Doctor: Yates Did Not Know Actions Wrong
Carol Christian, Houston Chronicle- 2/27/2002

Andrea Pia Yates was so severely mentally ill at the time she drowned her five children that she did not know her actions were wrong, a defense witness testified Tuesday in Yates' capital murder trial. Taking the stand for the second day, Dr. George Ringholz testified that on the day of the drownings, Yates was severely mentally ill and in the course of an acute psychotic episode. "As a result of her illness, the type and severity of the psychosis, she did not know that her actions were wrong," he said.
    Ringholz is a physician who also has a doctorate in psychology and is chief of the neuropsychology section at Baylor College of Medicine. Prosecutor Joe Owmby tried to undermine Ringholz's determination that Yates did not know her actions were wrong by listing a dozen elements of the crime and asking if those would not be factors in her understanding of her actions.
    Owmby noted Yates' decision to wait until no one was home so she would not be stopped, her belief that killing would be sinful and the last of the seven deadly sins, her 911 call to police, her knowledge that she would be arrested and put in jail, her asking a detective when her trial would be and other facets of her behavior that day. To each, Ringholz responded, "That's not a factor."
    In testimony Monday, Ringholz said he had concluded after evaluating Yates that she suffers from schizophrenia, a brain disorder. In earlier testimony, Dr. Melissa Ferguson said Yates suffered from major depressive disorder with psychotic features, occurring in the period shortly after childbirth. Ferguson evaluated Yates during her first week in jail. In her evaluation, Ferguson also said Yates should be tested for schizophrenia. Ringholz, who interviewed Yates and administered a battery of neurological and psychological tests, said Tuesday her symptoms would not be explained by depression alone.
    Another psychiatrist called by the defense, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, said Tuesday that when she treated Yates in 1999, she diagnosed her mental illness as "depression with psychotic features" with the possibility of long-term schizophrenia. Starbranch, a psychiatrist since 1975, said Yates "would probably rank among the five sickest people" she has ever treated. Yates was her patient at the former Spring Shadows Glen Hospital after her first suicide attempt in 1999. Yates was referred to Starbranch by Dr. James N. Flack, director of psychiatry services at The Methodist Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Yates was a patient in Methodist's psychiatric unit from June 17 to June 24, 1999, after she took an overdose of a sedative prescribed for her father. "She was severely mentally ill," Starbranch testified. "Left to her own devices, she would not have survived. She was not eating or taking in fluids."
    Starbranch testified that Yates responded well to anti-psychotic medication. But she said she warned Yates and her husband, Russell Yates, against having more children. That was prior to the birth of their daughter, Mary, on Nov. 30, 2000. "When I heard they planned to have as many children as nature would allow, I told them the probability of another psychotic episode was great if she had another baby," Starbranch testified.
    During the nearly three weeks Yates was hospitalized at Spring Shadows Glen in July and August 1999, Russell Yates visited his wife every day, Starbranch said. "He was very attentive, begging her to drink, to eat," she said. "We gave him special permission to be there outside visiting hours because I thought his presence would be helpful. She was so shut down."
    On March 28, 2001, Starbranch said, Russell Yates called her office to say that his wife was sick again. "I remember specifically telling Rusty that he bring her back immediately, that I wanted to see her," Starbranch said. That did not occur, however, because Russell Yates had a presentation that day, Starbranch said. An appointment was scheduled for April 3, Starbranch said, but three days before that, Russell Yates took his wife to Devereux Texas Treatment Network in League City.
    Between Yates' first contact with Devereux on March 31 and June 20, when she drowned her children in the bathtub, no Devereux representative contacted Starbranch for information about Yates' treatment, the psychiatrist testified. "To this day you've never been contacted by Dr. Mohammed Saeed?" defense lawyer George Parnham asked, referring to the psychiatrist who was treating Yates when she killed her children. "No," Starbranch said.
    In testimony Tuesday, Ringholz described tests he used to reach the diagnosis of schizophrenia. On the Thematic Apperception Test, Yates was asked to tell stories about cards depicting scenes. In these stories, she expressed sadness, depression, difficulty in coping with a sad event and discord between male and female figures, Ringholz said. In response to the last card, which was blank, Yates described a real event involving a butterfly raised by her son Noah, who would have turned 8 Tuesday. She became emotionally upset and cried at that point, he said. When the trial resumes today, Russell Yates is expected to testify.

Teen Sex Offender Temporarily Placed in Pennsylvania
Ruth Teichroeb, Seattle Post-Intelligencer- 2/27/2002

The state temporarily will send a 13-year-old sex offender to a Pennsylvania facility when he's released from a locked juvenile center Friday because it's too dangerous to place him in Washington. The decision was made after a backlash from residents near his last foster home in Seabeck led to threats and vandalism against his former foster parents, said Todd Henry, an official with the Department of Social and Health Services. "In light of our concerns for the foster parents' safety and his safety, too, we believe it is best to place him out of state," Henry said. "We want to give (the boy) a chance to have a life where can have privacy and get an education." Henry would not provide details about the Pennsylvania facility, except to say it's not locked, and will cost $13,500 per month.
    The boy will be moved back to Washington when a new placement can be arranged, state officials said. He was in the Seabeck foster home only about two weeks last month before a minor parole violation forced the state to move him to Echo Glen Children's Center in North Bend, a locked juvenile rehabilitation center. The parole violation, which happened before he was sent to Seabeck, was not reported immediately because the alleged victim did not feel threatened, according to DSHS. No incidents have occurred in Seabeck or at Echo Glen, Henry said.
    During the teenager's short stay in Seabeck, local residents protested loudly and some talked of arming themselves, according to police. After the boy was moved to Echo Glen, vandals poured paint inside and outside his foster mother's car and scrawled the words "you're next," Henry said. Other foster parents who previously had offered to care for the teenager decided it was too risky, Henry said. "That's the sad part. We had other options which evaporated after what happened," Henry said.
    Having to send a boy who fueled so much fear out of state for his own safety is a strange twist, he said. The boy served a nine-month sentence last year at Echo Glen after being convicted of attempting to rape a pregnant woman in an Alderwood Mall bathroom last year. He has also been accused of attacks on a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. After being released from Echo Glen Dec. 31, the boy spent several weeks at the Oak Harbor DSHS office because the state could not find him a home.

Michigan Mental Health Center's Services Shrinking
Laura Potts, Detroit Free Press- 2/27/2002

Gale Phelps has seen her autistic son change from an incommunicative 26-year-old man prone to slapping and biting himself into a calm, friendly taxpaying member of the community. Phelps of Farmington Hills attributes her son Jeremy's progress to years of support services from the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center Inc. A subcontractor of the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority, MORC is one of the metro area's biggest providers of services for people with developmental disabilities such as autism. It serves about 4,500 people.
    Now, MORC is coping with approximately $5 million in debt that the authority wants eliminated by Sept. 30, when MORC's current 2-year contract expires. To reduce what was initially a $22-million debt, MORC has cut its staff by one-third, to 392 people, and decreased some of the services it contracts out by 14 percent, said John Torrone, MORC public affairs director. That means many of the programs MORC provides -- such as Jeremy Phelps' music therapy classes -- could be in jeopardy. Client services such as dental care, clothing provisions and trips to restaurants, dances and movies already have been reduced.
    On Monday, Phelps was told her son will now have one caretaker -- instead of two -- working in the Southfield home he shares with another MORC client. The caretakers cook, clean, dispense medications and provide transportation and other support to the men, who have separate therapy programs and jobs. She worries that Jeremy or his roommate will have to miss some programs since there will be just one person to provide transportation. "I'm extremely frustrated," said Phelps, 53, who also coordinates programs for the Association for Retarded Citizens in Oakland County. "You work for so many years to put support systems in place and then get to point where you feel they're really making progress, and then they're being taken away."
    Torrone said MORC's debt was inherited from the authority after it transferred its programs to service providers in 2000. MORC assumed the authority's services for people with developmental disabilities, along with a debt accrued after years of mismanagement by a previous administration at the authority, Torrone said. The Community Mental Health Authority "didn't know how many people they were serving or how much money it was costing," Torrone said. "The books were a mess because the previous administration thought they had an $18-million surplus when they really had an $18-million deficit. They committed to services they didn't have the money for, and when the programs were transferred, we didn't get money for them." The current administration "came in trying to figure out what was wrong and it has taken them almost two years," Torrone said. Last May, MORC also discovered that the services it was providing for the authority were being underfunded by $800,000 per month, Torrone said.
    Patrick Barrie, associate director of the county mental health authority, said the authority is "assisting MORC with a plan to get their expenses under control, some of which seem to be a legacy that they undertook on behalf of the authority." He said the previous administration and MORC "were not doing what they should have been doing" to avoid the debt. "We've been trying to get past that and look for remedies," Barrie said. "All parties are committed to coming up with a solution that allows everyone to dig out of this problem that has developed over several years. Certainly their relationship with us is strong, and we plan to continue working with them and contracting with them." MORC is hoping to have the Sept. 30 deadline extended.
    Meanwhile, parents like Phelps worry fewer services will mean their children's progress will decline. She said her son, who for years did not say more than a couple of words, now asks questions and greets people as he works cleaning condominiums. "He's just an all around changed person. I never would have pictured him doing what he's doing, living independently, having a job that he loves. I worry that the service cutbacks eventually might cause him to have behavioral problems again."
    Tom Kendziorski, executive director of the Association for Retarded Citizens in Oakland County, is concerned what else MORC will have to cut to reduce its remaining debt. "I believe it's going to directly affect services," said Kendziorski, who has three brothers he said have benefited greatly from MORC's services. Torrone said "it is white knuckle time," but promised MORC will do all it can to protect clients from further cuts. "The agency has been traumatized by this, and it has been traumatizing for providers, parents and consumers," Torrone said. "We're hoping that people will see that we've done as much as possible and we don't want to cut and further and hurt consumers."

Hundreds of N.Y Firefighters Suffer Stress-Related Ailments
Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press- 2/27/2002

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of firefighters and emergency medical workers who responded to the World Trade Center attack have reported nightmares, sudden anger and other psychological symptoms so severe that they were taken off active duty. The 14,000-member Fire Department said it has put about 350 people with stress-related problems on light duty or medical leave since Sept. 11. Nearly 2,000 more firefighters, fire officers and workers in the department's Emergency Medical Service unit have seen a counselor since Sept. 11 through the FDNY's counseling services unit.
    The number is unexpectedly large for an institution that traditionally prefers to handle problems within the close-knit firehouse fraternity. ''Few people would have predicted as many firefighters would come forward looking for help,'' said Terence Keane, a counseling unit consultant who heads the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston. Firefighters say the staggering losses of Sept. 11 changed perceptions of the counseling unit, once seen as only for those with drug or alcohol problems. The department lost 343 members when the twin towers collapsed. ''Before this, guys would not even dream of going to counseling,'' said 10-year firefighter Vinny Picciano, who sees a counselor once a week. ''Now, the guys that are coming down, they realize something is wrong. Guys are hurting.''
    Of the 350 placed on light duty or medical leave, about 100 remained off the active roster as of Wednesday. Many others have retired or returned to work. An additional 650 fire personnel are on light duty or medical leave because of physical injuries, from respiratory ailments to broken bones. Some of them are also said to have symptoms of extreme stress. The department is working firefighters overtime because of the lost manpower. The department expects to spend as much as $170 million on overtime this fiscal year, roughly double its previous amount, spokesman Frank Gribbon said.
    The counseling unit saw approximately 600 people in 2000. Its staff, which had 11 counselors and clinicians, is now five times larger. About one-fifth of those in counseling suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a severe reaction that can require intensive counseling and medication, counseling services unit director Malachy Corrigan said. The remaining 80 percent are experiencing acute stress disorder, a milder reaction that can improve after as little as a month of treatment.
    Firefighters' Sept. 11 experiences prompted feelings of powerlessness and terror in people used to controlling their own fears. ''Their coping skills are breaking down,'' Corrigan said. Counselors are encouraging firefighters to retell the stories of their Sept. 11 experiences as a way to regain control. ''There's a lot of people who won't tell their stories to their wives because they don't want to make their wives more nervous,'' Corrigan said. ''What you're doing is helping people regain some mental mastery of the situation.''
    The Police Department required every member to attend a half-day stress management education class after Sept. 11. The Fire Department took a different tack providing one-on-one counseling, but leaving the choice of whether to seek help to the individual. Those who chose counseling have benefited from the individual attention, said Tom Manley, health and safety officer for the firefighters union. ''Doing it in a group setting, you're not really going to get what you need out of it,'' he said.
    Firefighter Vinney Picciano said he expects to recover from the back and neck injuries he suffered when he was hit by debris from the collapse of the south tower. As for his psychological wounds, he said he still imagines loud noises at night and his dreams are haunted by images of people leaping from the burning trade center. He said he sees pieces of bodies on the sidewalk and cannot fall back to sleep. ''I lost a lot of friends. I lost a lot of guys. It's killing me just thinking about that,'' he said. ''I never want to be that vulnerable again.''
    The counseling unit soon will try to gauge the depth and breadth of the department's psychological needs with the largest-ever survey of an emergency department's response to trauma. Every Fire Department member will be asked every three to six months to fill out a pages-long survey. The survey, developed by the counseling unit and academic and government experts, is expected to continue for years.

Connecticut Child-Ruling May Be Appealed
Alaine Griffin, Hartford Courant- 2/27/2002

State officials said Tuesday they might appeal a federal court ruling that the mental health needs of children in Connecticut detention centers are not being met, but also suggested that a new plan to set up small group homes -- instead of larger, prison-like facilities -- for troubled girls could help solve the problem. The group homes, which would house as many as 10 girls, would be a departure from earlier plans by the Department of Children and Families to build a larger facility for girls displaced with the close of the Long Lane School in Middletown.
    Department of Children and Families Commissioner Kristine Ragaglia said Tuesday she was surprised by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny's ruling Monday that blamed both DCF and the state Judicial Branch for not addressing the needs of traumatized and suicidal youths in crowded juvenile detention centers. Ragaglia and Dean Pagani, a spokesman for Gov. John G. Rowland, confirmed that the state is considering an appeal of the judge's decision. "Obviously, the Department of Children and Families and the administration don't agree with the conclusion that [juvenile] issues aren't being addressed," Pagani said. Melissa Farley, executive director of external affairs at the state's Judicial Branch, which operates the juvenile detention centers, said the department does not comment on pending litigation. Ragaglia disputed the judge's claim that DCF failed to comply with a five-year consent decree governing conditions and services in the state's three juvenile detention centers. The decree expires March 8.
    Two Superior Court judges testified during the trial that they were frustrated by their inability to get deeply troubled children into treatment because of a shortage of beds. There was also testimony about a 13-year-old boy who waited seven weeks for an evaluation after tying a sheet around his neck.
    Ragaglia said DCF is offering its own ways to address the needs of troubled youths - such as the smaller group homes - and the courts are not the place to seek remedy. "I am not a big supporter of litigation to create institutional reform," Ragaglia said. "I don't believe the support systems are in place to effectuate those kinds of changes. I understand the motivation behind it ... but the executive branch really needs to make those changes."
    State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said the ruling was important. "It supports what I've been saying all along which is that we have to provide more mental health services for children who don't belong in the juvenile justice system," she said. Milstein said she has been encouraging DCF to develop or enhance emergency foster homes, emergency shelters and group homes. She said she supports Ragaglia's plans to open smaller, residential group homes for girls in place of the detention center. Of the 12,000 children who pass through juvenile court each year, about 3,000 of them, or 25 percent, end up in detention. About 60 percent of those in detention need treatment, studies show. "These kids are languishing in detention and, in fact, are deteriorating in many cases," Milstein said.
    Senate President Pro Tem Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford, an advocate for expanding community mental health services, said he wasn't surprised by Monday's court decision. He said the ruling points up the need for Connecticut to do more to help troubled children - and not just those who end up under DCF's jurisdiction. "You won't reach most kids' mental health needs through DCF," Sullivan said, adding that the department is already stretched thin and "unable to do all of its functions."
    DCF initially planned to house girls from Long Lane in a former prison for drunken drivers in Windsor Locks and the State Bond Commission approved $20 million for the project. A new home for Long Lane's boys opened last year in Middletown, but the state has since rejected the Windsor Locks plan. Ragaglia told legislators Tuesday the group homes would be cheaper for the state and would give counselors the chance to work more closely with the girls. Legislators said they favored DCF's proposal. "This is something we've been pushing for," said Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, the committee's House chairwoman.

Yates' Husband Testifies
Carol Christian, Houston Chronicle- 2/28/2002

Russell and Andrea Yates exchanged glances and wept Wednesday as they and jurors watched a video taken of their family during happier times. Russell Yates, in his first day of testimony, looked at his wife every few seconds and blinked back tears as the packed courtroom watched the 10-minute video. The tape showed the four Yates boys looking at butterflies in their yard and visiting their mother in the hospital after their sister was born.
    George Parnham, Andrea Yates' attorney, was forceful in his questioning of her husband, a 37-year-old computer engineer at NASA. After a long discussion of Andrea Yates' deteriorating mental condition in the three months before she drowned her five children in the bathtub, Parnham noted that the children were alone with their mother for a couple of hours each day.
    Russell Yates said his mother, Dora Yates, usually came to their Clear Lake home about 10 a.m. each day and left about 5 p.m. -- leaving the children alone with their mother for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. "Part of it was that Mom wanted to give Andrea some time to herself," Yates said. "Neither of us saw Andrea as dangerous. We didn't know what she was thinking. Neither of us thought it would be a problem leaving her by herself an hour here and there."
    Yates said that his wife was hospitalized in 1999 after trying to commit suicide by overdosing on a sedative. About a month later, he said, he discovered her holding a knife to her throat in front of a bathroom mirror at her parents' home in Houston. She looked determined, he said, and he had to wrestle the knife from her. Parnham asked Yates why he didn't immediately call Dr. Eileen Starbranch, the psychiatrist who was treating his wife at the time. "I guess I should have, but I didn't," he said. "We thought we'd keep an eye on her." Andrea Yates had an appointment with Starbranch the next day, he explained. Yates testified that, in the days preceding his wife's second suicide attempt, she wasn't eating properly, spoke very little, and carried Luke around with her without feeding him.
    After being prescribed the anti-psychotic drug Haldol in late July 1999, Andrea Yates displayed a "remarkable turnaround," her husband said. He said the couple had the best conversation of their lives the day after she was given Haldol. Parnham asked if they ever had any more such conversations. "No," Yates said. "It wasn't so much in-depth as open." Parnham countered, "Did it dawn on you that the antipsychotic might be wearing off?" Prosecutor Joe Owmby objected to the question before Yates could answer, however.
    Parnham noted that Andrea Yates was twice hospitalized at Devereux Texas Treatment Network for psychiatric treatment last year, but that her doctor -- Dr. Mohammed Saeed -- did not prescribe Haldol during her first stay. Parnham asked Yates if he had thought it prudent to call Starbranch at the time. "It didn't really cross my mind," he said. Parnham responded: "You knew that Dr. Starbranch had put her on Haldol. You knew it worked. You knew that Dr. Saeed had not put her on Haldol. Why in the world did you take your wife back to Devereux and the care of Dr. Saeed?" Yates answered that he viewed all psychiatrists as being the same.
    Parnham asked Yates if Starbranch had ever discouraged the couple from having more children. "She said if we did have any more children, she would like to start Andrea on an anti-depressant early, as a preventative," Yates said. That answer contradicted Starbranch's testimony from Tuesday and Wednesday, in which she denied offering the couple Haldol as a preventative.
    Parnham questioned Yates about his relationship with the Rev. Michael Woroniecki, a preacher he met as a student at Auburn University. Yates said he and his wife occasionally received a newsletter, Perilous Times, published by Woroniecki and his wife. Parnham asked Russell Yates to read a poem from the newsletter about modern working women. The poem ended with the line, "What becomes of the children of such a Jezebel?" Others testifying for the defense Wednesday included Russell Yates' brother, Randy Yates, and Andrea Yates' brother, Patrick Kennedy. Russell Yates will return to the stand today.
    During his cross-examination of Starbranch earlier Wednesday, Owmby tried to dispute her testimony that she had never been contacted by Saeed. Owmby showed the jury the cover sheet of a fax transmittal apparently sent to Saeed from Starbranch's office during Yates' second stay at Devereux. A handwritten note from Starbranch's receptionist said, "Dr. Saeed, Here are the medical records on Andrea Yates. Thanks for your patient (sic)." Starbranch maintained that she had never spoken to Saeed or received any messages from him, either personally or through her staff.
    Russell Yates recalled the last time his wife saw a mental health expert before her arrest. On June 18, two days before the drownings, she met with psychiatrist Mohammed Saeed. Yates said: "He looked at her and said, 'Andrea, you need to help us. You need to think positive thoughts, not negative thoughts.' "