Abuse Counselor Say There Are Holes in Maine's Legal System
Associated Press, 1/29/2005

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Even after a jury found a man guilty of murdering his girlfriend at her Portland apartment, domestic abuse counselors contend there are holes in Maine's legal system that protect people in abusive relationships. Gregory Erskine, 51, was found guilty on Friday of murder and violation of bail conditions following a three-day trial. He faces 25 years to life in prison for killing his girlfriend Lisa Deprez.
      Erskine was out on bail the night of May 13, 2004, when prosecutors say he struck Deprez with a hammer and covered her mouth so she could not breathe. A week earlier, Erskine had been arrested for threatening her life. The decision to release Erskine was a routine step in Maine, said Lois Reckitt of Family Crisis Services because judges and bail commissioners are pressured by crowded jails to release people who have been charged with crimes. "I don't think we have sufficient capacity in our jails to incarcerate people until we are sure that they are not dangerous to others," Reckitt said. "I think we should take a long hard look at the bail system."
      Following Deprez' death, Gov. John Baldacci created a commission to study domestic violence prevention last June. The commission is scheduled to release a draft report on Feb. 9. Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara would not discuss the contents of the report on Friday, but he said that the bail code was an issue that was discussed during the commission's work. Faye Luppi, of the Violence Intervention Partnership, said a law that would make available to judges expired protection from abuse orders could help prevent future violence. Even though the orders are no longer in effect, they could demonstrate a violent history that would influence a judge's bail decision, she said.
      Erskine had been the subject of a protection order, but that information was not available to the judge when he was being considered for bail. "Whatever is out there in terms of history is very important for assessing risk for a victim," Luppi said.



Shanley Accuser Concludes Testimony
Joanna Weiss, Boston Globe- 1/29/2005

CAMBRIDGE -- A day after he pleaded with a judge not to make him return to the witness stand, the man who accused defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley of sexually abusing him as a child came back to court yesterday to complete his testimony, submitting to the final hour of what was a grueling cross-examination.
      The strongest emotions yesterday came from a different witness: the accuser's wife, who broke down while recounting her husband's behavior in February 2002, when he allegedly began remembering years of abuse by Shanley at St. Jean Parish in Newton. Asked to recall the first night of a visit home from her husband, who was then her fiance and was stationed by the Air Force in Colorado, the 23-year-old woman began to cry. She clutched a tissue and, in a near whisper, said, ''I'm so sorry."
      Superior Court Judge Stephen E. Neel asked her to stop and sent the jury from the room, the second day in a row the judge halted proceedings so a witness could regain composure. When court resumed, she continued her testimony, still sobbing softly. ''He had soaked the sheets with sweat," she said. ''He got on the floor, curled up in a ball. He shook." ''What did you do?" prosecutor Lynn Rooney asked. ''Tried to hold him," the woman said. ''But he wouldn't let me."
      Earlier in the day, defense lawyer Frank Mondano called for a mistrial, saying the emotional atmosphere of the Middlesex Superior Court trial -- including a dramatic episode Thursday, when the alleged victim collapsed into sobs on the witness stand -- made it impossible for the jury to be impartial. Neel denied the motion.
      The accuser, now 27, has described being raped and fondled by Shanley between the ages of 6 and 11 in church pews, the bathroom, the rectory, and elsewhere. He says he repressed the memories for years, until hearing news reports about Shanley in 2002. After Thursday's seven-hour cross-examination, in which Mondano aggressively challenged those recollections, the defense lawyer's queries yesterday were less combative. When Mondano finished his questioning, the accuser's facial expression changed from a tight frown to a smile.
      Mondano briefly cross-examined the man's wife, focusing on when her husband retained lawyer Roderick ''Eric" MacLeish Jr. as part of a class-action civil suit against the Boston Archdiocese. The man was awarded a $500,000 settlement in the case in April 2004; Mondano says that the alleged victim made the accusation in hope of financial gain. Shanley, 74, faces three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. He could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty.
      The jury also heard yesterday from John F. Drozd, a clinical psychologist who worked at the accuser's Colorado Air Force base and treated the man hours after he allegedly recovered his memories of abuse. Drozd testified that the man came to him with feelings of ''anger, depression, rage, sadness, and vulnerability." He recommended changing the man's mental health status, saying he was unfit for his job as a security officer. Mondano's cross-examination focused on the timing of Drozd's treatment in relation to the alleged victim's contact with lawyers. Drozd testified that he told the accuser to write his thoughts. Mondano said in court Thursday every entry in the journal begins with ''Memo to Eric MacLeish." Mondano also said Drozd's notes show that the day after the accuser allegedly recovered the memories, he wanted to return to Boston to consult his lawyer. The accuser has said he did not hire MacLeish until more than a week later.




WA State House OKs Mental Health Parity Bill
Rebecca Cook, Associated Press- 1/29/2005

OLYMPIA -- Health insurance companies would have to cover mental health the same way they cover physical health, under a bill the state House passed yesterday. The bill mandates "parity" for mental health. For example, if the co-payment for a cholesterol drug is $10, the co-payment for an anti-anxiety medication would be $10. A health plan that allows unlimited doctor visits for physical ailments could not put a cap on therapy sessions.
      State law does not require employers to offer health benefits, and it doesn't require health insurers to offer mental health coverage. House Bill 1154 would not change that. It would require plans that offer mental health coverage to offer those benefits at the same level and cost as benefits for medical and surgical services.
      The bill passed 67-25, with bipartisan support. Many Republicans said they were voting for it reluctantly or voting no because they believe the state shouldn't put more mandates on a health insurance system that is already burdened by high costs. Some Republicans said they supported the idea of mental health parity but were worried it would increase costs and force some employers to stop offering health benefits.
      Democrats said experience in other states has proven that expanding mental health coverage doesn't noticeably increase costs. Analysis by the governor's budget office determined that claims costs in the Uniform Medical Plan for state employees would increase 0.3 percent if the bill becomes law. "Nine states have full-scale parity, and no one has backed off," said Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, who sponsored HB 1154. "It is time to stop inflicting upon ourselves this insane and artificial distinction between mental health and physical health." Nothing would stop insurers from dropping mental health benefits altogether, but Schual-Berke said that hasn't happened in other states. The mental health bill now goes to the state Senate.

States May Restrict Cold Pills With Ingredient in Meth
Fox Butterfield, New York Times- 1/30/2005

ST. PAUL, -- Faced with a growing crisis of methamphetamine addiction and toxic spills from homemade drug laboratories, 20 states are considering legislation that would impose tight restrictions on common cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an essential ingredient in making methamphetamine. Although the bills vary in detail, most would classify pseudoephedrine as a controlled substance and would allow sales of products containing it, like Sudafed, only in pharmacies, not in grocery or convenience stores. Customers would have to purchase the medicine from a pharmacist, show photo identification and sign a logbook. The state bills, and similar ones introduced in both houses of Congress this week, are expected to be opposed by groups representing drug, grocery and convenience stores.
      The growing legislative interest in restricting sales of cold medicines, experts say, is a response to the rapid spread of methamphetamine from its origins in the rural West to become the No. 1 priority for law enforcement in many states in the Midwest and Southeast. In the past year or so, methamphetamine has begun to move into some urban and suburban areas. And in Minneapolis and St. Paul, high school students have become addicted in significant numbers, one of the first such cases in the country. "In Minnesota, meth is now breaking all the rules about how the drug spreads," said Deborah Durkin, coordinator of the methamphetamine program in the Minnesota Department of Health. "Meth is no longer a rural health problem here; it is a statewide public health crisis, with 70 to 80 percent of the people in jail for meth-related crimes and large numbers of high school kids becoming addicted."
      Another motivation for passing such laws is concern that makers of methamphetamine will flock to states that do not pass restrictions. "If we don't have a strong restriction on pseudoephedrine in Minnesota, I fear we'll become the dumping ground for every meth head in the United States, as cooks cross state borders to find the laxest regulations," said Julie Rosen, a Republican state senator who is a sponsor of a methamphetamine bill here.
      While 80 percent of the nation's methamphetamine supply is smuggled into the United States from Mexico or churned out in so-called superlabs in the Central Valley of California, the rest is produced in small home laboratories or even in the trunks of cars. These home laboratories create a huge problem for law enforcement because they leave toxic waste that must be cleaned up and often expose children to poisonous chemicals.
      Nate, a 17-year-old high school senior here, said in an interview this week that he would often buy multiple packages of Sudafed at Wal-Mart and then turn them over to a neighbor who cooked the drug in a bathroom laboratory. In return, the dealer shared the finished product with him. Nate is a student at Sobriety High, a charter school in Maplewood, Minn., set up to educate and treat students with addictions, mostly methamphetamine problems. He said he began using the drug when he was 13, the summer before his freshman year. "I was hanging out with my friends' older siblings, and one was a dealer, and he just brought out some meth," Nate said. Nate, who because he is in high school under state law could be interviewed only on the condition that his surname not be published, said he was addicted from his first day. "Meth gave me a sense of belonging and feeling really cool," he said. Later, to get his supply, Nate stole money from his parents or took teenage girls he knew to his dealer.
      Another senior at Sobriety High, Megan, 18, said she first tried methamphetamine when she was 13 and in the seventh grade. "I was with a girlfriend and her older brother, and I liked meth so much I knew I'd do it again and again," she said. At first, Megan said, she was able to obtain more of the drug from her friends free. But soon, she said, "My dealer asked me to do things with him, and other men, and girls." Like many female methamphetamine addicts, Megan became a prostitute. She cried at the memory. She also began stealing from her parents, including taking $5,000 her father had saved for a present for her grandfather.
      A major question about the new bills is how effective opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and grocery and drug store trade associations will be. In past years, lobbying by these groups has largely succeeded in stopping efforts to restrict sales of pseudoephedrine products. Last year, for example, Iowa, one of the states hardest hit by methamphetamine, was unable to pass a bill that would have made pseudoephedrine a controlled substance, or Schedule 5 drug, like cough syrup with codeine, that could be sold only in pharmacies from behind the counter. "All the lobbying by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and by Pfizer gave us a really watered-down bill," said Marvin Van Haaften, the director of the Iowa governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. Pfizer is the manufacturer of Sudafed.
      The only state that has passed a law making pseudoephedrine a Schedule 5 drug is Oklahoma. There, the legislature unanimously approved the bill last April after three Oklahoma state troopers were shot dead by methamphetamine cooks. Since the law's passage, seizures of laboratories in Oklahoma have fallen 81 percent, said Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said she believed getting the federal bill through the Senate depended on "law enforcement from all these states hit by meth really rising up." "In the past, it's been an uphill fight," said Ms. Feinstein, who is co-sponsor of the Senate bill along with Senator Jim Talent, Republican of Missouri. "It's fair to say that a substantial portion of the profits from cold medicines come from people buying them to cook meth."
      Last week, when the director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation was testifying about the need for a proposed bill there, word came that a Kansas sheriff had been shot and killed in a raid on a methamphetamine laboratory. A lobbyist scheduled to testify against the bill decided not to speak, Mr. Van Haaften said. Jay P. Kosminsky, a spokesman for Pfizer, said his company "will not be active in lobbying against" the new bills. "Pfizer is supportive of law enforcement efforts to get a handle on the meth issue," Mr. Kosminsky said. Pfizer has also just introduced a new product, Sudafed PE, made with a different chemical, phenylephrine, that cannot be used to make methamphetamine, Mr. Kosminsky said. The original formulation remains on the market.
      Virginia Cox, a vice president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the over-the-counter drug industry, said, "We think there are better alternatives than what was done in Oklahoma, striking a better balance between consumers getting their medicines and keeping these products out of the hands of criminals." The Oklahoma law, and many of the proposed state laws, inconvenience people with colds who do not live near a pharmacy, Ms. Cox said. And because the vast majority of the drug comes from large laboratories that do not rely on over-the-counter cold pills, she said, the proposed laws would do little good.
      In the United States, methamphetamine first gained popularity in California in the 1950's, where it was made by outlaw biker gangs. During the 1990's it gradually spread across the Rockies to rural areas in the Midwest. In the past year it has approached the East Coast in states from Vermont to Florida. Typically, the drug has been used by rural, poor white people, usually in their twenties or older, drug specialists say. Given its strong odor, it is easier to cook in isolated areas.
      That is why the drug experts are alarmed at what is happening in Minneapolis and St. Paul. "There is an unprecedented increase in meth in our metro area that we've never seen before," said Carol Falkowski, director of research communications at the Hazelden Foundation, a drug treatment and research organization in Center City, Minn. Dave Ettesvold, a drug counselor at the Harmony Alternative Learning Center in Maplewood, which educates students with behavioral problems, said he recently surveyed 57 high school students and found that 38 percent said they had used methamphetamine in the past year.
      One student at Harmony, a 17-year-old senior named Ali, said she started using the drug at 13. Soon, she was smoking it, snorting it and even eating it. After several years of this, and stays at inpatient treatment centers followed by relapses, Ali said, she had a complete breakdown. "I didn't even know what I was saying," she said. "I was just crying and crying. I finally realized what I was doing wasn't for me." As for how many other students are using meth, Ali said: "It's like one big circle. There are so many kids using, I couldn't even count."

Michigan Will Post Photos of Sex Offenders Online
Associated Press, 1/30/2005

LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan plans to start posting the photos of convicted sex offenders on the Internet in May, a move some say will keep the public safer but others say is unfair to offenders who are on the list but aren't considered dangerous. Thirty-nine other states already post the photos of convicted sex offenders online. Michigan has been posting the addresses of offenders since 1999, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the photos of convicted offenders also could be publicly released. Michigan now has 36,068 sex offenders on its registry.
      Amber Pollick of Macomb County's Clinton Township lobbied the Michigan Legislature to pass the law that allowed photos to be posted. Pollick was raped by her uncle in Florida when she was 14. Her uncle was allowed to return to Michigan while awaiting an appeal, and officials say other victims came forward during that time. "I knew by doing this is would help prevent someone from going through what I went through," Pollick, 19, told The Detroit News for a Sunday story.
      State Rep. Leon Drolet, R-Clinton Township, said the photos will help neighbors recognize someone who might be dangerous. But they also will prevent confusion between innocent people and sex offenders who have the same name.
      Those on the list who aren't a threat to society say the photos will make their lives worse. Kevin Connelly, 22, who was prosecuted for having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl when he was 18, said its unfair his picture will be posted for 25 years. Connelly is now in college and says he can't consider a career in teaching or social work because he's on the registry. "I think there should be a sex offender list, but not for people like me who had high school romances," Connelly said.
      The state passed laws last year that allow people who aren't considered predators to petition a court to reduce their time on the list to 10 years. Martin Blum, a defense lawyer in Bloomfield Hills, says the change didn't help much. "If the underlying offense that required their registration has been dismissed, then the requirement for them to register as sex offenders should be gone with it," Blum said.
     On the Net:
Michigan sex offender registry, www.mipsor.state.mi.us
Information from: The Detroit News, www.detnews.com

Texas Child Agency Halts Video of Exams
Steve McVicker, Houston Chronicle- 1/30/2005

In an abrupt departure from past policy, the medical staff at Harris County's Children's Assessment Center no longer videotapes sexual assault examinations performed at the agency's clinic, opting instead to photograph a few selected exams. The change follows revelations last year that hundreds of sexual assault examinations by a nurse at the center were possibly flawed. Medical authorities and prosecutors feared that the exams revealed evidence of sexual abuse where there may have been none and that her findings had resulted in wrongful convictions. Those discrepancies now cast a cloud over approximately 300 sexual assault convictions.
      The problems were discovered by pediatricians from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, who operated and staffed the CAC's medical clinic. The doctors reviewed videotapes of more than 800 sexual assault examinations performed by the nurse. Without the videotapes to confirm the doctors' suspicions, the situation may never have been discovered. Nevertheless, although they deny any direct cause-and-effect, CAC officials terminated the center's long-running relationship with UT following the discovery.
      In December, CAC contracted with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital to provide medical services at its state-of-the-art clinic. The change in medical providers ended the CAC's policy of visually documenting all sexual assault examinations conducted at its facility.

Photo evidence sought
The new policy has alarmed child health care officials, as well as defense lawyers and prosecutors. The Harris County District Attorney's Office has drafted legislation that would force the local CAC to resume photo documentation of most sexual exams conducted at the agency's clinic. ''We want to make sure that all the evidence is correct," said Assistant District Attorney Denise Oncken. ''If we have (photo documentation), then everybody can check everybody's work."
      The change also caught other child advocates off-guard. ''I would have to say that it does surprise me very much," said Dr. James Lukefahr, the director of The Advocacy Center for Children of Galveston County, which documents all its sexual assault examinations. ''My expectation would be that a major center like the Harris County Children's Assessment Center, would ordinarily be expected to (photo) document all of their exams," said Lukefahr, who also serves on the executive board of the Texas Pediatric Society and heads the pediatrics division of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "Some (centers) are encouraged not to photograph because, if there are photographs, defense attorneys can get expert witnesses to look at (them), and there can be disagreement in court," said Dr. Nancy Kellogg, the medical director of the Alamo Children's Advocacy Center. ''Well, this is about justice. This is about getting it right. So photographs have to be considered a standard of care." Kellogg, an associate professor of pediatrics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said the proposed legislation on photo documentation should apply to all of Texas.

Statewide protection
The child sexual assault photo documentation bill was filed last week. Oncken, the driving force behind the bill, says she supports the idea of making photo documentation mandatory not just in Harris County but statewide. ''But obviously we want the legislation to go through so that our jurisdiction is protected," Oncken said. ''That's our primary concern."
      Founded in 1991 by Harris County, the nonprofit Children's Assessment Center works with 17 local agencies to examine and counsel abused children. The evidence is then turned over to police and prosecutors.
      When the CAC ended its relationship with UT after the school's pediatricians discovered problems with the nurse's reports, it contracted with Baylor College of Medicine. According to CAC Executive Director Elaine Stolte, at no time during the negotiations with Baylor did they discuss whether to visually document the exams. Instead, Stolte said, the CAC informed Baylor about the video-examination equipment available at its clinic. No one discussed how often, or under what circumstances, the CAC's state-of-the-art equipment would be used, she said.

Protocols necessary
Kellogg said the issue is crucial to a well-run children's assessment center. ''All (children's) advocacy centers are required to have protocols in place for every department under their roof. And (medical services) are a protocol item. So it would be important to establish the protocol before a new provider comes in," Kellogg said.
      However, in the opinion of the CAC's new medical chief, photo documentation of sexual assault examinations is overrated. "Looking at a child and looking at a video are very different, and you may come up with different conclusions," said Dr. Joan Shook of Texas Children's Hospital. Shook reported that in December 73 sexual assault examinations were conducted at the CAC but could not say how many of those were documented with photos. No figures for January were available. The CAC's Stolte says she has no position on the legislation that would require photo documentation, although the bill is directed specifically at her agency.
      There are 58 facilities in the state that operate under the umbrella of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas. Not all of them were created equally, at least when it comes to funding and equipment. For example, the Harris County center has three colposcopes — a medical device that photographically magnifies images during sexual assault examinations — which range in price from $8,000 to $25,000. Two-thirds of the other centers have no on-site medical components. Kellogg said centers with their own medical clinics don't need such high-tech equipment to provide the photo documentation needed for peer review of sexual assault examinations. ''Videotape is best, but it takes up a tremendous amount of (computer) memory," Kellogg said. ''But if photographs are good quality, they can suffice."

Reviewing evidence
Kellogg said she regularly reviews examination photographs sent to her via computer from several child-advocacy centers that don't have personnel qualified to make their own diagnosis. Oncken also said the child-abuse division of the District Attorney's Office has completed its review of the videos of the 800-plus sexual assault examinations performed by former CAC nurse Ellen Taft. The inspection produced questions in close to 300 criminal cases. Attorneys for the defendants in those cases have been notified by mail, she said.
      Some local attorneys who have represented defendants charged with sex crimes have complained that they were never informed of the videotapes of the CAC examinations. Oncken, however, insisted the information was always in case files. ''Many attorneys did discover those tapes," she said. As for the others? ''It's not our job to hold their hand," she said.

Center Facts
• Budget: At $6.6 million, Harris County's Children's Assessment Center has the largest budget of any advocacy center in Texas — three times that of the next-best-funded agency, the Dallas County CAC.
• Workload: On average, the Harris County CAC treats 300 children monthly — twice the number handled by the Dallas center. (Figure includes victims, siblings and witnesses.)
• Clinics: Only 16 of the 58 child-advocacy centers in Texas have on-site medical clinics.
• History: Founded in 1990, the Bridge Children's Advocacy Center in Amarillo is the oldest such facility in Texas.
• Get in touch: To contact the Harris County CAC, call 713-986-3300 or visit www.cachouston.org. The facility is at 2500 Bolsover in the Rice Village area.