she went to her first funeral. Soon her mother would bury her, too. Venessa and her third-grade classmates walked to the local Catholic Church to say goodbye to their classmate, Audrey, who had been caught in the middle of a dispute over heroin, then shot and killed. "[Venessa] came home that day and she told me ‘I cried and cried,’" said Venessa’s mother, Annette Valerio. "She said to me ‘Why would anybody want to shoot a child?’ "Then it happened to her."

A Way of Life, Death
The little girl nicknamed "Nessie," who had dark almond-shaped eyes and hair so long it tickled the backs of her knees, was shot and killed by a burglar who surprised the mother and daughter as they returned home one afternoon in 1993. The killer, a heroin-addicted neighbor — a "tecato" in this part of the country — wanted the little girl’s insulin needles, which she used to help treat her diabetes. Nessie’s death came at a time when heroin began to take a deadly grip on this New Mexico community, set in the red dirt foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Here in the Espanola Valley, where Spanish settlers made their home in the cradle of what Tewa Indians considered holy ground, heroin has become a way of life. It has also become a way of death. Like never before, heroin is moving out of the inner cities and into America’s suburbs and rural communities, communities such as Chimayo, which has seen a surge in heroin-related deaths in recent years.

Lives Lost, Touched
Between 1995 and 1998, 85 people in Chimayo, a village of just 4,100 people, died of heroin overdoses, one of the highest rates of heroin-related deaths in the nation. The deaths were attributed to the prevalence in recent years of a high purity "black tar" heroin that authorities believe is being smuggled across the Mexican-U.S. border from Nayarit, Mexico, 1,300 miles away. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had made nearly 200 arrests of suspected smugglers in 12 cities following a yearlong investigation into a Mexican trafficking organization. Despite the recent federal intervention and efforts by residents to rid the community of the drug infestation, however, hospital visits involving heroin-related emergencies remain high and overdose deaths in this region rose again slightly last year, which is a sign to some here that the drug is still in high demand. "We are a small area and we do have a problem and we know it," said Capt. Quentin McShan, of the New Mexico state police in nearby Espanola. "We have addicted grandfathers, addicted fathers and addicted grandsons. Most people in this valley have a relative that has had an addiction problem. It has touched a lot of lives."

Signs of an Epidemic
Among the clusters of modest adobe dwellings, weaving shops and trailer homes, residents live in makeshift compounds of extended families. Nobody is quite sure why heroin has overwhelmed parts of this community. Some point to poverty or boredom or a history of substance abuse in poorer families here. Whatever the reasons, officials say, there is no question that heroin has infiltrated this slice of rural America and overwhelmed its residents. Health officials say that they believe that one person in four is a heroin addict. Though longtime residents were not likely to admit it a few years ago, signs of the drug epidemic here have been evident for some time. Crosses dot the roadways where some have lost family members to accidents involving drugs and alcohol. In the nearby village of Cordova, a spate of heroin overdoses last year among young users prompted someone to write "God help us" in chalk on the roadway.

Kicking the Habit
Murray Ryan, an internist with offices near the local hospital in Espanola, has seen firsthand the growth of the heroin problem in Rio Arriba, a county of 26,000 people. Patients he once treated for symptoms of the flu as young children, he says, have grown up and become heroin addicts. One of his patients, a 15-year-old boy he tried to help off heroin, died in an alcohol and drug-fueled car accident on the road outside his clinic last year. "The hard drug problem, heroin and cocaine, is just uniquely horrible here," Ryan said. "I personally think that’s 100 percent accessibility. Five or ten years ago, the 14- or 16-year-olds would have been using marijuana. Since heroin and cocaine are so casually available here, they instantly go from lighter drugs to heroin." Joe, one of Ryan’s patients who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation in the heroin dealing community, said he was taking college courses in binary algebra and microelectronics when he got hooked on heroin four years ago. The high school honors student says he is struggling to kick the habit for good. He says he is hoping a judge will let him enter a long-term residential treatment program in lieu of prison for time he owes for several burglary convictions. "I tried it one time and I liked it," said Joe, of his heroin addiction. "I started off by snorting it and then that just led to shooting up." Joe says that he was careful, however, not to "over inject" because he had watched his mother wallow in heavy heroin addiction for years.

Always in Your Face
Aside from the shocking violent crimes, like the killings of little Nessie and Erik Sanchez, the problem has permeated much of the community in smaller ways. Until recently, the state police said, one in four homes in Chimayo was burglarized each year. On the community's rural highways, it is not uncommon for state police officers to stop cars for traffic infractions and discover heroin, as well. "We see lots of heroin," says State Police Officer Mario Salbridez. "Heroin is the drug of choice up here. It is the most popular drug we have going." Local employers like Florence Jaramillo, the owner of the Rancho de Chimayo, a restaurant popular with locals and tourists, who come to visit the community’s famous and historic Roman Catholic church, El Santuario, have seen the effects. "We knew it was bad when we would hire people and they couldn’t show up to work," Jaramillo said. Chimayo resident Bruce Richardson was so disgusted when he found discarded syringes in an irrigation ditch in his backyard that he gathered them in a pickle jar and brought them to a community meeting. "It was just always in your face," said Richardson, who is the head of a local crime prevention group he and others formed to try to combat the problem.

Voices Against Heroin Heard
The residents managed to speak up loud enough in recent months that their legislators took notice, both in New Mexico and in Washington, where hearings have been held in recent weeks in both the House and Senate. "My only sister is now dead, and I am left an only child," Chimayo resident Mario Medina testified before a House committee on government reform on June 30, saying that she had died of an overdose. "I feel the best way to stop drug use is to stop the drug before it can come across the Southwest border," he said. Last spring, the Justice Department ordered federal law enforcement officials to investigate the problem in Chimayo and surrounding areas. "We started finding true examples of the fact that this had crossed the line," said Suellen Strale, a local artist and member of the crime prevention group. "It was no longer closed up. It overflowed into the community." On Sept. 29, 1999, the day dawned with what would be the first major step in ridding the community of its heroin problem. Before the sun rose, at 5:30 a.m., federal, state and local law enforcement agents flooded the town in helicopters and police cruisers, raiding the homes of 32 of Chimayo's known heroin dealers. The agents used an aerial map the outraged residents of the village had helped them plot. "I just said ‘Thank God!’ Jaramillo said, remembering the raid. "This is long overdue.

A Small Town's Cry for Help
Until recently, the cries for help in Chimayo largely went unheard outside of north central New Mexico. For years, many say, nobody wanted to talk about the problem that plagued nearly every family. "Nobody is going to talk to you," one local shopkeeper warned a reporter. "It’s just too close to home. You’re talking about our brothers, sisters, our cousins." In Chimayo, where many extended families live together in clusters of adobe homes on quiet country roads, heroin has affected just about every family, local officials say. "People are in pain," said Lauren Reichelt, director of the Rio Arriba Family Care Network in Espanola. Particularly hit hard, she says, is the area’s large community of Native Americans, who were pushed up into the foothills generations ago by European settlers. "They feel dislocated. When you lose things that are important to you, when you lose family, when you lose language, there can be a kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome. I like to say that there has been a kind of amputation of peoples’ souls." Some said they were even afraid that if they spoke publicly about the problem, that the dealers, who stood to lose profits if drug laws were enforced in the region, would retaliate. Two years ago, two dealers killed a top Espanola high school student, Erik Sanchez, after stealing his car and throwing him — possibly still alive — off a bridge 600 feet above the Rio Grande. They wanted his car for drug money, authorities later said.

Lesbian Wants Visitation Rights
Julia Campbell, ABC News- 7/11/2000

NEW YORK--When Christine and Janis met and fell in love in the early 1990s, they did what most heterosexual couples do: They partnered and soon discussed having children. The lesbian couple, though they could not legally marry, moved in together, and one of them, Christine, soon gave birth to two children, a boy, now 4, and a girl, 2, through artificial insemination. By all accounts, they were a happy family. That is, of course, until the breakup. Christine and Janis, of Westchester County, N.Y., have become embroiled in heated court battle over the custody of the two children in a case that is emblematic, experts say, of an increasing number of gay and lesbian couples who must negotiate uncharted legal territory when it comes to custody disputes. "These are horrible cases on all fronts," said Chris Hwang, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which handles a number of family law cases involving lesbians.

A Ruling Brings Tears
A sobbing Janis, overcome with joy, left the Westchester Family Court on Monday after learning that she would be able to visit the two children that she and Christine raised together for the first time since November, when the couple broke up. A judge ruled that Janis, who is neither the biological nor legal parent but who was the family’s "breadwinner," had the right to sue for visitation. Janis will be allowed to visit with the children every other Sunday for four hours while the court continues to hear arguments for permanent visitation rights. "I just can’t wait to hug and kiss my kids and not let go of them for four hours," a tearful Janis told reporters outside the courtroom.

Courts Mixed on Custody Issues
As more and more gay couples, particularly lesbians, are raising children together, legal experts are starting to see more custody battles make it to court. In Florida and in California, courts have ruled that lesbian ex-partners should not have visitation rights with the children they helped raise, no matter the circumstances. Some state courts have refused to hear such cases on the grounds that current laws do not apply to same-sex cases involving disputes over visitation rights. But, increasingly, legal experts say, courts are recognizing that non-traditional families should be considered in the legal process.
    Last June, Massachusetts’ highest court granted visitation rights to a lesbian who helped raise her ex-lover’s son, ruling that the woman was a "de facto" parent to the boy. Since that case, Kauffman said, more lesbian parents have had standing to get their cases into court. "That is always the first hurdle," she said. In April, in a case that legal advocates for gay and lesbian rights say is the strongest ruling of its kind to date, the New Jersey Supreme Court declared that a lesbian who helped raise her ex-lover’s twins was a "psychological parent." The court ruled that the woman had the same legal rights of any parent when deciding custody issues. "There have been a number of cases addressing this issue, and in some sense, it is all over the map," said Michael Adams, associated director of the American Civil Liberties Union lesbian and gay rights project. " There is no clear trend. But given that, until recently, there were no cases in which parents of this type were granted parental rights, it does show that there is more recognition of non-traditional parents."

Bitter Breakups
Breakups are no less painful for homosexual couples, said Joyce Kauffman, a Cambridge, Mass., lawyer, who handles family law cases, including those that involve lesbian parents. "People don’t always behave their best when they are breaking up," she said. "The sad thing is there is no legal process (for gays and lesbians) to help people through that process." Kauffman said she and a former partner split custody of their daughter when they broke up 14 years ago — without going to court. "I was the biological parent and I had the legal right to say no, but I didn’t feel I had the moral right to do that to my daughter," she said of her own situation.
    After meeting in the early 1990s, Christine and Janis, the Westchester County couple, decided to bind their relationship in a unofficial commitment ceremony in 1993. Both participated in the planning for the pregnancies and subsequent births, according to court papers. The couple also executed reciprocal wills, baptized the children and named them using both their last names. Janis was the family’s primary wage earner and Christine stayed home with the children. In papers filed with the Westchester court, Janis argued that she had formed a "parental bond" with the children in the years the couple lived together.
    "Christine chose Janis as a partner and a co-parent," Judge Joan Cooney said in her ruling Monday. "These children have the right of any other children to continue a loving relationship with their parents." But when the couple broke up last fall, Christine refused to allow Janis to visit the children, and later, during the recent court hearing, accused her former lover of abusing the children. In turn, Janis presented witnesses who described her as a loving mother, whom the children called "Momma."

Precedent-Setting Case
Monday’s ruling was the first time a New York judge had granted visitation rights to anyone under similar circumstances, and is expected to be among a handful of precedent-setting cases when it comes to the issue of gay and lesbian parental rights, experts say. Monroe Mann, the lawyer for Christine, said he would appeal the decision and ask for a stay of a court hearing scheduled in August to determine permanent visitation rights for Janis. "The law in New York is very clear," Mann said. "Only a parent can get visitation. A parent is defined as either the biological or adoptive parent and (Janis) is neither."

Director of Rehab Center Quits in Dispute Over Alcohol Treatment
Karen Matthews, Associated Press, 7/11/2000

NEW YORK--The director of the Smithers clinic, the celebrity rehab center that treated Truman Capote and Joan Kennedy, has quit in a dispute over his decision to adopt a program that allows patients to drink in moderation.  The resignation of Dr. Alex DeLuca from the Smithers Addiction Treatment and Research Center comes amid a renewed debate over whether problem drinkers should be allowed to drink in controlled fashion or should abstain altogether. Last month, Audrey Kishline, the founder of Moderation Management, a national organization that promotes moderate drinking for problem drinkers, pleaded guilty to causing a deadly drunken-driving accident in Washington state. She has renounced the movement.
    DeLuca's decision to include Moderation Management as a treatment option at Smithers was first reported in last week's New York magazine. He told the magazine: ''I humbly submit that this is the way alcoholics should be treated.'' DeLuca resigned Monday under pressure from St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, which runs the clinic.  The hospital said in a statement that the Smithers center ''has a long and proud tradition of treating alcoholism by advocating total abstinence. While we recognize there may be other alternatives in the treatment of this difficult disease, no change in our own program policy was ever approved.'' ''Since Dr. Alex DeLuca does not support the program philosophy, we have accepted his resignation as director of Smithers,'' the statement said. DeLuca could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A call to the only Alex DeLuca listed in New York state was not returned. In an interview in Tuesday's New York Times, DeLuca said he was not advocating that the Smithers center drop abstinence. ''I was only suggesting that you could engage people in a kinder, gentler manner rather than telling them that they had to sign up for a goal of achieving abstinence from the beginning,'' he said.
    The Smithers center, whose patients over the years have included writer John Cheever and baseball star Darryl Strawberry, was founded 30 years ago with a $10 million donation from philanthropist Robert Brinkley Smithers, who also started the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation. The two organizations are no longer linked, and the dispute over controlled drinking has deepened a rift between the clinic and the foundation, which advocates total abstinence for alcoholics and drug addicts. The foundation took out a full-page ad in The New York Times on Sunday noting that it is not associated with the clinic and that it believes ''alcoholism is a disease that requires abstinence-based treatment, and that controlled drinking, under any name, whether it be `modern management' or `harm reduction,' is not possible where the disease of alcoholism exists.''
    In Washington state, Kishline, 43, pleaded guilty in the March 25 deaths of a man and his 12-year-old daughter. Kishline was driving the wrong way down Interstate 90, and her blood-alcohol level was more that three times the legal limit. She faces a possible life sentence. Kishline started Moderation Management in 1993, calling it an alternative to abstinence-based Alcoholics Anonymous. The moderation program says it is not for alcoholics, just problem drinkers. Since the accident, Kishline has quit the movement. Her lawyer has said that Kishline realized that Moderation Management ''is nothing but alcoholics covering up their problem."

Court: Psychologist Cannot Be Sued by Accused Abuser
Associated Press, 7/12/2000

HARTFORD, Conn.--A psychologist required by law to report suspicions of child abuse cannot be sued by the accused, regardless of whether the charges are found to be valid, the state Appellate Court ruled Wednesday.  In a unanimous ruling, the court found mental health professionals who are legally bound to report abuse have no obligation to conduct an investigation of their own before notifying the state Department of Children and Families.  Any person who reports such information in good faith is immune from civil or criminal liability under state law, the court found. Leaving them open to action by the accused ''would carry with it the impermissible risk of discouraging such professionals in the future from performing abuse evaluations of children altogether,'' the court ruled.
    The ruling upheld a decision by a trial judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Francisco J. Morales against psychologist Carol M. Kagel. In December 1995, Morales' then-wife, Sarah Louis Morales, called Kagel about sexual behavior exhibited by her 4-year-old son. When questioned by his mother, the boy allegedly said his father had abused him.   During the conversation Kagel, who practices in Avon, told Mrs. Morales that she was required under state law to report the allegations of abuse to DCF. Francisco Morales, implicated by Kagel's report, sued the psychologist in November 1997. The lawsuit charged Kagel with recklessness, negligence, defamation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress because she did not hear his side of the story before calling authorities. Without doing her own investigation, Morales claimed, Kagel could not have had enough information to report in ''good faith'' a suspicion of child abuse. It was not immediately clear whether Morales was ever charged with any criminal act. His lawyer, John F. Morris, did not return repeated telephone messages seeking comment.

Sex Offender's Sentence Fulfills One Victim's Vow
Elizabeth Neff, Chicago Tribune- 7/12/2000

Shortly after being abducted at knifepoint and forced into a car in the parking lot of Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg, Angela Bartucci made a silent promise that has changed her life and countless other lives throughout the state. "I made a vow to myself that if I lived through this nightmare, whoever victimized me would never hurt anyone else," Bartucci told a hushed courtroom Tuesday in Rolling Meadows shortly before the man who sexually attacked her was given life in prison without parole. After Judge Joseph J. Urso sentenced Robert Koppa, who has a lengthy history of sexual and violent crimes against women, Bartucci clutched her chest and whispered, "Yes!"   It was the final scene of an ordeal that started with the attack four years ago and led Bartucci and members of her family to enlist public support on petitions that ultimately helped persuade legislators to change state law. Their efforts spurred a measure to keep repeat sex offenders in custody past the end of their sentences if they are deemed still violent.
    Sharing the moment with Bartucci in court were other women victimized by Koppa in similar incidents dating back to the 1970s. There were Joyce Tardio, the mother of Julie Angel, the 15-year-old Koppa murdered in 1980, and a woman who escaped from Koppa when he abducted her that same year. "It's been 20 years since Julie's murder, and, thanks to Angela, he has been put away for life," Tardio said. "It's just such a relief to know no one will have to go through this again." Bartucci, 21, of Bloomingdale, said Koppa's sentence was for all those he has hurt.  "Putting him away for life was my one goal out of this whole thing," she said. "It's not just for me; it's for the others too."
    She told the court how the incident has affected her. "The bruises on my arms have healed, but my life will never be the same," she said, reading a statement. "I will always be plagued by the memory of that night and my fear that he was going to kill me." On the night of July 13, 1996, Koppa, 51, of Palatine, forced Bartucci into his brown Pontiac Trans Am at knifepoint. Bartucci had just left her job at a children's clothing store at the mall. Koppa bound Bartucci's wrists with plastic ties and placed bandages and sunglasses over her eyes. Bartucci testified she was able to see Koppa out of the corners of her eyes after her tears loosened the bandages. When Bartucci freed her hands and tried to escape, Koppa caught her and threatened her with the knife. It was at that moment, Bartucci said, she knew what she had to do. "That's when it really struck me. I wanted to get out, but there really wasn't any way to, and I thought if I lived through this, I had to pay very close attention to everything," Bartucci said. Koppa drove Bartucci to a wooded area, where he forced her to put on a blue silk nightgown, an evening gown and a red silk shirt before he sexually assaulted her. He later pushed her into a stairwell in a parking garage near where he had abducted her. Police arrested Koppa after Bartucci gave them a description of him and his car.
    Bartucci, who will be a senior this fall at a Big Ten university, works as a photographer in a studio during the school year. She said her decision to talk to the media was intended to help other victims. "I do want to move on, and I don't want to let this rule my life, and I haven't, but at the same time, it's very therapeutic to talk about these things," Bartucci said. "A lot of women feel guilty, like it's their fault, and it's really difficult for a lot of women to face it."  Bartucci's mother, Susan, and her father, Frank, attended court each day with their daughter. "You have this sense of security when you live in a good neighborhood and your daughter works in a good area," Susan Bartucci said. "You don't really think something like this is going to happen to your kid."
    Urso sentenced Koppa under the state's "three strikes" law, which mandates a life sentence without parole for anyone who commits three Class X felonies within a 20-year period. The judge described Koppa as "the kind of individual that the legislature had in mind when this particular statute was passed." Koppa sat with his hands folded, showing no emotion. His lawyer, Scott Slonim, an assistant public defender, said his office will appeal.  Koppa declined to comment when Urso asked him if he wanted to address the court. Koppa's criminal history dates back to 1976, when he pleaded guilty to deviate sexual assault and served half of a 4-year sentence. He was released from prison in December 1979, and he killed Angel the next February. He was connected to the murder while in prison for abducting a 21-year-old woman in 1980. Koppa was sentenced in 1983 to 30 years in prison for the murder, rape and kidnapping as part of a plea bargain. He served 13 years, and it was while he was on parole that he attacked Bartucci.
    Bartucci said she is especially proud of her efforts to spur the passage of the Sexually Violent Persons Act.  "When I found out he was a repeat offender, I knew something had to be done," Bartucci said. "I was infuriated."  In September 1996, Bartucci presented Senate Majority Leader James "Pate" Philip (R-Wood Dale) with a petition drafted by Tardio containing more than 2,000 signatures. The petition called for an end to plea bargaining with murderers and child molesters. It also advocated tougher laws against repeat sex offenders, demanding mandatory life sentences for a second sex offense involving a child. Her efforts paid off in 1997. Under the Sexually Violent Persons Act, the state can force offenders who have already completed their prison terms to spend additional time confined in state mental hospitals. It was Koppa's case that helped mobilize the legislature, said Rep. Thomas J. Dart (D-Chicago), who wrote the law with Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan. "He was the poster child for sexually dangerous persons," Dart said. "Koppa really crystallized a lot of people's opinions. He definitely gave me the jolt I needed to get this done."

New Denver Drug Czar Plans Coalition Against Abuse
Sheba R. Wheeler & Carlos Illescas, Denver Post Staff- 7/12/2000

Darnell Jackson has already been down the road that Adam Brickner will soon travel. As the drug czar of Michigan, Jackson has logged about 70,000 miles in his state-issued Pontiac Bonneville over the past two years, driving from city to city to promote his anti-drug message. Jackson has visited dozens of cities, schools, community organizations and law enforcement agencies. His task is a daunting one. But it's also one that has seen some significant results, Jackson said. "Surveys show drug use in Michigan has gone down in a lot of different categories," Jackson said.
    Brickner, Denver's first and newly appointed drug czar, will be trying to live up to some of the successes Michigan and other states have experienced after creating a drug-czar office. It's a battle tactic governments are increasingly using in the war on drugs. Denver Mayor Wellington Webb this week appointed Brickner, coordinator of the Denver Drug Court judge, as the city's drug czar. Hundreds of people attending Webb's annual State of the City address Tuesday expected him to publicly introduce Brickner. But Brickner was out doing his job - discussing drug policy ideas with state Rep. Kay Alexander, R-Montrose, and other leaders in the drug treatment and policy world.  His goal is to pool independent anti-drug programs from throughout Denver into a united coalition to curtail the illegal use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. "They have all been doing good things in the community, but there's no focused effort to address the issue in a full, holistic scale," he said.
    Brickner said statistics rank Colorado as one of the worst states in terms of drug and alcohol abuse. The Colorado Department of Health released a recent study showing Colorado was No. 2 in the country for alcohol abuse and had the 14th highest number of drug users. Also, three years ago, the national drug czar reported that Colorado had more children younger than 13 per capita who smoked marijuana than any other big city in the country.   "I think those numbers prove that it's a bigger issue than people recognize," Brickner said.
    Brickner, 39, has worked in the Denver Drug Court since 1996 and has served as the court coordinator since 1998. He has more than 13 years of experience in community corrections and working with substance-abuse offenders.  He believes he's the right man for the job because he's an expert coordinator and a leader. As drug czar, Brickner will be responsible for implementing recommendations from the city's 1999 Drug Strategy Commission. Those include implementing a public media blitz on the warning signs and dangers of substance abuse, expanding treatment centers and advocating for the prevention of communicable diseases.
    Denver isn't the first city to hire a drug czar. Houston and New York City have done so in recent years.  But mostly, it has been states that have hired drug czars. In Michigan and other states, for instance, efforts are focused in several areas, including gang task forces, community policing, treatment programs, anti-drug prevention, police officers in schools, law enforcement, technology and public relations. "Director McCaffrey points out that in America, we don't just have a national drug problem, we have a series of community epidemics," said Bob Weiner, spokesman for the White House's national drug czar, Barry McCaffrey.
    Brickner's program will be budgeted through the Denver Department of Safety. No financing has been allocated other than Brickner's salary, which he said will be about $75,000 a year. Funding for drug-prevention programs such as the one being implemented in Denver come from a variety of areas. Brickner will be able to apply for up to $100,000 in "seed money" from the federal government to get his office going, Weiner said. Brickner also will be able to apply for federal block grants. While Colorado's state government does not have a drug czar, money the state receives from the federal government could also finance Brickner's programs, Weiner said.

Former Students Accuse New Jersey Rabbi of Abuse Over 20 Years
Amy Westfeldt, Associated Press- 7/13/2000

NEWARK, N.J.--For 30 years, Rabbi Baruch Lanner was known in the Orthodox Jewish community as a charismatic, dynamic educator, a founding principal of a yeshiva school in New Jersey and guide on countless retreats. Colleagues and students say Lanner would call parents to persuade them to let their children travel to Israel with him, board students at his Paramus home so they could attend yeshiva, and inspire them to become better Jews. Some saw him as a substitute father.  In recent months, more than 25 former students have come forward to say that for decades Lanner, a leader in the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth, also sexually, physically and verbally abused them. The students, now in their 30s and 40s, said that Lanner kissed, fondled and hit teen-age girls and kneed some boys in the groin. His accusers also say he attacked a man with a knife.
    Lanner, 50, resigned as director of regions for the New York-based youth group last month after The Jewish Week, a leading Jewish weekly, published many of the allegations. Two New Jersey prosecutors have begun criminal investigations and Lanner's former employer, the Orthodox Union, has begun a probe to determine whether it was responsible for covering up complaints about Lanner. Rabbi Yosef Blau, a Yeshiva University counselor and one of Lanner's strongest critics, said the rabbi was largely protected by the Orthodox Union, a venerable institution with a membership of nearly 1,000 synagogues that also puts the seal of approval on kosher food. ''I think that they were so enamored with his success and accomplishments that they didn't want to hear problems,'' Blau said. ''There was a code of loyalty here at the same time, and also he was very scary,'' said Naomi Freistat, a 41-year-old doctor who said that Lanner kissed and fondled her a dozen times and punched her in the stomach when she was 15. ''This was a man where you didn't know what was coming next.''
    Lanner lived in Paramus until separating recently from his wife and now takes calls from a number in Fair Lawn. He said he has violated Orthodox Jewish law in the past by having physical relationships with former students none teen-agers but hasn't broken any other laws. ''I did many things I shouldn't have done, but none of them were illegal. None of them were perverted. None of them were threatening,'' Lanner said. He denied the allegations of Freistat and others printed in The Jewish Week and said he couldn't recall others. He admitted accidentally kneeing a boy in the groin in 1983 at the Monmouth County school he founded. He has never faced criminal charges, although a religious tribunal was called in 1989 to investigate whether he had attacked a Bergen County man suffering from cancer with a knife in an argument over who the man should marry. Lanner was cleared.
    Bergen County prosecutors are investigating allegations in the article, said First Assistant Prosecutor Fred Schwanwede. The article reports that one woman said Lanner threw her on a bed in his home, and another said he suggestively brushed up against her while she was a student at the Frisch School in Paramus, a yeshiva. Lanner has said he didn't remember throwing the woman onto a bed, and said the second woman, Marcie Lenk, could have been misinterpreted his actions. He said Lenk was living at his home at the time and never spoke to him about feeling uncomfortable. ''If you felt threatened, idiot, why did you come?'' Lanner said. ''Why did your parents let you come?'' Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye is investigating the complaint of a woman who said she was a student of Lanner's at the Hillel school in Deal, a yeshiva Lanner founded and was principal of until 1997. Kaye said the woman came to Westfield police on Monday, but wouldn't identify her or describe her complaint.  The author of The Jewish Week's article, editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt, said he spoke to between 15 and 18 people who complained about Lanner for the article, and has received letters from a dozen more since it was published June 23. ''Some of them didn't know there were any others,'' Rosenblatt said.
    Freistat, a podiatrist in New York, told The Associated Press that she met Lanner when she traveled from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to retreats in New Jersey. Freistat said she persuaded her mother to let her go on his six-week trip to Israel in 1974. Lanner asked Freistat to kiss him on the cheek the first week of the trip, and on the second week summoned her outside ''it was always outside,'' she said and kissed and fondled her. She endured the contact a dozen times, she said, fearing that the youth group leader would send her home. She said she tried to pull away the last time he approached her in a Jerusalem courtyard near her hostel, and Lanner grabbed her. ''He said 'Don't walk away from me,''' Freistat said. ''He punched me in the stomach. All I remember is just looking up at him and saying `You just punched the wrong girl.''' Freistat said she and another girl on the youth group spoke to two rabbis, one who was helping lead the youth group tour, about Lanner's conduct, but that Lanner went unpunished. The Orthodox Union has set up a commission to find out ''who knew what and when did they know it,'' said president Mandell I. Ganchrow. Freistat called the Union ''a boys' club,'' while other students have said that the Union let Lanner's conduct go unchecked because he made a lot of money for them. Others said they were intimidated. Freistat said, ''He was smart enough to pick on little kids."

Judge Orders City to Arrange Treatment for Released Mentally Ill Inmates
Associated Press, 7/13/2000

NEW YORK --The Giuliani administration must arrange for the continuing mental health care of thousands of inmates before they are released from the Rikers Island jail, a Manhattan judge has ruled. On Wednesday, Justice Richard F. Braun, of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, granted a preliminary injunction and gave class action status to a suit filed against the city last August buy seven mentally ill inmates of the jail. The suit contends that the 25,000 inmates who are treated for mental illness at the prison each year were being released without proper provision for treatment in the community or a way to continue their psychotropic medication.
    The city has not disputed those claims, but argued that Rikers inmates have no legal right to the kind of prerelease planning required for mental hospital patients under state law. Braun found that the plaintiffs were highly likely to win the lawsuit on its merits, and said they would suffer irreparable harm unless the city was required to provide them with a discharge plan while the case is fought in court. Braun rejected the city's contention that because many of these inmates are held for less than 45 days, there would be no time to arrange for such services, instead agreeing with the plaintiffs that release planning could begin at the start of treatment. In the New York state prison system, most prisoners who have been treated for mental illness during their incarceration are provided with a two-week supply of psychotropic medication, a two-week prescription and a referral to an outpatient mental health clinic.

Police Probing Girl's Death at Center
T. Shawn Taylor and Dan Mihalopoulos, Chicago Tribune- 7/13/2000

An 11-year-old mentally retarded girl died of asphyxiation at an Elgin counseling center after being pinned to the floor face-down by two case managers from the Little City Foundation home in Palatine, authorities said Wednesday. Elgin police were re-interviewing the two workers late Wednesday to try to determine exactly what Tina Winston was doing, how she was restrained and how much time elapsed before authorities were called.   Police said the two were taken to the counseling center to re-enact exactly what occurred. "Was she swinging her arms? Was she biting? Was it just a matter of her not responding to commands?" said Elgin Lt. Scott Davis. Little City has suspended the two case managers, who are professionals trained in crisis prevention, behavior management and developmental disabilities.
    The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is investigating the death after receiving an anonymous tip alleging that Tina had been abused. Elgin police and the Kane County prosecutor's office are still investigating, and no charges will be filed until they learn more about the incident, they said. Kathy Posner, vice president of the board of Little City, which serves developmentally disabled children and adults, said the workers' suspension was routine. "It doesn't mean our people did anything improper. This is a case that is still under investigation," she said.
    Tina, a ward of the state, was receiving medication and counseling for behavioral problems, including aggression and occasional outbursts. She was taken to Northwest Treatment Associates in Elgin on Monday evening for an appointment with counselors. Police responded to a call around 7 p.m. Monday and found Tina unresponsive at the center, Sgt. Tom Linder said. Police notified paramedics, who took the girl to Sherman Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8 p.m. About an hour later, DCFS received an anonymous tip to its abuse hot line accusing Little City of neglect, said Marjorie Newman, a DCFS spokeswoman. Kane County Coroner David Moore completed his autopsy Tuesday, but did not give the cause of death as asphyxiation until Wednesday afternoon. He would not reveal specifics about his findings, including any contributing factors that might have led to her death. Toxicology results are pending.
    Northwest Treatment Associates and Little City both had at least two staff members in the room with Tina. Therese Wrona, founder and co-director of the counseling center, said counselors do not restrain clients, leaving such a decision to their regular caretakers. "There have been times when a child has had to be restrained here. If [the caretakers] need that to happen, it is their responsibility. We are not trained or allowed to do that," Wrona said.  Her agency specializes in sexual-abuse treatment, and Wrona said she and her five contract employees often deal with depressed, delinquent clients referred by the courts or other agencies. There has been no similar incident in the facility's five-year history, she said.
    Tina's death is the first in Little City's 41-year history, Posner said. The children's home is licensed to care for 80 residents. Little City provided counseling Wednesday for children and staff members who lived and worked with Tina, described as a friendly child who liked to dance and sing along with music. "All of us on the board are saddened and send our thoughts and love to the family," Posner said. Tina, the youngest of four children, entered the state child-welfare system in September 1993, when a Cook County judge removed Tina and her siblings from their mother's care because of allegations of abuse and neglect, said Robert Harris, attorney with the public guardian's juvenile division. Tina spent some time in private foster care, but was removed due to her behavioral problems. She lived temporarily at Hartgrove Hospital, a mental health facility in Chicago, before being placed at Little City last year, said Wynona Redmond, a DCFS spokeswoman.

DSHS Put Girl's Safety Second, Chief Says
Ruth Teichroeb, Seattle Post-Intelligencer- 7/13/2000

OLYMPIA -- The new boss of the besieged Department of Social and Health Services says he believes state workers wrongly put family reunification before the safety of 3-year-old Zy-Nyia Nobles. After just a week on the job, Dennis Braddock, Secretary of DSHS, announced yesterday that he is investigating why social workers ignored warning signs leading up to the May 27 beating death of Zy-Nyia. Zy-Nyia's mother Aretha Sconiers, 26, was arrested at her daughter's funeral and is in Pierce County Jail charged with homicide-by-abuse.
    "It seems to me that the child's safety was compromised in the interests of reuniting her with her mother," Braddock told reporters at a hastily called news conference. "I am definitely concerned. . . . All I can tell you is that if a child died, something went wrong." He was responding to DSHS documents released Tuesday which revealed that Sconiers failed a drug test and had no apartment just three months before her daughter and 7-year-old son were placed in her south Tacoma home in February. By November 1999, Sconiers had not yet been allowed unsupervised visits with her children. Yet her DSHS social worker pressed on with plans to reunite Sconiers with her children, convinced that the young mother deserved another chance. "I think there should be danger signals, warning signs, that people should act on," Braddock said. He also said DSHS workers would be disciplined if investigations find that any negligence occurred in Zy-Nyia's case. "I don't know exactly what the level of negligence or fault will be," Braddock said. "I'll know soon."
    DSHS social worker Michele Garner, who handled Zy-Nyia's case, is still on the job and has not been disciplined in any way, said Kathy Spears, the department's spokeswoman. But Garner is no longer in charge of Zy-Nyia's brother's case, a move that is standard procedure after a death occurs, Spears said. The boy, who told police he saw his mother inflict the fatal beating, was placed in foster care after Zy-Nyia died. Part of Braddock's investigation will include a review of policies and procedures related to child protection. He expressed concern that other DSHS workers might also be placing too much emphasis on keeping families together despite the risks to children. A report on child protection services done by an outside consultant will also be ready next month, Braddock said.  That report was commissioned by Gov. Gary Locke before the death of Zy-Nyia, he said. Braddock was appointed by Locke last month after former secretary Lyle Quasim retired. A child fatality review team is also investigating Zy-Nyia's death and expected to issue a report in about three months. That is required by law each time a child dies in state care.
    The DSHS file on Zy-Nyia contained hundreds of pages which painted a bleak picture of a child bounced between five foster homes while the state gave Sconiers repeated chances to turn her life around. Zy-Nyia was taken from Sconiers at birth in November 1996 after the infant tested positive for drugs. Two days after the child's birth, Sconiers assaulted a hospital security guard while trying to sneak out with her baby. The state still returned the baby to Sconiers until she was sentenced in January 1997 to 30 months in Purdy Correctional Center on a cocaine-related conviction. Sconiers, herself abused and abandoned as a child, already had a juvenile criminal record dating back to 1989, when she was convicted of forgery, first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and custodial assault. Zy-Nyia's father, Willie Nobles, is serving a life sentence for a fatal 1998 drive-by shooting on Tacoma's east side. The state planned to terminate Sconiers' parental rights in 1997, but social workers repeatedly delayed court dates with the hope that she would clean up her life. Although Sconiers often said she wanted her children back, she insisted she did not have a drug problem, failed drug tests and missed required parenting classes.

Drug Company in Record Settlement
James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post-7/13/2000

Mylan Laboratories Inc. tentatively agreed yesterday to reimburse consumers $135 million to settle lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission, 32 states and the District alleging that the world's second-biggest drugmaker conspired to corner the market for generic anti-anxiety drugs and jacked up prices more than 2,500 percent. The antitrust settlement is the largest in FTC history and bolsters the agency's nascent policy of seeking damages on behalf of consumers in instances in which procedural roadblocks prevent them from suing directly. Mylan, which makes both generic and name-brand drugs, admitted no wrongdoing. The terms of the agreement would require Mylan to abandon the exclusive deals that it cut with three companies that supplied the key chemicals needed to make the anti-anxiety drugs, state authorities said.
    After Pittsburgh-based Mylan made exclusive agreements with an Italian drug-ingredient manufacturer and others in late 1997, Mylan raised the wholesale price for a bottle of 500 clorazepate tablets from $11.36 to $377. The price of lorazepam soared from $7.30 to $190 a bottle. In a telephone conference call with reporters, Mylan chief executive and chairman Milan "Mike" Puskar rejected the notion that the company conspired to raise prices: "That's absolutely untrue." Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery (R), who led the states' effort, countered that the after Mylan's exclusive agreements cut of the supply of the key ingredients to Mylan's competitors, Mylan then raised drug prices more than 2,500 percent. Montgomery called the case "an unfortunate example of undisguised and naked corporate greed." "Profit is not a bad word, but this not profit. This is unconscionable," she said.
    The case also has established important precedent for the enforcement of antitrust law. Last year, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ruled that the FTC could seek disgorgement of ill-gotten gains in antitrust cases. Traditionally only private litigants sought restitution in such cases, but the FTC sought that power because consumers were unable to file such claims. That's because antitrust law requires the direct purchasers of a product to sue, and in the case of these anti-anxiety drugs, the first purchasers were wholesale drug companies and retailers who then sold to consumers. "The ability to get this kind of restitution is something the commission has only rarely done in the past," said William Baer, the former FTC official who masterminded the Mylan case and now is in private practice. "It dwarfs any other award the FTC has gotten in an antitrust case, either by litigation or settlement." Previously, the FTC won a $20 million settlement in a case involving infant formula. The Mylan settlement includes $100 million for the states and $35 million for private parties. An additional $12 million in attorneys' fees would be paid. The terms are subject to approval by the FTC, the states and the judge.
    The District was a plaintiff in the case, along with Maryland and 31 other states. Those jurisdictions will work out a formula for divvying up the money based on calculations of the number of consumers victimized by the alleged price gouging, Montgomery said, and then each will figure out how to get the money to consumers, or develop programs that benefit groups in which most of the consumers can be found. Puskar professed the company's innocence and said the case was settled to put the matter behind Mylan.

Study: Nearly 25% of Women Are Assaulted by Lover
Associated Press, 7/14/2000

Washington--Nearly 25 percent of women, and about 7 percent of men, say they have been raped or assaulted by a current or former partner, according to a government report. The survey, from a Justice Department agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also shows that spousal stalking is more widespread than previously thought, with almost 5 percent of women saying they’ve been stalked by a partner. Still, Julie Samuels, acting director of the National Institute of Justice, warned against drawing many conclusions. "Violence among intimates involves relationships and factors that are too complex to be captured by a single research approach," said Samuels. But, she added: "These survey findings significantly contribute to our understanding of violence between intimates."

Race Is a Factor
The survey also found differences among racial backgrounds. African-American, American Indian and native Alaskan women and men reported higher rates of partner violence than people from other backgrounds. Asians reported lower rates. The survey found 1.5 percent of women and 0.9 percent of men said they were raped by their partner in the last 12 months. According to the estimates, approximately 1.5 million American women and over 800,000 men are raped by an intimate partner annually. Figures among homosexual partners varied. Women living with female partners experienced fewer violent incidents than did women living with men. But men living with male partners reported more attacks than did men living with women. Approximately 11 percent of female couples reported rape, physical assault or stalking, compared to 15 percent of male couples.

Most Attacks Not Reported
Despite the rate of attacks, most incidents are not reported to the police, according to the survey. Against female respondents, only one-fifth of all rapes, a quarter of physical assaults and half of all stalking were reported. The report rate was even lower among male victims. The survey consisted of telephone interviews using random-digit dialing with a nationally representative sample of 8,000 men and 8,000 women across the nation.

Insanity Claimed In Longmont Killings
Monte Whaley, Denver Post- 7/14/2000

A 14-year-old boy is claiming he was legally insane when he killed his adoptive mother and grandmother in their Longmont home last year. John Christopher Engel entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and impaired mental state Thursday in district court. Engel faces a trial in December, one year after the stabbing death of his mother, 56-year-old Mary Elizabeth Reinschmidt-Engel, and the fatal beating of her mother, 82 year-old Catherine Reinschmidt, with a hammer. Police say the teen also attacked his father, Tom Engel, after he returned home and discovered the bodies. The elder Engel sustained a head injury. The younger Engel faces two counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and three other counts of a crime of violence. He's being tried as an adult and if convicted could spend life in prison.
    Anyone found not guilty by reason of insanity or impaired mental condition could spend indefinite time in a state mental hospital. District Judge Dan Hale on Thursday ordered a mental evaluation of Engel. The findings will be given to the court and lawyers on both sides to determine how to proceed, Hale said. Hale also ruled against Engle's attorney, public defender Cary Lacklen, who claimed Colorado statutes are unconstitutional regarding the insanity defense. State law says if a person charged with a crime on or after July 1, 1999, wants to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, the defendant must cooperate in a court ordered examination. If the defendant refuses to cooperate, the defense can't call its own doctor as a witness and can't introduce evidence about insanity unless first entering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
    Lacklen said Engel will cooperate with the court-ordered examination. But, Lacklen said, he wants to be present when the examination takes place. Hale said he most likely will allow Lacklen to be present. Hale also said if the defense withdraws the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, any statement Engel made to a court-appointed psychiatrist cannot be used by the prosecution. Prosecutor Phil Miller said that point is likely to be argued later. "It's sort of a to-be-determined issue," Miller said.

Cape Cod Case Tests Sex-Offender Law in Massachusetts
Jordana Hart and Jamal E. Watson, Boston Globe 7/14/2000

BARNSTABLE -- On June 15, 1998, after 20 years, a jury ordered the state to release James Lee Pells from the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons, even though three out of five state specialists determined that the Osterville man was still a sexual predator. But, with two of the specialists deciding Pells was not sexually dangerous, the 12 jurors apparently believed they had no legal recourse but to set him free, since they could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that he would strike again. At 41, with two convictions for attempted rape, the mentally retarded man went to live at his sister's Cape Cod home, free of any requirement that he receive further treatment or register as a sexual offender, since he wasn't on parole or probation. On Tuesday, Pells, living in a Hyannis homeless shelter, was arrested for allegedly raping a mentally disabled 19-year-old man. Held without bail after a not guilty plea, he faces a dangerousness hearing today. ''I'm not sure how this man could be released into the community without a plan,'' said Joyce Strom, chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which treats sexual offenders. ''If you want to keep these individuals on the right track, you have to provide a training program and a support system so that they don't relapse. ''
    The Pells case exemplifies the dilemma facing officials in Massachusetts and other states as they wrestle with sex-offender laws and the complex set of problems that drive offenders to strike out. With 555 men locked up at the treatment center, and hundreds more serving prison time for sexual offenses - 400 are up for release each year - judges and juries face the task of balancing the civil rights of inmates and the pressing need to protect society.  Some studies indicate that treatment can reduce recidivism among sex offenders to single digits, but of the 3,557 sexual offenders imprisoned in Massachusetts in 1994, the latest figure available, 854, or 24 percent, were repeat offenders. Cases like Pells's have left the issue so politically charged that laws governing the release of sex offenders have changed twice since 1990, with the current version under review by the state's highest court.
    The problem for juries is that even highly trained mental health professionals cannot predict with a high degree of certainty who will or won't reoffend, a sticking point when the state tries to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt of a convict's dangerousness. ''Beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest standard of proof and it is doubly hard to convince a jury because [jurors] invariably know that the defendant has already served his punishment,'' said Geline W. Williams, executive director of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association. ''Juries feel compelled to be as fair as possible, so these are hard cases to prove.'' But defense attorneys counter that it is wrong to hold defendants because of what they might do, and that the standard of proof is high because a person's liberty is at stake.
    In 1973, at age 16, Pells was charged with intent to rape after attacking a 13-year-old girl in Centerville, according to court records. He spent a year in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to simple assault. He was convicted of stealing a car in 1975 and illegal possession of a firearm in 1976. In March 1978, a judge sent Pells to the treatment center after he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to rape after attacking a woman in her home in 1976. Pells was freed in 1998 after a five-day trial that included findings by two doctors, Marie King and Thomas Laage, and a correctional officer, Captain Timothy Claflin, that he was still ''at risk to act out sexually,'' according to an evaluation in Pells's court file. The evaluation, written by King and representing the opinion of a majority of the five-person panel that reviewed Pells's case, said he had not attended treatment programs, had engaged in ''illicit'' sexual activity inside the facility, and that his mental retardation contributed to his acting out. However, the other two specialists, doctors William Meadows and Carol G. Feldman, said in a minority finding that Pells's mental retardation limited how much more he could gain from the treatment program and that ''there has been no evidence that Mr. Pells derived sadistic pleasure from his actions. ''He allowed both victims to go free and did not actually rape or molest either victim,'' the two experts wrote. ''This showing of empathy points to at least some degree of control over sexual matters.''
    Pells's release in 1998 was one factor in the latest change of the law. In 1978, a judge committed Pells to the treatment center in a civil process, which meant that Pells and other offenders like him could be held from one day to life with an annual status review. In 1990, a change in the law took from judges the power to make commitments to the treatment center. Instead, convicted sex offenders now complete their prison time and are released.  But on Sept. 10, 1999, the Legislature passed a law that would allow officials to keep sex offenders deemed a public threat locked up after they had served their time. Three imprisoned offenders challenged the constitutionality of the new law in May and the Supreme Judicial Court is deciding how it should be applied.

Sex, Race Influence Psychiatric Diagnoses
Reuters, 7/14/2000

NEW YORK—Are mental health problems more likely to go undetected in some people rather than others? US researchers say yes--primary care doctors are less likely to spot psychiatric disorders in African American, Hispanic, and male patients. Dr. Steven J. Borowsky, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and colleagues looked at the "patient and provider characteristics associated with increased risk of nondetection of mental health problems by primary care physicians," they write in the Journal of General Internal Medicine for June. Over 19,000 patients and nearly 350 doctors were included in the study.
    "We found that primary care physicians were less likely to detect mental health problems among African-American and Hispanic patients than among whites," the study authors report. In addition, they say, physicians seem to be more sensitized to the possibility of mental health problems in women than in men, leading to reduced rates of detection among men. While doctors were able to identify many in the study population who had major depression, they were less successful in detecting the more subtle depressive disorders.
    Interestingly, people who were diagnosed with other medical problems, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, were also diagnosed more effectively in terms of mental health problems. "One explanation for this relationship is that patients with medical conditions are seen more frequently and thus their physicians can more accurately interpret their symptoms of mental distress," the authors say. They call for the development and implementation of "strategies to improve detection of mental health problems in African Americans, Hispanics, and men," with an eye towards "(eliminating) racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in depression care."

In Maine Resort Town, Memory of Wilhelm Reich Still Lives
Jerry Harkavy, Associated Press, 7/16/2000

RANGELEY, Maine--Sixty years ago, in this lakeside village renowned for fly fishing, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich recorded his discovery of the cosmic life force he believed was associated with the sexual orgasm.  This week, about 15 to 20 people each will construct one of the devices invented by the discredited scientist to concentrate a mysterious force he called ''orgone energy.'' Reich had hoped to use the energy as a treatment for psychological and physical illnesses.  The making of orgone accumulator blankets will be one of the highlights of a conference starting Monday at the Wilhelm Reich Museum, founded four decades ago at the Austrian-born scientist's hillside retreat, Orgonon.  The conference will feature presentations by a science historian, an agronomist and a biologist who studied with Reich. Participants also will hear an audio recording in which two Reich's students discuss with him their experiences with hostile reactions to his ideas.
    Reich died in disgrace in a federal prison in 1957, and even today many in the scientific world ridicule him as a quack and crackpot. His supporters say the stigma attached to Reich's theories makes it all but impossible for researchers to obtain the backing they need to pursue his work. But some still believe in Reich and his theories. The museum, housed in the modernistic fieldstone building where Reich carried out his most controversial work, has sought to keep his memory alive. ''His ideas are very powerful. It's a mistake to think that Reich is just going to go away,'' said Bernard Grad, of Montreal, a longtime biologist at McGill University who worked with Reich at Rangeley in the early 1950s. Grad, now 80, is one of the speakers. Among other topics, he will discuss a study on the orgone accumulator's therapeutic effects on mice with leukemia. Reich's work is carried on by the American College of Orgonomy in Princeton, N.J., which publishes a journal twice a year with new developments in the field.  ''He is much more respected in Europe, particularly in Germany, where quite a bit of research continues,'' said Dr. Richard Schwartzman, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who serves on the college's board of trustees. ''In the United States, he's still someone to poke fun at.''
    The museum, an offbeat tourist attraction, serves as a shrine to Reich, outlining his life's work and preserving a piece of history. His equipment, including orgone accumulators and the cloudbuster he designed to try to change the weather, are displayed there, as are his writings, his paintings and even his old wooden skis. ''We can't prove anything. We present things,'' said Mary Boyd Higgins, who oversees the worldwide publication of Reich's work and administers the trust fund that owns and operates the museum. ''But if somebody leaves here with a sense that something serious went on here, that this is not a joke, then I feel that we've accomplished a great deal. It's a tiny first step in another direction.''
    After breaking with his earlier mentor, Sigmund Freud, Reich went on to emphasize the role of sexual gratification in achieving psychic health. He maintained that the body discharges excess energy through orgasm; if that function is blocked, the undischarged energy becomes a source of neurosis. After fleeing Nazi Germany and settling in the United States, he invented the orgone accumulator, a device he said would collect the energy that first manifested itself to him as a flickering in the sky above Rangeley. The accumulators, crafted of alternating layers of metallic and non-metallic materials, are designed either as a blanket that wraps around a person or as a box in which a person sits. People who believe in their therapeutic value say people get a tingling sensation when they use them.  The devices were branded a fraud by the Food and Drug Administration, which obtained an injunction against Reich. After a 1956 trial in Portland, Reich was found guilty of contempt of court and sent to prison, where he died of a stroke at age 60. At his request, he was buried at Orgonon.
    Reich's followers remain fearful even today, but not of criminal prosecution or destruction of books and equipment, Higgins said. Rather, she said, Reichians keep their interest in their mentor closeted because openly embracing his theories could jeopardize their academic standing or positions. As a result, Higgins says, scholars who might build on Reich's work and develop ways to fight disease or control the weather are reluctant to come forward or apply for the grants to pursue their research. ''There is still a lot of fear here, and a lot of confusion and ignorance,'' she said. ''People are afraid of losing their jobs.''
    The Internet has provided a vehicle for Reichians throughout the world to share ideas, but Higgins said it also attracts ''all sorts of jerks and amateurs and silly people'' who disseminate bad information. Schwartzman agrees. ''There are some crazy people out there who are, quote, 'in touch with the energy,''' he said. Reich believed that the orgone accumulator could charge the body tissue with essential life energy, heightening vitality and potentially helping to heal disease. Higgins uses the accumulator ''all the time. I find that my breathing deepens, and after a while you get a tingling feeling. And then it's like you fill up and you leave.'' While the device has won few converts in the medical profession, it is not rejected out of hand by all doctors. Using Reich's plans, Dr. Stephan Simonian hired a carpenter to build an accumulator. Five months ago, Simonian installed it in his Milford, Mass., office and has tested it on patients who were not progressing well with conventional therapy. The results have been encouraging, he said. Simonian's intrigue with the orgone accumulator lies partly in the fact that physicists have not been able to explain the sensation of warmth that he and his patients feel emanating from the device.  ''I don't want to take the chance and not use it,'' said Simonian, who has installed an orgone accumulator in his home.

Green Slams Pataki on Cuts to Mental Health Care
Associated Press, 7/16/2000

NEW YORK --Cuts to funding for treatment of the mentally ill have left many troubled people on the streets and subways and created a threat to public safety, Public Advocate Mark Green said Sunday. Green criticized Gov. George Pataki for making the cuts and failing to spend the money saved by shrinking psychiatric hospitals on community-based treatment for the mentally ill. ''We in the city are forced to read about attacks on our streets and subways by people who have had recent contact with the state's criminal justice, mental health and homeless systems,'' Green said in a letter he wrote to Pataki and released to the press. ''Too often, those responsible like thousands before them have simply been dumped from facilities and programs without access to the care and services that might have helped them avert disaster.'' Green cited recent street attacks on two women who were hit on the head by bricks and concrete. He also pointed to several incidents in which mentally disturbed people pushed others in front of subway trains.
    Green, a Democrat who hopes to become mayor, said deinstitutionalization has reduced the number of inpatients at state psychiatric hospitals from 93,000 to less than 6,000 in the past four decades. He accused Pataki of failing to live up to a pledge the state made in 1993 to reinvest all the money saved from reducing the number of psychiatric inpatients in community-based treatment for the mentally ill. ''The state broke its promise to the mentally ill, and to the public, by creating a revolving door that practically guarantees failure,'' Green wrote.
    A spokesman for the state Office of Mental Health disputed Green's allegations. ''The governor has shown a strong commitment to mental health,'' said Roger Klingman, spokesman for state office of mental health. Klingman said 4.3 billion is spent on mental heath services in New York each year and ''that's far and away above any other state.'' Green called for Medicaid insurance coverage to be extended to mentally ill people released from prison in New York, additional spending on supportive housing for the mentally ill, and the reinvestment of money saved through deinstitutionalization. Last week, a Manhattan judge ordered New York City to arrange for the continuing mental health care of thousands of inmates before they are released from the Rikers Island jail. Seven mentally ill inmates of the jail had sued, saying the 25,000 people treated for mental illness at the prison each year were being released without proper provision for treatment in the community or a way to continue their psychotropic medication.

Mental Facilities' Use of Restraint Raises Concerns
Michael Higgins & Janan Hanna, Chicago Tribune- 7/17/2000

In Tucson, Ariz., a 15-year-old girl died from asphyxiation in 1998 after being pinned face-down by two workers at a youth psychiatric center. In Chula Vista, Calif., a 16-year-old girl stopped breathing and died last year after four workers at a psychiatric hospital pinned her face-down to the floor. In San Antonio, a 14-year-old boy stopped breathing and died in March after three workers at a psychiatric hospital pressed him to the floor for about 12 minutes. However tragic the story of Tina Winston, the emotionally troubled 11-year-old resident of a Little City Foundation home in Palatine who died last week when caseworkers tried to restrain her during an outburst, it is hardly an isolated incident.
    Indeed, mental health advocates said there are problems across the nation with restraining children at facilities that care for the mentally ill or developmentally disabled. An investigation by the Hartford Courant in 1998 found 142 deaths across the nation over a 10-year period related to restraints at such mental health facilities. A study by the General Accounting Office found 24 deaths in fiscal year 1998 alone. Though not all involved children, experts said many did. "Many of these deaths are asphyxiation of children by two or more adults holding kids down," said Clarke Ross, deputy executive director for public policy at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which tracks such incidents. "You go into a residential treatment program as a safe haven," Ross said. "We want to restore a safe haven." Advocates for the mentally ill attribute the deaths to inadequate training and insufficient standards in some states on how and when mental health workers should rely on restraint to control patients.
    A bill called the Compassionate Care Act of 1999 would bar staff at federally funded mental health facilities from using restraint unless it was needed to protect a patient or others. The bill passed the U.S. Senate and is awaiting action in the House. Some cases where patients died involved mechanical restraints, such as straps. Others involved staff members pinning down patients. Illinois doesn't keep precise numbers on deaths that happen while a person is under restraint. But the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it has had no such deaths in the past 10 years. The number does not include the case of Tina, whose death is still officially under investigation by DCFS and Elgin police.
    Federal regulations are already strict on the use of physical restraint by hospitals and nursing homes, mental health advocates said. In addition, homes for the mentally disabled that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding must follow tough federal rules that limit the use of restraint. But federal standards do not apply to group homes or other facilities that operate only on county or state funds, they said. State standards are often lacking, said Brian Copper, senior director of consumer advocacy for the National Mental Health Association. "That's one of the problems," he said. "There's this patchwork of regulations." Officials in Illinois said there are already strict regulations in place regarding the use of restraints in residential care facilities.
    Little City cares for children in the custody of the DCFS, so it must meet their rules, which specify that restraints be administered so as "to avoid provoking [the child] further and escalating incidents" of misbehavior. "Everybody understands that restraint is inherently dangerous," said Ron Davidson, a DCFS senior administrator who deals with the placement of children. "That's why the rule says you're supposed to try everything else first." Davidson said he couldn't comment on the Tina Winston case because DCFS had not yet received reports on the incident. "Any death is a tragedy," Davidson said. But overall, "we've been very fortunate."
    Two years ago, a 40-year-old ward of the state died at Lincoln Developmental Center in Lincoln, Ill., while being restrained. Michael Lane, a severely developmentally disabled Chicagoan and longtime resident at the facility, died of suffocation while being held face-down on the floor by five staff members for nearly an hour. A coroner's jury ruled the death an accident. But investigators for the Illinois Department of Public Health criticized the staff for restraining Lane in a stomach-down, face-down position, in which their ability to monitor his condition was limited.
    The Department of Public Health classifies Little City Foundation as a "community living facility," said Jena Welliever, spokeswoman for the department. That means that to maintain its license, the facility must not physically restrain patients for punishment or for staff convenience. Facilities that don't care for DCFS children still must comply with the Illinois mental health and development disability code, experts said. That code also sets limits on the use of physical restraints, said Marsha Koelliker, public policy director of Equip for Equality, a non-profit group that monitors the state's compliance with disability laws. "I think we have a pretty good set of laws," she said. "The mental health code doesn't have any enforcement mechanism. That is one of the problems." The Department of Human Services can withhold funding for facilities that deal with the mentally ill or developmentally disabled, but it lacks the power to levy fines, she said. "It makes it difficult if they don't have an array of penalties they can use," she said.
    In the Winston case, experts can only speculate about what might have gone wrong. Details about exactly how Tina was restrained are sketchy. Tina became agitated while in the waiting room of Northwest Treatment Associates in Elgin. Caseworkers tried to calm her, but she threw a shoe at one and began scratching the legs of the caseworkers. The caseworkers pinned her on the floor and released her when she calmed down. But Tina, described as 5-foot-1 but 143 pounds, erupted again and began trying to hit and bite the staffers, according to reports. The caseworkers, who haven't been identified, restrained her again. Law-enforcement officials have said Tina was pinned face-down by the caseworkers. Paramedics were summoned, but the child was pronounced dead at an area hospital. The child had a history of violent outbursts, according to child-welfare records. Little City is required to report to DCFS and the Cook County public guardian's office all unusual incidents, which include physical altercations resulting in injury, restraint of a resident, or sexual abuse or activity. At least seven such reports had been filed on Tina since January, a number that includes the report made after her death July 10. In five of the incidents, Winston had to be restrained before calming down. A report from Feb. 8 explains "Tina was restrained for 8 minutes. During the restraint, she was crying and yelling." Little City also reported that at one time in May 1998 they illegally restrained another person, causing a burn to her knee. The caseworker in that case was fired, according to Little City incident reports.
    Experts said there are specific rules, in Illinois and most states, about when and how to subdue a person who has lost control. The guidelines, outlined in mental health codes in each state, typically guide caretakers at institutions, like hospitals, prisons and residential care facilities. The state's mental health code says that those who apply restraint must be "trained in the application of the particular type of restraint to be utilized." DCFS says those who apply restraint must have completed a basic competency training program and that their certification be updated every 12 months. No information about the background or level of experience of the two female caseworkers involved in Tina's death was made available by Little City officials, although they did say the two women had training in how to restrain a patient.
    The initial approach when faced with an out-of-control patient is "you try to talk with the person to reason with them to establish some type of bond with them so you can help them gain more of a sense of control over themselves," said Dr. James Cavanaugh, president of the Isaac Ray Center for psychology and law at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. Restraint must be used judiciously, said Mark Moses, a supervisor at Ada S. McKinley Community Services in Chicago. Moses said his staff, which works with 350 children with mental illness or developmental disabilities, gets restraint training when they're hired, then annual refreshers. The state mental health code prohibits a patient from being placed in restraints for more than two hours without written instructions from a doctor or nurse. The patient must be constantly monitored and re-evaluated by a psychiatrist before the isolation or restraint can continue. All staff workers must be trained in proper restraint techniques, but there are no licensing requirements. Jan Holcomb, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Illinois, said incidents like the Tina Winston case simply shouldn't happen. "I just can't even imagine how somebody can be smothered," she said. "I think what happens sometimes is the staff aren't adequately trained or there's not enough people around to ensure that it's done safely."

Crowding Pushes Mentally Ill Onto Streets
Associated Press, 7/17/2000

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. -- Overcrowding at Eastern State Hospital is pushing mentally ill people back onto the streets. Mental-health workers say they are encountering former Eastern State patients on the streets of Spokane -- many of them released with only a short supply of their medications and no follow-up treatment. Eastern State is supposed to house just 219 patients at a time, but the hospital has routinely had more than that during the past three months. On May 24, Eastern State had 235 patients. As a result, patients are sleeping in recreation rooms and conference rooms; some are being discharged to make room for new patients.
    The worst-case scenario occurred last month when former patient Todd Marsh was charged with first-degree murder, accusing of killing a 70-year-old Omak woman the day he was sent home from Eastern State. Marsh was discharged without arrangements for follow-up treatment and was given a ride back to Okanogan County. Marsh's release underscores the risks of overcrowding, said Dr. Dennis Dyck, director of the state-financed Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training. "There's a safety concern for the public," Dyck said. "What happened at Omak illustrates that."
    Eastern State is the last stop for mentally ill people who are judged a danger to themselves or their community. Initial stays last three days, and patients who do not respond to treatment can be held longer. In the past two years, admissions have risen from about 80 per month to 104 in May. "I don't think anyone knows why admissions are going up," said Jan Gregg, chief executive of Eastern State until her recent move to the same job at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom; the former facility isn't experiencing the same level of crowding. As admissions have risen, so have discharges. There were 75 discharges in March and 109 in May. No patient is discharged too soon, insisted Dr. Kamal Floura, Eastern's medical director. "How can I discharge when someone is not ready to go?" Floura said. "If someone goes and kills themself, how could I live with myself?" Discharged patients are given two weeks' worth of medications and as much as $40, but many have nowhere to go, and some are discharged to homeless shelters.
    A major problem is the lack of stable, supervised housing for former patients, said Anita Cornell, head of social work for the hospital. Some observers say failings in the state mental-health network are forcing more people into the mental hospital. For instance, caseworkers at Spokane Mental Health each handle 70 or more patients, more than double the level recommended by experts. "What's keeping the traffic flow into the hospitals is the poor funding of community treatment," said Tom Richardson, president of the state chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Dyck also noted a hospital study that found 53 percent of patients were drunk or high on illegal drugs when admitted. Gregg banned voluntary admissions in September in an attempt to deal with overcrowding. Now patients must be diagnosed as a danger to themselves or the community to be admitted. In May, the hospital also stopped accepting patients with a blood-alcohol level over .15, as well as people with terminal illnesses or with recent head trauma. Such patients now are sent elsewhere.