Noteworthy News Articles on Mental Health Topics, September
26-31, 2000
Plenty of Blame, Few Remedies
Katherine Shaver and David S. Fallis, Washington Post- 9/26/2000
Fifteen years ago, Maryland lawmakers thought they had done something to discourage
habitual drunken drivers. They passed a law that said on their second conviction,
offenders should be locked up for at least 48 hours or be forced into community service.
But in Montgomery County, prosecutors ignore the law and say it does nothing to close the
real loopholes that give drunken drivers the advantage in court. And some Montgomery
County judges say they have never heard of it. Ask why some drunken drivers return to the
road time and again and there is plenty of finger-pointing. Remedies, meanwhile, have been
slow to come. "What do you call it when you help an alcoholic? Enabling?" said
Leonard C. Collins Jr., first vice president of the Maryland State's Attorneys'
Association and state's attorney for Charles County. "Isn't that what we are doing
here?"
But Del. Dana Lee Dembrow (D-Montgomery), a member of the House
Judiciary Committee, said, "We've got so many laws already on the books and came to
understand last year that many of them are simply ignored." Since 1996, 84 of 109
proposals targeting drunken and drugged drivers died in the state House and Senate
Judiciary committees, Maryland legislative records show. Maryland is about to forfeit $7.5
million in federal road-building funds because the state legislature has not complied with
congressional mandates to ban open alcohol containers for everyone in cars and stiffen
penalties for repeat drunken drivers.
In a study of drunken driving cases handled in Montgomery courts, The
Washington Post found that drivers who had killed others or driven drunk repeatedly faced
little jail time. Chronic drunken drivers learned to exploit weaknesses in the law and
convinced judges that they are alcoholics who need treatment rather than criminals who
should be locked up. Cornelius J. Vaughey, the administrative judge in charge of
Montgomery's District Court, said those findings were more lenient than he expected.
Judges are left to sentence as they see fit, he said, but added, "I can see where
lawmakers are frustrated." Disposing of thousands of drunken driving cases a year has
become a "numbers game," Vaughey said. "The plea bargaining is absolutely
horrible, but I know it's the only answer for the system, or we quintuple the number of
courthouses or judges. It's a bastardization of the process. . . . No one said we have the
best system in the world. We just said we have a system that works." But some of
those who have experienced the system say it's not working and wonder why so little has
been done to fix it.
Clearing the Caseloads
Tim Bartek, 50, recalled the loud bang and smoke outside his Brookeville
home, where he found a mangled Toyota that had hit another car head-on on a curve in 1997.
Beer cans and bottles littered his neighbor's yard from the wreck that, surprisingly, he
said, left no one dead. When Bartek went to court as a witness, the suspected drunken
driver pleaded guilty and was given the standard deal designed for those in court for
their first violation: a sentence of probation and no conviction on his record if he
completed alcohol treatment. In fact, it was his second break. The Toyota's driver had
been arrested the year before on drunken driving charges but had avoided a conviction by
entering an alcohol education class, records show. Bartek said he never heard about that
earlier case during the brief court hearing.
"It's really kind of humorous," Bartek said. "I think
the normal citizen thinks it would be competitive between the defense attorney and the
prosecuting attorney. But in fact, it's one palsy little network in there." The
prosecutors, Bartek said, "were sitting there with a stack of file folders on their
desk, and they wanted to get that pile down to nothing by the end of the day. They were
working deals." The Toyota driver was arrested again in July after a Maryland State
Police trooper said he was drunk and speeding on Interstate 270, according to court
records. That case is pending.
Of the 444 cases in the Post sample that went to court, only 3 percent
were contested at trial. The rest ended in plea agreements, guilty pleas or dropped
charges. Philip Armstrong, a longtime Montgomery defense attorney and former prosecutor,
said resolving the thousands of drunken driving cases requires the "active
cooperation" of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. "If judges forced
defense attorneys or prosecutors to take everyone to trial, the system collapses in a
week, and everyone knows it," Armstrong said. " . . . The inevitable effect of
overcrowded courts is the criminal justice system gets watered down." Some Maryland
lawmakers said they feel so undercut by the result that they've stopped supporting efforts
to crack down on drunken driving. Drunken driving sentences "are so low already that
we get frustrated when we're asked to make these laws tougher," said Del. Donald E.
Murphy (R-Baltimore County), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
In 1985, a new Maryland law targeted repeat drunken drivers by
requiring a mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted twice within three years. The
penalty is supposed to be 48 hours in jail or an inpatient treatment facility. As an
alternative, the law provides for 80 hours of community service. "I wasn't aware of
the provision, and I don't think too many of us are," said Montgomery District Court
Judge Louis D. Harrington, a judge for 18 years. "I've never heard a prosecutor say,
'Judge, you have to give a minimum 48 hours of jail on this.' " Said Paul H.
Weinstein, administrative judge for Montgomery's Circuit Court: "I'd bet the
prosecutors didn't know about this any more than judges do. There's no way I, as a
sentencing judge, know whether a defendant qualifies for it unless they [prosecutors] tell
me. They certainly tell us when they [defendants] qualify for a 10-year minimum on a drug
case."
Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D) said prosecutors
don't point out that a person qualifies for it because they believe the mandatory
sentences are too lenient. Most people on their second drunken driving conviction, Gansler
said, are actually on at least their third arrest because first-time offenders routinely
avoid a conviction. By giving judges the option of sentencing third-time drunken drivers
to community service instead of jail, Gansler said, habitual violators still escape
punishment. Prosecutors would rather seek longer jail sentences for them, he said.
"We don't think 80 hours of community service for a repeat offense is an appropriate
sentence," Gansler said. " . . . It's such a meaningless mandatory minimum that
we don't use it." Additionally, the law's definition of a repeat drunken driver is so
narrow that it doesn't apply to most habitual drunken drivers. Of the 188 repeat drunken
drivers that The Post found in its sample of 500, one qualified for the mandatory
sanctions. He was not ordered to spend 48 hours in jail, inpatient treatment or community
service, according to court records. Most cases didn't qualify because the driver had
plea-bargained to lesser offenses in previous cases or because the arrests fell more than
three years apart. Maryland's mandatory minimum law is so weak that the state still fails
to meet federal mandates for repeat offender laws.
If Maryland wants to keep $7.5 million in federal aid for highway
construction, drunken drivers on their second conviction will have to face a minimum of
five days in jail or 30 days of community service. States also must impose a minimum
10-day jail sentence or 60 days of community service for a third conviction. Without such
laws, Maryland's federal highway construction money will be diverted to safety programs.
Sen. Jennie M. Forehand (D-Montgomery) said she remembered struggling in the mid-1980s to
help pass the law requiring mandatory jail time to send a message. She said she was
frustrated to hear that judges in her own county said they'd never heard of it.
"For a judge who deals on a day-to-day basis with drunken driving . . . for him to
say he didn't know it was the law is totally incredible and unacceptable," Forehand
said. "If someone in his courtroom came in and said they didn't know about the law,
they'd get thrown in the slammer or get a big fine," she added.
Another lawmaker said he assumed prosecutors would use a law he
sponsored giving judges the power to impound or immobilize drivers' vehicles for up to six
months if they drove after the state had revoked their licenses for driving drunk. Murphy,
who wrote the law in 1997, said he found it's rarely used. Gansler and some judges said
they've never heard of the impound law. Murphy said he had reason to balk when prosecutors
asked Maryland lawmakers to crack down on drunken drivers by making it easier to prosecute
those with lower blood alcohol levels. "You have people with multiple DWIs [driving
while intoxicated] with 0.15 [blood alcohol levels], and they're not getting jail
time," Murphy said. "Why are you going to hassle someone with 0.08? You can't
get the job done now, and you want a bigger hammer?"
Changing or Burying the Law
After two decades of public safety campaigns spearheaded by groups such as Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, experts believe "don't drink and drive" has taken hold with most
social drinkers. Federal roadside surveys show the rate of people driving intoxicated at
any one time has dropped nationwide from 5 percent in 1973 to 2.8 percent in 1996. In
1982, a little more than half of all traffic deaths nationwide were alcohol-related. By
1998, that had fallen to about a third, federal statistics show.
But Maryland's MADD leaders said it is difficult to sustain public
interest in stopping repeat drunken drivers because many people believe the problem has
been solved. MADD now competes with other groups for volunteers in the victim-advocacy
movement it helped launch. Judges said they no longer see MADD's red ribbons on observers
in the front rows of their courtrooms. "It let you know you better do the right
thing," said L. Leonard Ruben, a retired Montgomery Circuit Court judge who
occasionally hears traffic court cases. "When MADD comes around, yes, it makes a
difference, absolutely." But advocates said it shouldn't fall to victims' families to
guarantee that drunken driving is treated seriously. "People don't want dangerous
drivers on the street," said state Sen. Ida G. Ruben (D-Montgomery), who is married
to Judge Ruben. "Yet, they haven't risen up and come out for the legislation like we
need them to. It hasn't affected them."
Maryland, like other states, has made some changes. In 1988, the state
lowered the definition of legal intoxication from a blood alcohol level of 0.13 to 0.10,
essentially reducing it by just over one beer or a shot of whiskey. That year, lawmakers
also reduced the legal limit for driving under the influence, a lesser charge. Five years
ago, the law changed so that drivers who registered 0.10 were presumed to have been guilty
of driving while intoxicated without further proof. But the lack of interest in toughening
laws in recent years indicates that "state legislators have washed their hands and
concluded we have done enough," said Del. William A. Bronrott (D-Montgomery), a
longtime advocate for MADD in Maryland.
One of the main roadblocks, Maryland's MADD officials say, is Del.
Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George's), who chairs the Judiciary Committee. Vallario
is a criminal defense attorney who said he represents drunken drivers. "Generally, he
doesn't vote, but he's chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and members of the committee
know how the chairman wants the vote to go," said Brenda Barnes, executive director
of MADD Maryland. "The chairman has a lot of clout." Responding to comments
about his influence on the committee, Vallario said, "I only have one vote."
Current laws are adequate for repeat offenders, he said. "To increase penalties is
not going to change anything."
But Maryland lacks laws that many other states have. In most states,
drunken drivers who refuse to blow into an alcohol breath machine or undergo roadside
coordination tests can have that information used against them in court. In some states,
refusing brings a fine or another charge. In Maryland, a defendant's refusal to do so
cannot be mentioned to a judge or jury to avoid prejudicing a case. Without that evidence,
prosecutors often are forced to reduce charges, something repeat drunken drivers know
well. Refusing to take the breath test brings at least a 120-day license suspension in
Maryland, but that penalty is little threat to most hardened drunken drivers, many of whom
had their licenses suspended years ago. "A no-blow is so hard [for prosecutors] to
overcome," Gansler said. "If you're a 0.20"--the legal limit on a breath
test is 0.07--"what can [a defendant] possibly say? That someone came by and injected
you with alcohol? That the cops are harassing you? It's huge." A bill targeting this
loophole died in Annapolis last year.
The Maryland State's Attorneys' Association plans next year to go a
step further and push for mandatory alcohol testing of suspected drunken drivers, Collins
said. The U.S. Supreme Court, Collins noted, has upheld the legality of forcibly drawing
suspects' blood in drunken driving cases. Murphy said he had problems with that proposal.
"Can you strap people down and take their blood?" the delegate said. "I
don't think so. Why don't you just start putting these people in jail?"
Quirks of the Court
Under an unusual aspect of the court system in Maryland, a defendant in District Court has
an automatic right to retry the case or seek a new sentence in Circuit Court without
having to show that the District Court proceedings had a legal flaw. That provision causes
prosecutors and judges to settle for penalties that won't encourage defendants to have the
case reheard in higher court--further tying up the courthouse. "If you give someone
the full sentence, unless the defense agrees to it, the case will go across the street [to
Circuit Court] and get reduced," said Harrington, the Montgomery District Court
judge. "It's a fundamental problem that the state legislature has been asked to deal
with many times, and they always refuse."
Martha F. Rasin, chief judge of Maryland's District Court, said:
"I think what's defeated it is a feeling that things aren't really broken, that it
works okay. It may be more the defense bar opposed to doing away with it, but I think they
have some strong arguments." Rasin said the system could be changed to limit retrials
in circuit courts and do away with sentence-shopping, but that could further bog down the
courts in extra expenses and paperwork.
Even courthouse politics takes a toll. Defense attorneys say District
Court judges eyeing the higher, more prestigious bench know better than to jeopardize the
support of the local defense bar, which is critical in the judicial appointment process.
"The District Court judges want to be promoted to Circuit Court judges, and the way
to do that is to get along with people," said Robin Ficker, a former U.S. Senate
candidate and a Montgomery lawyer who primarily represents drunken drivers. "If you
had a district judge who suddenly started giving weekends in jail for a first offense,
he'd probably sit in District Court and not get promoted." As Armstrong, another
Montgomery lawyer, put it: "I think you can sentence yourself to life in District
Court by being out of step with everyone else."
Arthur M. Wallenstein, head of the Montgomery County corrections
department, said the county has "sufficient room" in both its jail and
work-release program to house more drunken drivers. But, Wallenstein said, studies have
shown that locking them up does little to stop them. "You can't scare alcoholism out
of people," Wallenstein said. Chuck Pena, executive director of the American Council
on Alcoholism, said drunken driving will remain a problem until judges combine punishment
with the intensive treatment that alcoholics need. "You might as well have a law that
says it's illegal to be an alcoholic," Pena said. "That won't stop them from
having a disease. . . . Until you stop their drinking problem, you'll never stop their
drunk driving problem."
Study Probes Mental Illness
Rick Callahan, Associated Press- 9/27/2000
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Americans increasingly associate mental illness with the potential
for violence despite evidence the mentally ill are not violence-prone, according to a
study that traced public perceptions over four decades. The researchers said their
findings pose a contradiction because they also discovered that the public has gained a
deeper understanding of the causes of mental illnesses and recognizes that such disorders
can be successfully treated.
The perceived link between mental illness and violence could lie in
television and films that sensationalize murders committed by mentally ill persons, they
said. ''We really do need to understand how the media shapes these attitudes because there
are concerns that they are having an impact,'' said Bernice A. Pescosolido, an Indiana
University professor who co-authored the study released Wednesday. She said previous
research has shown that people with mental illnesses are no more likely to commit violent
acts than the general population.
The joint study by Indiana University and Columbia University found
that 12.1 percent of Americans surveyed in 1996 perceived people with mental illnesses as
''violent, dangerous, frightening''. That's nearly twice the 7.2 percent who expressed
such concerns in 1950. The findings stand in contrast to the study's other conclusions
that the public has a growing understanding that genetic and stress-related factors can
cause mental illness. While the percentage of people who linked mental illnesses to
violence is small, the study found a growing acceptance for using legal means to commit
people with mental illnesses if they are perceived as a threat to others. About 95 percent
of respondents supported such actions in four of five categories of possible mental health
problems.
Meanwhile, nearly half (48.4 percent) said they would be unwilling to
interact with a person with schizophrenia and 37.4 percent said they would avoid
interacting with someone with major depression. The research compared surveys taken in
1950, 1957, 1976 and 1996. The 1996 survey quizzed about 1,444 people, finding that more
than half know someone who has been hospitalized for a mental illness. About a third also
said they once were on the verge of a nervous breakdown or had another mental health
problem.
The findings are evidence that negative portrayals of the mentally ill
on television and in movies have played a large role in influencing the public's view of
mental illness, said Cecelia Vergaretti, senior director of community services for the
National Mental Health Association, which represents about 350 organizations nationwide.
She said other studies have shown that the mass media tends to characterize people with
mental illnesses as ''violent or evil.'' ''I think the media has perpetuated this myth and
this really shows that we have our work cut out for us in combating that perception,'' she
said.
Appellate Court Gives Priest Right to Intervene in Sexual
Abuse Cases
Denise Lavoie, Associated Press- 9/27/2000
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The state Appellate Court has ruled that seven Roman Catholic
priests have the right to intervene in a lawsuit filed by 12 men who claim another priest
sexually abused them as children. The ruling, which overturns a lower court decision,
allows lawyers for the seven priests to argue motions to prevent disclosure of their
personnel files. The seven other priests are not named in the lawsuit and are not
accused of any sexual misconduct. But lawyers for 12 men who have accused the Rev. Raymond
Pcolka of sexual abuse sought the personnel files of the seven priests to buttress their
case against Pcolka and the Diocese of Bridgeport. Specifically, the lawyers hoped to use
information from the personnel files to show that the diocese had a pattern of covering up
sexual misconduct by its priests, said Cindy Robinson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. ''We
have learned of information from people within the community indicating that these seven
priests had also committed sexual abuses against children who were parishioners of
diocesan parishes,'' Robinson said. ''The reasons that we're seeking the documentation is
to show a pattern of negligence on the part of the diocese in handling these complaints.''
Mark R. Kravitz, a lawyer for the seven priests, however, said there
has been no claims filed against them. ''These individuals have never been sued by
anyone, nor have they ever had a claim filed against them by anyone for sexual
misconduct,'' Kravitz said. ''What she wants to do and what the plaintiffs want is
essentially a witch hunt,'' he said. Robinson said the appellate ruling allows the
plaintiffs to continue their deposition of former Bridgeport Bishop Edward Egan, who is
now archbishop of New York. Egan succeeded the late Cardinal John O'Connor as spiritual
leader of New York's 2.4 million Roman Catholics in June.
Robinson said Egan's deposition had been put on hold in January,
pending the appeal. But Kravitz said it is still up to the lower court to decide whether
the plaintiffs can question Egan about the seven priests. ''It's not clear by a long shot
whether she can question (Bishop) Egan about these seven priests. I think she has
absolutely no legal justification to do so, and now, finally, I'm going to be heard on
that,'' Kravitz said. The lower court had denied the priests' motion to intervene in the
Pcolka lawsuit.
But the appellate court, in a unanimous decision released Wednesday,
said the priests should be permitted to intervene for the limited purpose of arguing
motions to prevent disclosure of their personnel files. Lawyers for the priests argued
that their personnel records are protected from disclosure by the federal and state
constitutions, state law and common law. Thomas Drohan, a spokesman for the Diocese of
Bridgeport, said the diocese is pleased by the appellate court's decision. ''In fact, we
think the effort on the part of the ... law firm to invade the privacy of individuals was
nothing but a fishing expedition,'' Drohan said. Robinson said she has not decided yet
whether to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. The lawsuit accuses Pcolka of
sexually abusing boys in various parishes in the Bridgeport diocese from the late 1960s
through the early 1980s.
Program Encourages Teens to Tell Adults About Suicidal
Friends
David Crary, Associated Press, 9/27/2000
NEW YORK--Seeking reinforcements in the fight against teen suicide, mental health
experts are launching a program in high schools nationwide aimed at encouraging teens to
tell an adult if one of their friends confides thoughts of suicide. The program, which
starts in early October at roughly 200 high schools, has a seemingly simple goal: to
enable teens to respond to suicide warning signs as competently as someone trained in the
Heimlich maneuver would respond to someone choking.
''Talking about suicide is both a symptom and also a communication that
needs to be taken seriously,'' said Dr. Douglas Jacobs, a Harvard Medical School
psychiatry professor who is overseeing the program. ''Young people would respond if they
saw someone choking or clutching their chest,'' Jacobs said. ''With someone talking about
or showing signs of suicide, they should do the same, and we want to provide them the
tools.'' Though the rate of teen suicides has dipped slightly in recent years, it remains
the third-leading cause of death for teen-agers. According to federal estimates, one of
every five high school students has thought seriously about attempting suicide, and one in
14 has made an actual attempt.
Jacobs is executive director of Screening for Mental Health, an
organization based in Wellesley Hills, Mass., that 10 years ago initiated a still-growing
national program to screen for depression. The new suicide-prevention program is being
launched in conjunction with National Depression Screening Day on Oct. 5. Participating
schools get a kit that includes posters, instruction material for adult staff, and a
20-minute video for teens that offers ''do's and don'ts'' in the event a friend shows
suicidal signs.
Don't simply say, ''Snap out of it,'' or dismiss the behavior as an
attitude problem, the video advises. Don't assume threats are just a way of letting off
steam, and don't promise secrecy. Jan Tkaczyk, president of the Massachusetts School
Counselors Association and guidance director at Cape Cod Regional Technical School, says
on the video that students should tell an adult even if they fear alienating a friend.
''One of the things that's going through your mind when you come into my office is you're
afraid you're being a traitor,'' she said. ''Let me assure you that very seldom do friends
even get mad. Your friend will be relieved that you care enough to go to someone to get
some help for them.''
Dr. Jane Pearson, who chairs the suicide research consortium of the
National Institute of Mental Health, said the new program is a worthwhile effort to detect
more troubled youths before they harm themselves. However, Pearson said the program might
flounder in schools that lack adults trained to respond to information provided by
students. ''You have to have the treatment ready to go, and a confidential way of
getting kids the help they need,'' she said from the institute's headquarters in Bethesda,
Md. ''If you're not prepared to handle responses and take care of someone who's ill,
that's a problem.'' Jacobs agreed that mental-health resources are thinly stretched in
some school districts. But in most areas, he said, the problem is coordination among
different health and educational sectors rather than lack of resources.
On the Net: http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org
Deadly Restraint Measure Passes Congress
Adam Gorlick, Associated Press, 9/27/2000
WASHINGTON--The House gave final legislative approval Wednesday to a measure that would
ban the use of restraints in mental health care facilities unless a patient is a danger to
himself or others. The Clinton administration has supported the proposal, which passed
394-25 as part of the Children's Health Act. A White House spokeswoman said Wednesday the
administration will review the bill, which also calls for increases in children's health
research programs. ''Most of the people who work at these facilities are good people and
good employees,'' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the measure's chief sponsor. ''But
there are problems that this bill addresses.''
Physical restraints are ways to restrict a person's movement, such as
by pinning them to the floor. They may also include the use of such equipment as
straitjackets and leather straps. Chemical restraints such as sedatives, and confining
patients to isolated areas also would be restricted. Under the legislation, restraints
could be used only under the written order of a licensed health care practitioner.
''We owe America's mental health patients and their families a better
system of protection,'' said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who co-sponsored the measure.
''This legislation ensures that restraints are used rarely and only as a last resort, not
for discipline, not for coercion, not for convenience and not for retaliation.'' The
legislation would apply to any hospital or health care facility that receives federal
funding.
A congressional report concluded last year that there were 24 deaths
caused by the misuse of restraints and seclusion during 1998. The report followed an
investigation by The Hartford Courant that turned up 142 restraint-related deaths over a
decade. The problem was highlighted in Connecticut in March 1998 when 11-year-old Andrew
McClain died while being restrained by workers at the Elmcrest psychiatric hospital in
Portland. The bill also would require institutions to report any deaths attributable to
the use of restraints or seclusion. Additionally, the legislation would ensure that the
mental health facilities have enough well-trained staff members.
Killing Challenges Mental Illness Policy
Wendy Wendland-Bowyer & Patricia Montemurri, Detroit Free Press-
9/28/2000
It was a chance encounter between two strangers at a Kalamazoo bus station, shocking,
brutal, senseless. Kevin Heisinger, a smart, sensitive and generous 24-year-old, was
traveling to Ann Arbor, planning to enroll this semester at the University of Michigan,
earn a graduate degree in social work and spend his life helping others. Brian Williams,
40, an occasional student who battled paranoid schizophrenia, was on his way to Chicago.
He planned to visit his dad, who had no idea his son was coming.
The story of Williams and Heisinger is one of missed warnings and
questions about the treatment of mentally ill people in Michigan. On his medicine,
Williams could be sweet and charming. Off, he could be anything but. He believed, as he
told his family, that the CIA beamed voices into his brain. On that day last month when
these two lives collided, Williams' voices were in full force. They had been all week. In
a six-day span, Williams, an Ypsilanti resident:
Was arrested carrying an 8-inch knife on the street.
Was seen strolling naked, glaring into store windows.
Threatened a coney island owner.
Reported a bomb in the toilet of a coffee house.
Then on Aug. 17, Williams walked into the rest room at the Kalamazoo
bus station and, police say, pounded Heisinger with his fists until Heisinger slumped to
the floor, crying out for help. No one came. Williams later told his older brother that
the voices told him to do it. The attack, over in less than a minute, left Heisinger dead,
Williams jailed on a murder charge and two families wondering how this could have
happened.
Mentally ill people are ending up in Michigan jails in alarming numbers
after committing crimes experts say could have been avoided had they received proper
treatment and monitoring. An estimated one out of three inmates in Michigan jails is
mentally ill, according to a state Department of Community Health study. Increasingly,
mental health and law enforcement experts blame a system that seeks to integrate the
mentally ill into neighborhoods without enough safeguards to ensure they take medication
to control their illness. In the 1960s, 19,000 people lived in Michigan's mental
hospitals; today, about 1,000 are there. Michigan closed 15 of 21 state-run mental
hospitals in the 1990s, a cost-cutting move designed to put people into less restraining
community systems and to help the mentally ill live fuller lives.
Critics say there aren't enough aggressive programs in place at the
community level to ensure people like Williams stay well. "In a case like this,
if the person is not presenting himself for treatment, the workers need to be going out
and seeing where he is," said state Rep. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor, who has long fought
for changes in the state's mental health system. But Geralyn Lasher, spokeswoman for the
Michigan Department of Community Health, said the system is working. People with a mental
illness are better off in the community than in a state institution, and each community
has a variety of programs designed to offer as much help as necessary, she said. "It
is all based on how an individual is responding to treatment," she said. "There
is a wide range of supports available.... A big part of it is encouraging people and
working with them to continue on the path of treatment."
The Cycle Begins
In his late teens, Williams was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was serving
in the Navy, said Amos Williams, an older brother who is also his lawyer. For the next
decade, Brian Williams lived in a cycle: get treatment, do well, stop taking medicine, get
sick again. When off his medicine, Williams would disappear or stay in homeless shelters.
He'd resurface months later in faraway places including Washington state or Baltimore, Md.
That changed in the early 1990s. With help from his brother, a Detroit attorney and
retired police lieutenant, he settled in Detroit. By 1995, Williams moved to Ypsilanti,
near Eastern Michigan University, and became a client of the Washtenaw County Community
Mental Health Organization. Williams took classes at EMU, mainly in computer studies, and
was enrolled for this semester. Besides the mix of fraternity houses and student
apartments, his neighborhood was home to many people who were receiving treatment for a
mental illness, and who were former patients of the Ypsilanti Psychiatric Hospital, which
closed in 1991.
Ypsilanti Police Capt. Matthew Harshberger said that after the hospital
closed his department increasingly found itself responding to calls involving mental
patients. By 1996, many calls involved Williams. Police records show officers had contact
with Williams in August, October, November and December 1996. The incidents ranged from
Williams calling to report someone snuck into his home and replaced his money with
different bills of the same amount, or that someone took his newspapers and replaced them
with old ones. An Ypsilanti officer tried to get Williams admitted into the county's
crisis mental health center. He was told Williams was not sick enough.
Williams eventually got help, but only after he became violent. He was
arrested for hitting another mental health patient in the head in December 1996, then was
picked up the next week for starting a fight with a customer of a Dearborn restaurant
while shouting that he was Jesus. The arrests led the Washtenaw County Probate Court to
order Williams get psychiatric help. Under the order Williams blossomed, his family
said. He was gentle and kind. He got a girlfriend. He completed a job preparation course
at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Ypsilanti police have no records of any
Williams-generated complaints in 1998 or 1999, the year the order expired. This year,
everything changed.
An Exceptional Boy
As a toddler growing up in suburban St. Louis, Kevin Heisinger proved to be exceptional.
But at first, his parents feared he was slow. He didn't talk, even at age 3 to say
"Mom." When he finally spoke, he recited the alphabet backward and spoke
Spanish, words he memorized from lessons imparted by "Sesame Street." By age 4,
he was reading books meant for fifth-graders, dictionaries and the encyclopedia. "I
knew that at an early age, he could have done anything," said his mother, Kimberly
McKenna, a seamstress. "He was a gifted child and at first he wanted to be a math
professor. But then he thought math was boring, and that he could give more by helping
people in social work than he could in mathematics." He had trouble fitting in.
"Kids couldn't understand him because he was so advanced, and he didn't know
why he was so different than others," McKenna said. Kevin's father, Charles
Heisinger, who is divorced from McKenna, said his son decided he wanted to help people
after he graduated from high school.
Heisinger enrolled at Northwestern University, where he blossomed
socially. He lived in a small dorm that focused on learning about different cultures and
values, and integrating them into the community. He became involved with Christians on
Campus, a small Bible study group, and regularly attended services at a nondenominational
church in Chicago. At the dorm, Heisinger organized Ping Pong tournaments and all-night
parties to make banners for homecoming. Professor Paul Arntson, who teaches communications
studies, was impressed with Heisinger's enthusiasm and generous spirit. Arntson asked
Heisinger to mentor high school students who come to Northwestern each summer for training
in leadership and community involvement. Heisinger taught in the high school program for
four summers. Now a scholarship fund that helps teenagers attend the program is being
renamed in Heisinger's honor. After his 1998 graduation, he worked mentoring low-income
students in hardscrabble Chicago neighborhoods. He was jubilant at being accepted by the
University of Michigan's graduate School of Social Work, and was en route to Ann Arbor for
orientation when his bus stopped in Kalamazoo. His heart was dedicated to helping people
on society's margins, Arntson said. People much like Williams.
Troubles Return
Williams' mom was worried. Her son was doing so well under the court-mandated treatment
order. But when she spoke to him by phone from her Tennessee home that second week of
August, she sensed something was wrong. She called her other son, Amos Williams, and urged
him to help. The two brothers made plans to get together the following week. Amos Williams
said he could not tell his brother was so far gone. But the neighborhood knew. Williams
was a regular at Gianni's Koney Island, a 24-hour diner across the street from his home.
Williams often sat in the back booth and ordered coffee. On Saturday, Aug. 12, Williams
entered the restaurant with a large kitchen knife, announced he was looking for somebody
and then walked out. A police report says an officer later found Williams walking along
the street with the 8-inch blade. He was arrested and released. The next day, Williams
returned to Gianni's and sat down like nothing had happened, said Shannon Poe, 18, a
waitress who was working then. When the restaurant's owner asked him to leave, Williams
yelled at him and wouldn't leave until the owner called police, Poe said.
But Williams didn't stay away long. Poe was working late Monday night
when Williams came back. The restaurant was jammed when he strolled slowly by the window,
naked. Some people looked up and laughed. "Everyone was, 'Look, it is the crazy guy,'
" Poe said. Chuck Smead, co-owner of nearby Vinyl Joe's Music Cafe, was working that
night when something in the window caught his eye. "I thought, 'Did I just see a
naked man walk by my window?' " Smead said. "I waited a minute ...got up and
looked outside. He was there on the corner. He walked up the street and into his
house." Police were called out again. The next day, Williams was in Ann Arbor
visiting a coffee shop where he reported a bomb in the toilet. The following day, he
visited Schramm's Deli. "We said, 'Can we help you?' and he just stared. We said, 'Is
there something you need?' And he just stood there. We started to get a little
nervous," said James Hendricks, who works at the deli. Eventually, Williams
walked out. Later that day, Smead saw him walking up to cars stopped at a traffic
light and staring into their windows. "It was clear this guy was in crisis. I mean,
he's standing in traffic menacing cars, walking with a butcher knife up and down the
street, walking naked," said Smead. Late that night, Ypsilanti police were called to
Campus Drugs. Williams, wearing a black cowboy hat, had picked up a bottle of Pepsi,
walked to the counter, fumbled through two wallets and walked out, according to the later
police report. When police questioned Williams about the store visit at his
apartment, he said he couldn't find his money. The officer and Williams walked back to the
store, where Williams paid $1.10 for the pop. It was just before midnight.
At the Station
By the next afternoon, Williams was in Kalamazoo. After he missed his bus to Chicago, he
passed the time walking around. He approached a trio at the station at one point, saying
he was a cop. When asked for identification, he pulled out his Social Security card.
Heisinger's bus pulled into the Kalamazoo station around 3 p.m. Around 3:15, Heisinger and
Williams were in the men's room. Williams' deadly attack lasted less than 30 seconds,
police said. A boy saw Heisinger's bleeding body and called out for help. The station's
ticket-taker and concessionaire called police, and it took only 19 seconds for an officer
from the building's mini-station to arrive. But it was already too late. He found
Heisinger's head encircled by a spreading pool of blood. When paramedics arrived,
Heisinger was declared dead at the scene.
Police interviewed at least 20 witnesses in the bus station, 15 of whom
noticed nothing unusual. One woman told police she heard Heisinger's screams and thought
others did, too. She gave police a detailed description of a man she said had been
behaving strangely. Police said at least one person who used the rest room immediately
after the beating walked out without alerting anyone. Williams had walked to where the
buses idled and boarded a running bus, empty but for the driver. He told the bus driver to
get off and then sat in the driver's seat. When he couldn't dislodge the parking brake,
Williams bolted. A few blocks from the station, Kalamazoo police officer Cathy Pinto saw
Williams and asked him for identification; Williams pulled out a Social Security card.
When she mentioned the beating, Williams started to walk away. Police
reports say she tried to grab him and Williams spun around to punch her. Another officer,
a plain clothes detective, tackled him. Williams, handcuffed, began to mumble numbers
while he was patted down. He then said, "The United States government has trained me
to kill," police reports show. Later at the station, Williams confessed, telling
officers he was the "supreme commander of the universe" and that the Army put
microphones in his ears. He was charged with open murder. Williams is jailed while
prosecutors determine how to proceed.
The Aftermath
Williams had received medicine and treatment for his mental illness from the Washtenaw
health organization. But it is not clear what help -- if any -- the taxpayer-supported
organization gave Williams in August. Its director, Kathy Reynolds, said she could not
discuss the case. Neither could Lasher, the spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of
Community Health. But Lasher pointed out that under Michigan law, no one can force a
mentally ill person to take medication unless the person is deemed to be a danger to
himself or others. "Every person has the right to take their medication, and they
have the right not to take their medicine," she said. This all makes Charles
Heisinger angry. He says Michigan's mental health system failed his son, not Brian
Williams. "Everybody's playing the mental thing. It was this guy's choice to go off
his medicine.... He's got to pay," said Heisinger. "All these papers are saying
there are two victims. I think there's only one victim -- my son." Amos Williams said
he hopes something will come out of this tragedy. He hopes to see the state's system
change. "The primary point of this whole thing is the death of this young man who is
perfectly innocent," he said. "Brian did what he did and what will happen will
happen with him. But Kevin Heisinger is dead."
Florida Authorities Call Ecstasy-Like Drug Deadly
Julia Campbell, ABC News, 9/30/2000
A knockoff of the popular "club drug" Ecstasy is being blamed for the deaths
of six young people in Florida and at least three in suburban Chicago since May, law
enforcement officials said. The clusters of deaths in Illinois and Florida, along with
sporadic reports of fatalities across the nation involving Ecstasy, underscores the
dangerous nature of a drug that has been thought by many to be relatively harmless. In
Florida, the fake Ecstasy, called PMA or paramethoxyamphetamine, and PMMA, or
paramethoxymethamphetamine, is killing young people by raising their body temperatures to
as high as 108 degrees.
The pills being sold in central Florida are believed to be more lethal
than Ecstasy, which is made of MDMA or methylenedioxymethamphetamine.The pills are similar
and medical experts say it is virtually impossible to tell them apart unless they are
tested in a laboratory. "It is like Russian roulette," said Bruce Goldberger, a
forensic toxicologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "If you get these
PMA pills and take them, there is a chance you will die." The counterfeit pills,
which are cheaper to make, were being sold in central Florida, in the Orlando area,
authorities said. Florida state police were trying to determine where the drugs were made.
Florida state law enforcement officials said Friday at least six people have died in
Florida since July from taking the drugs.
Drug More Popular Than Ever
Use of Ecstasy in the United States is growing more quickly than any other abused drug.
Congress held hearings this summer, and legislation was introduced in both houses to
increase penalties for its trafficking and possession. Ecstasy is known as a "club
drug" because of its popularity among attendees of all-night music clubs that stage
parties known as "raves." The drug is extremely popular in rave clubs in Miami
and also has a stronghold in Atlanta and across the state of New Jersey. A survey by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse found that about 3.4 million Americans at least 12 years
old have tried the drug at least once.
In suburban Chicago last week, authorities announced they were looking
into three fatalities last spring of young people who took what they thought was Ecstasy
but was actually PMA. Unlike the Florida pills, the PMA tablets in Illinois each had a
distinct stamp of three diamonds in a triangle shape. State officials in Maryland
announced Thursday a campaign aimed at debunking myths about the Ecstasy’s safety. In
three years, 10 people have died in Maryland in cases where Ecstasy was cited as a
contributing factor.
"Some people think Ecstasy is safe. It is not," said Maryland
Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. "Ecstasy does not free your mind. It burns your
brain." Florida officials began investigating the deaths there after looking into the
death in August of a 19-year-old Lake County woman. Five hours after her death, her body
temperature was recorded at 104 degrees. Five other deaths are now believed to be linked
to the lethal imitation drug. In four of the cases, the victims’ bodies contained a
mix of drugs, including the PMA or PMMA, authorities said.
'Unscrupulous Dealers' Market Fake
Ecstasy is taken by users for its psychoactive or mind-altering properties, but health
officials warn the drug can have lasting physical and psychological effects, including
depression. Recent research findings show that the drug may also be linked to long-term
brain damage, affecting critical thought and memory, according to NIDA. In the fatal cases
involving PMA, the victims overheat, become confused, hallucinate and finally collapse,
Goldberger said. Once a person starts to overheat like that, he said, it is almost too
late to save them unless they get immediate medical attention.
A large percentage of pills sold as Ecstasy do not contain the drug at
all or are laced with other drugs, including methamphetamines or PCP or cocaine, said
Emanuel Sferios, the national director of DanceSafe, an Oakland, Calif. nonprofit that
provides health and safety information to club drug users. Sferios said "unscrupulous
dealers" are manufacturing and selling PMA and other types of fake Ecstasy because it
is easier and cheaper to make than the real thing. "Ecstasy is in high demand and
people are making money by selling fake Ecstasy," Sferios said. "The truth is
that PMA is out there and it is a much more dangerous drug." DanceSafe recommends
screening the pills through home lab kits. Health officials say the test kits are not
reliable.
Ruling 'Frees' Sex Offenders
Kirk Mitchell, Denver Post- 9/30/2000
Prison officials have released 170 rapists and child molesters from parole following a
Colorado Supreme Court ruling, and 112 other sex offenders now in prison could be freed
next week. Another 600 sex offenders sentenced from 1993 to 1998 to prison and parole will
be released in coming years without serving parole as a result of the ruling, state
Department of Corrections administrator Donna Thurlow said Friday. The Sept. 18
ruling went unnoticed until prison officials began releasing ex-convicts from parole
supervision this week. Without the structure of parole, such as mandatory therapy, sex
criminals are more likely to re-offend, said therapist Walter Simon of Progressive Therapy
Systems in Denver. "In the long term or short term, there are going to be
victims," he said.
Simon said he knows 11 of the sex offenders who were released from
parole this week. "Not a single one of these clients will opt to stay in
therapy," Simon said. "Many don't feel like they have a problem. In my
experience in 20 years, I have not seen anyone stay in therapy without probation or
parole." Parolees and probationers have been required to undergo therapy, meet weekly
with parole officers and submit to random drug tests. Some have had to wear ankle
bracelets. But with the new ruling, the ankle bracelets are coming off and treatment no
longer will be required, authorities said. Some sex offenders, who are being monitored
through a sophisticated satellite tracking system, which pinpoints their whereabouts 24
hours a day, will be free to come and go as they wish.
The ruling comes in the case of Vance Martin, who in 1994 pleaded
guilty to sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust. He was sentenced to
five years of probation, but after two probation violations was re-sentenced in 1997 to
four years in prison and five years of mandatory parole. Mandatory parole was approved by
the legislature in 1993. But Martin later appealed his sentence, arguing that a 1979 law
limited the amount of time sex offenders can be placed on parole. The law, he claims, said
offenders couldn't be placed on parole for longer than their prison sentences, or couldn't
be placed on parole at all if they served more than five years in prison.
The trial court and Colorado Court of Appeals rejected his arguments.
But in last week's decision, the Supreme Court said the 1993 mandatory-parole law
conflicted with the 1979 measure. The ruling tosses out the 1993 mandatory-parole
provisions for sex offenders. It only affects sex offenders convicted between July 1,
1993, and Nov. 1, 1998, when a lifetime parole law took effect. Assistant Attorney General
Dawn Weber criticized the ruling, saying the court chose a dated law that doesn't reflect
the will of legislators who have adopted longer prison and parole terms over the past
decade. "That's why I'm puzzled," Weber said. "Our position, is the winds
changed since (1979)." State Sen. Ken Arnold, R-Westminster, serves on the Senate
Judiciary Committee and said lawmakers will take up the issue when they return to the
Capitol in January.
"It really upsets me that sex offenders, pedophiles - it's
something that's not curable - are convicted and, consequently, the courts sentence, the
parole board puts them on parole, and our liber al courts turn them loose," he said.
But Sherry Patten, spokeswoman for the Colorado Judicial Branch, said judges base their
rulings on law and are not politically motivated. Parole officers across the state began
calling sex offenders into their offices Thursday and notifying them they are no longer on
parole, said Leslie Wagner, a Denverarea parole supervisor. Offenders must still register
with local law enforcement.
The offenders reacted in disbelief, she said. In most cases, the 170
rapists and child molesters were released from parole before their victims or prosecutors
were notified, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said. The remaining
victims will receive letters next week, Morgan said. The department normally notifies
victims weeks before an offender is released from prison parole, Morgan said. But the
ruling called for the immediate release of the parolees.
Maxey Counselor Faces Drug and Gun Charges
Jack Dresnak, Detroit Free Press- 9/30/2000
A 46-year-old counselor at the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School was arrested outside a
Southfield elementary school on Friday carrying a handgun and an undetermined quantity of
heroin and marijuana. The counselor, whom police did not identify other than as an Ann
Arbor resident, is to be arraigned today on charges of drug and weapons possession in a
school area. Southfield police received a tip that the suspect was about to make a drug
deal with someone from Detroit at Brace Lederle Elementary School, 18575 West Nine Mile
Road in Southfield. Officers arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m. and found the man in his car
outside the school. School district spokesman Kenson Siver said school was not in session
and no children were in the area.
Police said the suspect carried a badge identifying him as a clinical
social worker and an identification card for the training school run by the Michigan
Family Independence Agency. The arrest came the same day the FBI said it would investigate
possible civil-rights violations of the youths being treated at Maxey. Allegations at the
Maxey Training School include reports of inmates assaulting inmates and inappropriate
behavior by staff toward the youths. "The FBI is conducting a civil-rights
investigation into complaints received at the school," Special Agent Dawn Clenney of
the agency's Detroit office told the Associated Press. State documents have shown several
staff members have been investigated on suspicion of abusing inmates, who are 13 to 20
years old. State police have charged one staff member. In March, a disturbance at the
school in Livingston County's Green Oak Township left several inmates with injuries.
Massachusetts Court Upholds Law Allowing Sex Offender
Incarceration After Prison
Associated Press, 9/30/2000
BOSTON--Massachusetts' highest court unanimously upheld a controversial law that allows
convicted sex offenders to be incarcerated indefinitely after they've completed their
sentences, if prosecutors can prove they're still dangerous. The Supreme Judicial Court's
ruling Friday upheld a 1999 law.
The decision was hailed by Middlesex County District Attorney Martha
Coakley, who handled two of the cases that spurred the Legislature to pass the law. ''This
is not a retroactive criminal punishment,'' Coakley said. ''We look at this ruling as
protecting a statute that provides both protection for the public and treatment for people
in need.'' But defense Attorney Andrew Good criticized the ruling, calling it a second
punishment for those who have already served their time and an erosion of civil liberties.
He said the law was the result of ''knee-jerk reaction'' among prosecutors, jurors and the
public that a person who commits a sexual crime will definitely do so again. ''The
statistics on this don't support that idea,'' Good said.
The law allows convicted sex offenders who have served their sentences
and are still deemed sexual predators to be involuntarily committed to the state's sexual
offender treatment program in Bridgewater. Such a person who is ''civilly committed'' can
ask a judge once a year to declare them no longer sexually dangerous. Friday's ruling
stems from three separate cases involving sex offenders convicted before last years' law
went into effect. In each case, the state asked Superior Court judges to keep the men
behind bars, while the three men's lawyers said the law did not apply because their
convictions predated the law. In each case, Superior Court judges agreed with the men's
lawyers. But Friday's ruling reversed those decisions, stating the offender's mental
condition, and not the prior conviction, triggers the law. The Legislature took up a
similar law ten years ago, but abandoned the effort as unworkable. |