Saturday, February 26, 2005
TAC Newsletter 2/25/05
ENEWS - TREATMENT ADVOCACY CENTER
TREATMENT ADVOCACY CENTER
Visit our web site www.psychlaws.org
February 25, 2005
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1. MAN ACCUSED OF CAUSING FATAL TRAIN CRASH PLEADS NOT GUILTY - Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2005
2. MENTALLY ILL NOT MORE VIOLENT UNLESS THEY USE DRUGS, ALCOHOL - Muncie Star Press, January 1, 2005
3. A DANGER ON THE STREETS - Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2005
4. VIOLENT END FOR MAN WHO SAW ANGELS - The Vancouver Columbian, December 29, 2004
5. A VARIETY OF PROBLEMS CROP UP AT THE MISSION - Herdersonville Times News, February 13, 2005
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LOS ANGELES TIMES, February 16, 2005
[Editor's Note: The stories below are filled with Red Flags missed or ignored - signs that the symptomatic condition of a person with a mental illness has placed him or others at risk. Two such warnings concerning Juan Alverez:
"Juan Alvarez repeatedly refused to see a doctor. Carmelita Alvarez said she eventually requested a judge's order against her husband last year because he was mentally unstable and she didn't want him near their two children, ages 3 and 7."
"His behavior became so strange [his family] called police twice. Each time, police did nothing because Alvarez didn't seem to pose an imminent threat to himself or to others, the relatives said."]
MAN ACCUSED OF CAUSING FATAL TRAIN CRASH PLEADS NOT GUILTY;
Attorney For The Suspect In Metrolink Derailment That Killed 11, Hurt 180 Says The Case Is About Justice, Not Vengeance.
By Caitlin Liu, Times Staff Writer
Juan Manuel Alvarez, the construction worker whose suicide attempt last month allegedly caused a fiery Metrolink crash and killed 11 people, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and arson.
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty against him. Alvarez, 25, allegedly parked his Jeep Grand Cherokee on railroad tracks in Glendale on Jan. 26, hoping that a train would kill him, but he ran away when he changed his mind.
"The train, the car, actually some of the victims were burned," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pat Dixon, explaining the arson charge that prosecutors added Tuesday after scientists corroborated evidence from the scene.
Alvarez's attorney, Eric Case, said the defendant tried to set himself on fire shortly before the crash and remains on suicide watch in jail.
"He expressed a great deal of remorse and sorrow for the damages caused by his actions," Case said.
The attorney cautioned the public against a "lynch mob mentality."
"When something like this happens and a large number of people are injured . we rise up as a society and we want an eye for an eye, but that's not what America is all about," Case said. "This case is going to be about whether we're a society dedicated to vengeance or a society dedicated to justice. What will be the justice for Juan Alvarez?"
In an interview foreshadowing strategies for the defense, Case said Alvarez suffers from an undiagnosed mental illness, possibly schizophrenia.
"I'm not sure this case will end up going to trial," Case said. "It is not a matter of whether he did it or not. This case is not a whodunit."
Alvarez admits driving onto the tracks and then leaving his SUV behind, Case said. The question is his culpability, the lawyer said.
In an interview inside Case's Studio City law office Tuesday, members of Alvarez's family said he had shown signs of mental illness since he was a boy.
The first time he tried to kill himself - as far as his family could tell - he was 9. He stood in the middle of a street, hoping a bus would hit him. But his grandmother whisked him away. Later, the boy began complaining that an "evil ghost" named Arid lived in his bedroom, said his cousin, Beto Alvarez.
As an adult, Juan Alvarez fell into a depression about a year ago, after a wrist injury made him unable to find work in construction and provide for his family, said his estranged wife, Carmelita.
He underwent surgery that left a metal pin in his wrist. But when removal of the pin was delayed because of insurance problems, he yanked it out himself, Carmelita Alvarez said.
Last year, she caught him using drugs at their Compton home, and he began to hallucinate and show paranoia.
"Out the blue, he would say, 'Why are people following me?' " Beto Alvarez recalled.
Juan Alvarez repeatedly refused to see a doctor. Carmelita Alvarez said she eventually requested a judge's order against her husband last year because he was mentally unstable and she didn't want him near their two children, ages 3 and 7.
Still, she said, she would be willing to reconcile with him if he "got help." The children don't know what really happened to their father, she said. When they ask, she tells them he's at work or so ill that he's in a hospital.
After the couple separated, Juan Alvarez moved in with relatives in Monterey Park. But his behavior became so strange they called police twice. Each time, police did nothing because Alvarez didn't seem to pose an imminent threat to himself or to others, the relatives said.
A few days before the Metrolink crash, Beto Alvarez lined up a construction job in Pasadena for Juan Alvarez, who was living in the Glendale area.
The night before, Juan Alvarez called Beto Alvarez, asking about his family, and then said he had to get off the phone because he had to work the next day.
On the morning of Jan. 26, Juan Alvarez left for his Pasadena construction the job but returned home to retrieve some tools, Beto Alvarez said his cousin later told him from jail. When Juan Alvarez drove onto the Glendale tracks, he was on his way to work.
Later that same day, Alvarez left his cousin a cellphone message. "He said he loved his wife and his children," Beto Alvarez said.
" 'A lot of innocent people got hurt,' " he said, quoting his cousin's message. " 'I don't know how this happened. Please pray for me. I don't deserve to live.' "
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MUNCIE STAR PRESS (IN), January 1, 2005
[Editor's Note: After years of consistent psychiatric treatment for paranoid schizophrenia, the precarious situation in which Ronald Hatfield was placed on release from prison:
"When he got out, he had nothing.The only thing they did for him was set up an appointment with Comprehensive Mental Health Services. That was like a pre-appointment. He didn't see a doctor or anything until three or four weeks later."]
MENTALLY ILL NOT MORE VIOLENT UNLESS THEY USE DRUGS, ALCOHOL
By Seth Slabaugh
MUNCIE - Ronald Hatfield began drinking beer to cope with mental illness after his anti-psychotic medicine was taken away from him, according to relatives.
That was a dangerous idea, psychiatrists say.
Last month, Hatfield - a 45-year-old convicted bandit who had spent 17 years in prison before being released last summer - allegedly shot and killed Ricker's convenience-store clerk Carolyn Goodwin during a robbery.
While police Chief Joe Winkle has called the murder of Goodwin an evil, unprovoked attack, relatives of Hatfield are offering an alternative explanation for the slaying.
For the last 12 years of his prison term, Hatfield was being treated with seven medications for illness including paranoid schizophrenia, his mother and other kin say.
"In prison, Ronnie was on Haldol, Trileptal and other medicine," said his sister, Deborah Mackey, a licensed practical nurse with whom Hatfield lived since August, when he was paroled.
Mackey's house is just 2 1/2 blocks from the convenience store where Hatfield allegedly killed the 59-year-old Goodwin, a shy, petite person devoted to caring for her ailing mother.
"When he got out, he had nothing," Mackey said. "The only thing they did for him was set up an appointment with Comprehensive Mental Health Services. That was like a pre-appointment. He didn't see a doctor or anything until three or four weeks later. When he did see a doctor, they tried to give him samples of medicine like Lexapro (an anti-depressant), which wasn't doing anything."
Eventually, said Mackey, "they did call him in all those prescriptions he had been on in prison, but he had no money to go get them, and we couldn't afford to buy it for him, either." She said: "Before they released him, they said they would have his disability and Medicaid set up so he would not have to worry about money and getting his medication. But then they denied his disability and never made a ruling on his Medicaid."
Hatfield was paroled in August after serving 17 years in prison for armed robbery of a liquor store, assaulting police, and weapons offenses.
During the two months before Hatfield allegedly shot Goodwin, his behavior changed, Mackey said. He couldn't sleep, and he began "talking crazy, like he was going to go get a gun and shoot the cops who put him in jail," she said.
"He spent the last couple of months drinking a lot," Mackey said. "I figured he might get in a bar fight."
Haldol is a fairly potent anti-psychotic medication, according to Philip Coons, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Trileptal is an anti-seizure medication also used to treat psychoses.
"For people who are schizophrenic or bipolar, the chances of acting out violently aren't any more probable than somebody in the general population," Coons said. "However, if you are schizophrenic or bipolar and you also abuse alcohol or drugs, the probability of violence is higher."
On the advice of Delaware County Prosecutor Richard Reed, Muncie police have stopped commenting on their investigation of the robbery-homicide. Reed also declined comment when asked about suspicions from Hatfield's relatives that he was "on something" at the time of the Ricker's robbery. Hatfield is also a suspect in the armed robbery of a Village Pantry 17 hours before the Ricker's holdup.
According to Paul Appelbaum, chair of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, when a patient stops taking medication like Haldol, over time there may be a relapse of the patient's condition and a return of his psychotic symptoms.
However, that doesn't turn the person into a ticking time bomb ready to explode in violence, Appelbaum says.
The largest study ever done on the subject, he says, showed that people with mental illness who do not abuse substances are no more likely than their non-mentally ill neighbors to be violent.
Even paranoid thoughts and most hallucinatory commands are not linked to violence, Appelbaum says.
"But rates of violence increase in mentally ill and non-mentally ill people when substances are abused, including alcohol," he said in an interview. "And they increase more among people with mental disorders. There seems to be some sort of interaction between the disorder and the alcohol or other substance that increases the rate of violence."
Stephen Marder, a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said: "It's hard to understand why someone with a clear record of diagnosis of schizophrenia who's stable on anti-psychotic medication and with a violent history, it's hard to understand why the medicine would be stopped, but I don't know anything about those circumstances."
Hatfield's mother, sister and other relatives believe Goodwin would be alive today if he had continued to take anti-psychotic medicine after his release from prison. They are seeking an investigation of the Indiana Department of Correction, including its parole services division - not to excuse Hatfield's alleged crime but to prevent something similar from happening to someone else. Some of the relatives say if Hatfield's parole officer had been doing her job, Hatfield would have been sent back to prison for substance abuse.
DOC official Pam Pattison has said the agency can't discuss Hatfield's medical condition or medical records while he was in prison or on parole without his written permission.
In a recent e-mail message to The Star Press, Hatfield's mother, Joann Forgason, wrote: "Ronnie called last night and said they had finally given him three or four of his meds. He sounded like the old Ronnie. I told him he needed to sign a release so his medical records could be seen and he said no problem."
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE, January 4, 2005
[Editor's Note: Unambiguous evidence that Donald Cook needs and has long needed sustained and intensive treatment:
"Since 1990, the 47-year-old Chicago man, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has been charged with attacking 14 people."
"Cook has been arrested 29 times, mostly for battery, trespass and disorderly conduct."]
A DANGER ON THE STREETS
Editorial
Does Donald Cook have to kill somebody to get taken off the streets? It certainly looks that way. Since 1990, the 47-year-old Chicago man, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has been charged with attacking 14 people. Four of those alleged attacks occurred just in the last year. Yet, over and over, he's been allowed to remain at large, exasperating the people who say he victimized them and creating a hazard to anyone unlucky enough to cross his path.
His case is a vivid illustration of the need for a more comprehensive and vigorous approach to low-level repeat violent offenders, and to potentially dangerous mentally ill patients who persistently fail to take their medication.
As Tribune reporter Carlos Sadovi recently documented, this is a chronicle of failures on the part of the people who are supposed to protect the public. Cook has been arrested 29 times, mostly for battery, trespass and disorderly conduct, and in 2004, he spent 33 days in Cook County Jail. On two occasions, he was convicted. But charges have repeatedly been dropped after he failed to appear in court.
In such instances, prosecutors are free to have him rearrested so he can face justice--but that has yet to happen. He has also been institutionalized at least 17 times and treated with medication, only to stop taking it upon his release.
One of his victims, Diane Vonneedo, was directing traffic on Aug. 11, 1998, when he approached her and punched her in the face, smashing the bone around her eye and endangering her eyesight. But he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She occasionally sees him even now and radios her colleagues when he's headed in their direction. "I know when he takes his medication," she told Sadovi. "When he doesn't, he has that death stare."
In 2001, Cook, wearing a Superman costume, groped a woman. At that point, a Cook County psychologist evaluated him and concluded that he should not be allowed on the streets, noting that he was "delusional" and "irritable" and that the "defendant is considered a danger to others and subject to involuntary admission in a secure psychiatric facility."
There are three obvious ways to remove the danger Cook presents. The first, and most desirable, is for him to get adequate care to make sure he takes his medication and learns to function in society. The second is for him to be involuntarily committed and treated, which is unlikely due to the shortage of space in mental institutions. The third is for prosecutors to devote the time and energy needed to hold him responsible for the crimes he's charged with and to do what they can to keep him behind bars.
Offenders like Cook tend to fall through the cracks of the criminal justice system because their crimes, though violent, are comparatively minor. So going to a lot of trouble to put him in jail may seem like an unwise use of public resources.
But it's hard to escape the suspicion that, sooner or later, Cook is going to get locked up for a long time. The question is: Will it be before he commits a truly awful crime--or after?
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THE VANCOUVER COLUMBIAN (WA), December 29, 2004
[Editor's Note: And Michael Colvin's well-established need for care as well as the numerous opportunities to provide it:
"My approach was to tell the jury, 'Michael is mentally ill, but he isn't dangerous, and he does have a plan,' she said. She prevailed at trial. Colvin was released on Nov. 22, 2003."
"Michael Colvin lived at Skamania Cove Resort for about five months. The sheriff's office was aware of his mental illness as a result of three contacts with him before the Nov. 12 shooting."]
VIOLENT END FOR MAN WHO SAW ANGELS;
Colvin Shooting Highlights Problems With Justice System
On Nov. 5, a week before the shooting, Colvin called 911 and told the dispatcher he had killed someone several months earlier. A sheriff's deputy took him into custody but released him after a mental health evaluation.
By Kathie Durbin of The Columbian
USA - Michael E. Colvin's odyssey through the criminal justice system began in California's Humboldt County, where in 1998 he stole a sandwich from another jail inmate and struck a guard.
It ended in November at a Stevenson-area trailer park, after he attacked two neighbors without apparent provocation and was shot and killed by a Skamania County sheriff's deputy after brandishing a knife.
In between, Colvin spent a year in California's Folsom State Prison and three years at Atascadero State Hospital, a secure facility for the criminally insane. He was released in late 2003. His uncle, aunt and half-brother, who live in Carson, took him in when no one else would.
Colvin was 40 when he died. He was a big man who stood 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 270 pounds. He was also a paranoid schizophrenic, a mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations and flashes of anger that can escalate to violence.
When he wasn't taking his medication, he saw angels.
Last summer, his relatives moved him into a trailer house at Skamania Cove Resort with a sweeping view of the Columbia River. There he had a taste of freedom after four years behind bars. He swam in the Columbia River and listened to music. His neighbors brought him plates of food. They knew he wasn't quite right in the head. But until the night of Nov. 12, they didn't consider him dangerous.
"He was a really good friend," said Jeffrey Vandermoss, who lived next door to Colvin. "I also worried about him. I don't think he should have been there. He'd make people a little on edge. He'd say, 'There are too many of those darn angels around.'"
Colvin's troubled life and violent death are all too common in the world of the severely mentally ill, experts say. The criminal justice system is poorly equipped to deal with their condition. Most police officers aren't trained to handle crises involving the mentally ill. Most jails aren't staffed to deal with them. Prisons and hospitals for the criminally insane remove them from society, but the court system, with prosecutors on one side and defense lawyers on the other, doesn't always consider what's in their best interest. And support services often aren't available when they are released.
Even when treatment is available, the severely mentally ill people like Michael Colvin may resist it and self-medicate with drugs or alcohol instead.
"If someone is severely mentally ill, just getting them to go to an appointment is difficult," said Mike Piper, director of the Clark County Department of Community Services.
A recent spate of violent incidents involving the mentally ill has drawn attention to the problem. On Dec. 23, 41-year-old Michael Egan was shot and killed by a man he slapped outside the downtown Portland Meier & Frank department store. Police had recently tried to have Egan committed to a hospital because of his mental illness.
On Nov. 26, Shane Cole, previously diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, allegedly stabbed a neighbor to death with a kitchen knife without provocation in downtown Vancouver. His relatives said they had tried without success to get him into a residential treatment program.
Similar factors played out in Michael Colvin's life.
David Colvin, his half-brother, said Michael had visited a mental health clinic in Stevenson a few times and was taking a prescription drug to control his schizophrenia. But he said Michael took the drug only "off and on." He also managed to buy beer despite the family's attempts to keep him away from alcohol.
"He'd take the meds when I told him to take them," David Colvin said. "It was hard. He was scared. He'd have really good days when you could hardly even tell. He'd have other days when he would hear voices and have problems."
A Stolen Sandwich
Colvin's schizophrenia was diagnosed when he was a teenager. He lived for a time in Garberville, on California's north coast, and worked in the woods. Beginning in the late 1980s he was arrested a number of times for driving offenses. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, according to Blair Angus, an attorney for the Humboldt County public defender. Angus represented Colvin in court proceedings that won his release from a state mental hospital in 2003.
"The alleged incident occurred because Michael took a sandwich from a fellow inmate," Angus said. "He wanted to eat the sandwich. He was hungry. It was alleged he was surrounded by some number of corrections officers. He felt threatened. It was alleged he punched one of the officers."
Colvin pleaded guilty to battery of a custodial officer, a felony, in March 1999. He spent a year at Folsom State Prison. Then, in November 2000, he was committed to Atascadero State Prison for three years.
In October 2003 he was returned to the jurisdiction of Humboldt County Superior Court. But District Attorney Paul Gallegos petitioned the court to extend his commitment. He cited an assessment that Colvin's "severe mental disorder is not or cannot be kept in remission" if he did not remain in treatment. He said Colvin represented "a substantial danger of physical harm to others."
Angus argued against his continued incarceration. In an interview, she said she never feared Colvin and was so confident of his ability to defend himself that she asked for a jury trial and called him to testify on his own behalf. The public defender's office bought him shoes to wear for his court appearance.
"My approach was to tell the jury, 'Michael is mentally ill, but he isn't dangerous, and he does have a plan," she said. She prevailed at trial. Colvin was released on Nov. 22, 2003.
Angus said she tried to arrange housing and mental health counseling for her client but could not compel him to get treatment once he was out of the criminal justice system.
"I certainly extended myself on his behalf," she said. "He made his choice."
David Colvin said he had expected Michael would be released to a halfway house. "But they just cut him loose in Humboldt County with no money. All he had was the clothes on his back. He got on a bus and came to Carson."
Relatives Try To Help
In Skamania County, Michael Colvin's relatives tried to provide him with support. "I used to take him grocery shopping," David Colvin said. "I took him to a psychiatrist at a mental health clinic. My aunt and uncle and I would all go by and check on him. We got him the trailer. He was paying us a little every month."
Michael Colvin lived at Skamania Cove Resort for about five months. The sheriff's office was aware of his mental illness as a result of three contacts with him before the Nov. 12 shooting.
On July 13, he called 911 from a pay phone in Stevenson, said he was in danger and asked for a patrol car. That call was logged as a "mental subject."
On Aug. 25, at 1 p.m., his aunt, Alene Bush, reported him missing. According to a police report, she told a dispatcher that he "is schizophrenic and sees angels and things. He is currently not on any medication." She told the dispatcher that the family had been "going through all the channels to get him to see mental health."
At 9 p.m. that day, Luci Ann Vandermoss of Carson called to report that Michael Colvin had stolen her ex-husband Jeffrey's 1981 Chevrolet Blazer. Colvin ran out of gas in Portland. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office arrested him and recovered the Blazer the following day.
Jeffrey Vandermoss was Colvin's next-door neighbor. They knew each other well. He said Colvin knew the Blazer was leaking oil when he took it without permission. "I think he took it with the intent of going home" to Humboldt County, he said. He added that he bore his neighbor no grudge.
Skamania County Prosecuting Attorney Peter Banks charged Colvin with taking a motor vehicle without permission. He was awaiting trial on the charge at the time of his death.
On Nov. 5, a week before the shooting, Colvin called 911 and told the dispatcher he had killed someone several months earlier. A sheriff's deputy took him into custody but released him after a mental health evaluation. "He wanted help," his uncle, Dean Bush, said. "He needed to take his medication."
On Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m., Don Atkins, who lived two trailers down from Colvin, called 911 to report that Colvin had slugged him in the face and had beaten up his 22-year-old son, Van, who is deaf.
In an interview at his Skamania Cove trailer house, Atkins recounted the events of that evening. He said Van left to take a shower. Almost immediately, he heard him screaming and stepped outside to see what was going on. "Michael had him down on the ground with a knife," Atkins said. "He was slugging him. I was yelling at him. Then he came after me. He slugged me with both fists. He hit me in the head so hard, I saw stars."
Atkins said he had been on good terms with his neighbor and had never seen that side of him. "I fixed him a plate of food every night. He seemed appreciative."
But that evening, he said, Colvin's eyes were glazed over. He seemed possessed by anger.
Sheriff's Deputy Tim Converse and Reserve Officer Chris Fassel responded to the Atkins' 911 call. Atkins said the officers pleaded with Colvin to drop the knife, but he refused.
"I told him, 'Michael, you need to go in your trailer.' (Michael) said, 'I'm killing them and I'm killing you.' I was dumbfounded, because Michael did not put the knife down."
Converse shot twice, Atkins said. Colvin died at the scene.
It's not known whether Converse was aware of Colvin's mental illness. He was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Regional Major Crimes Team but returned to patrol duties in mid-December.
The investigation was completed in early December. But Prosecuting Attorney Banks has not released the investigative report pending a final medical examiner's report. According to Undersheriff Dave Cox, a delay in getting a toxicology report back from the state medical lab has delayed its release.
New Medications
Alene Bush said she heard a call for emergency medical assistance at Skamania Cove on her police scanner that evening and called dispatchers to find out whether Michael was involved. No one returned her call.
"I was with Michael that day," she said. "I took him grocery shopping. I told him he had $60 to spend. He was in the best mood. I told him to clean up his trailer. When I left, I said, 'I love you,' and he said, 'I love you, Aunt Al.'"
Michael was on a new medication, and she wonders whether it triggered the attack. "I never saw that side of Michael, she said. "I never saw him violent."
It's also possible that Colvin had been drinking. Atkins said he had seen him carrying beer to his trailer the day before he died, though his relatives had asked residents of the trailer court not to buy him beer.
Dean Bush said he had plans for his nephew. "I had him working on my property. He wasn't retarded. He could do a lot of things."
Family members would like some answers. "I don't want to blame anyone," Alene Bush said. "Maybe Michael was wrong. But it seems like there could have been a better way."
Katherine Plowman of Ashland, Ore., Colvin's former aunt by marriage, said she had felt close to him since she took care of him when he was a child.
"I'm not saying the officer didn't feel afraid," she said. "He may have walked into this blind. But why did they have to kill him?"
Atkins, the neighbor who called police, defended the shooting. "The police were not wrong," he said. "If you have someone charging you with a knife and all you have is a gun, that's what you use. Sure, it would have been nice if they had been able to get the knife away from him. It would have been nice if they could have subdued him some other way."
The Skamania County Sheriff's Office has no Tasers less-lethal weapons that incapacitate suspects using an electrical shock. On Nov. 29, Chief Criminal Deputy Pat Bond asked the Skamania County Board of Commissioners for permission to apply for a $6,500 state grant to buy five Tasers and a training video.
Undersheriff Cox said the grant application had been in the works for two years and was not related to the shooting, adding, "If you can utilize some other form of deterrent to de-escalate a situation, you're going to do that."
Blair Angus, Colvin's attorney, said society has yet to deal with the challenges posed by the Michael Colvins of the world.
"He was lucky. He had people who were trying to do something. But for a mentally ill person to accept treatment is difficult. It takes intensive outreach. It takes money. At this point, we are putting that money into the criminal justice system."
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HERDERSONVILLE TIMES NEWS (NC), February 13, 2005
[Editor's Note: Red flags abound at the Hendersonville Rescue Mission.]
A VARIETY OF PROBLEMS CROP UP AT THE MISSION
Editor's note: The following is a description written by Hendersonville Rescue Mission Program Director Tim Jones of mission residents last summer. The mental health reform, rescue mission officials say, has dumped more homeless people needing psychiatric help into shelters.
Currently on the night of July 22, 2004, 11 of the 25 male residents who stayed here were on medication for mental illness related problems. Four of the 25 male residents had a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Recent examples of the problem include: The paranoid male resident who thought the police followed him around all day in an airplane watching him. He has a volatile temper. The male resident who had visions of Satan talking to him and sexualized images of the "bride of Christ." He also imagined bugs were constantly crawling on him and spreading throughout the dormitory. He has a violent temper. The male resident who was so disoriented that he took a shower with his shirt on. The male resident who single-handedly solved the Cuban Missile Crisis with the direct approval of the president and also went on many other "top secret missions." The male resident who thought there was a "hired killer" in the dormitory and ran out into the recreation room to escape in his underwear. He was terrified to even go back into the dorm to get his belongings. He also had fits of uncontrollable crying. The male resident who was convinced Satan lived with him and followed him around the streets during the day. The male resident who is convinced that the streets of Hendersonville are soon going to be overflowing with dangerous Iraqi women and children who are being given passports to America to escape the fighting. The male resident who went around making threats to everyone in the third person as he was speaking to an invisible person. The male resident who lost his volatile temper after the suggestion that he needed to resume his medications that God told him to stop taking. The male resident who got up in the middle of the night, stripped naked and started going through everyone's belongings and then went outside and stripped again and started chewing on broken glass. The male resident who is so paranoid that he thinks everyone walking up beside him is about to attack him. The male resident who could not carry on a conversation with staff because of all the voices speaking to him -- staff members were simply interrupting the voices and were very difficult to pay attention to. The male resident who thought he was the victim of a corporate conspiracy by Advance Auto Parts. Many of our male residents believe themselves to be the victim of large conspiracies. The female resident who has attempted suicide before and runs away from the mission and her job any time she thinks someone does not like her. This last time she threatened to get a gun and come back and take care of the person she had a disagreement with. The female resident who keeps 'transforming' into a man and cussing and screaming in a male voice and then going out and jumping the fence. She also says two other women live inside her. The female resident who keeps being chased and abused by people she does not know or cannot even describe. The female resident who was afraid of leaving her car during the day. The female resident who got up in the middle of the night, stripped naked and began rubbing on other female residents. The female resident who hears voices from God and then loses her temper over nothing and does "bad things." The child resident who became so agitated and violent with his mother that the police had to have him removed to take him to the hospital to have his medications adjusted.
These are only recent examples. There are also many, many borderline cases.
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February 25, 2005
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1. MAN ACCUSED OF CAUSING FATAL TRAIN CRASH PLEADS NOT GUILTY - Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2005
2. MENTALLY ILL NOT MORE VIOLENT UNLESS THEY USE DRUGS, ALCOHOL - Muncie Star Press, January 1, 2005
3. A DANGER ON THE STREETS - Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2005
4. VIOLENT END FOR MAN WHO SAW ANGELS - The Vancouver Columbian, December 29, 2004
5. A VARIETY OF PROBLEMS CROP UP AT THE MISSION - Herdersonville Times News, February 13, 2005
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LOS ANGELES TIMES, February 16, 2005
[Editor's Note: The stories below are filled with Red Flags missed or ignored - signs that the symptomatic condition of a person with a mental illness has placed him or others at risk. Two such warnings concerning Juan Alverez:
"Juan Alvarez repeatedly refused to see a doctor. Carmelita Alvarez said she eventually requested a judge's order against her husband last year because he was mentally unstable and she didn't want him near their two children, ages 3 and 7."
"His behavior became so strange [his family] called police twice. Each time, police did nothing because Alvarez didn't seem to pose an imminent threat to himself or to others, the relatives said."]
MAN ACCUSED OF CAUSING FATAL TRAIN CRASH PLEADS NOT GUILTY;
Attorney For The Suspect In Metrolink Derailment That Killed 11, Hurt 180 Says The Case Is About Justice, Not Vengeance.
By Caitlin Liu, Times Staff Writer
Juan Manuel Alvarez, the construction worker whose suicide attempt last month allegedly caused a fiery Metrolink crash and killed 11 people, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and arson.
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty against him. Alvarez, 25, allegedly parked his Jeep Grand Cherokee on railroad tracks in Glendale on Jan. 26, hoping that a train would kill him, but he ran away when he changed his mind.
"The train, the car, actually some of the victims were burned," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pat Dixon, explaining the arson charge that prosecutors added Tuesday after scientists corroborated evidence from the scene.
Alvarez's attorney, Eric Case, said the defendant tried to set himself on fire shortly before the crash and remains on suicide watch in jail.
"He expressed a great deal of remorse and sorrow for the damages caused by his actions," Case said.
The attorney cautioned the public against a "lynch mob mentality."
"When something like this happens and a large number of people are injured . we rise up as a society and we want an eye for an eye, but that's not what America is all about," Case said. "This case is going to be about whether we're a society dedicated to vengeance or a society dedicated to justice. What will be the justice for Juan Alvarez?"
In an interview foreshadowing strategies for the defense, Case said Alvarez suffers from an undiagnosed mental illness, possibly schizophrenia.
"I'm not sure this case will end up going to trial," Case said. "It is not a matter of whether he did it or not. This case is not a whodunit."
Alvarez admits driving onto the tracks and then leaving his SUV behind, Case said. The question is his culpability, the lawyer said.
In an interview inside Case's Studio City law office Tuesday, members of Alvarez's family said he had shown signs of mental illness since he was a boy.
The first time he tried to kill himself - as far as his family could tell - he was 9. He stood in the middle of a street, hoping a bus would hit him. But his grandmother whisked him away. Later, the boy began complaining that an "evil ghost" named Arid lived in his bedroom, said his cousin, Beto Alvarez.
As an adult, Juan Alvarez fell into a depression about a year ago, after a wrist injury made him unable to find work in construction and provide for his family, said his estranged wife, Carmelita.
He underwent surgery that left a metal pin in his wrist. But when removal of the pin was delayed because of insurance problems, he yanked it out himself, Carmelita Alvarez said.
Last year, she caught him using drugs at their Compton home, and he began to hallucinate and show paranoia.
"Out the blue, he would say, 'Why are people following me?' " Beto Alvarez recalled.
Juan Alvarez repeatedly refused to see a doctor. Carmelita Alvarez said she eventually requested a judge's order against her husband last year because he was mentally unstable and she didn't want him near their two children, ages 3 and 7.
Still, she said, she would be willing to reconcile with him if he "got help." The children don't know what really happened to their father, she said. When they ask, she tells them he's at work or so ill that he's in a hospital.
After the couple separated, Juan Alvarez moved in with relatives in Monterey Park. But his behavior became so strange they called police twice. Each time, police did nothing because Alvarez didn't seem to pose an imminent threat to himself or to others, the relatives said.
A few days before the Metrolink crash, Beto Alvarez lined up a construction job in Pasadena for Juan Alvarez, who was living in the Glendale area.
The night before, Juan Alvarez called Beto Alvarez, asking about his family, and then said he had to get off the phone because he had to work the next day.
On the morning of Jan. 26, Juan Alvarez left for his Pasadena construction the job but returned home to retrieve some tools, Beto Alvarez said his cousin later told him from jail. When Juan Alvarez drove onto the Glendale tracks, he was on his way to work.
Later that same day, Alvarez left his cousin a cellphone message. "He said he loved his wife and his children," Beto Alvarez said.
" 'A lot of innocent people got hurt,' " he said, quoting his cousin's message. " 'I don't know how this happened. Please pray for me. I don't deserve to live.' "
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MUNCIE STAR PRESS (IN), January 1, 2005
[Editor's Note: After years of consistent psychiatric treatment for paranoid schizophrenia, the precarious situation in which Ronald Hatfield was placed on release from prison:
"When he got out, he had nothing.The only thing they did for him was set up an appointment with Comprehensive Mental Health Services. That was like a pre-appointment. He didn't see a doctor or anything until three or four weeks later."]
MENTALLY ILL NOT MORE VIOLENT UNLESS THEY USE DRUGS, ALCOHOL
By Seth Slabaugh
MUNCIE - Ronald Hatfield began drinking beer to cope with mental illness after his anti-psychotic medicine was taken away from him, according to relatives.
That was a dangerous idea, psychiatrists say.
Last month, Hatfield - a 45-year-old convicted bandit who had spent 17 years in prison before being released last summer - allegedly shot and killed Ricker's convenience-store clerk Carolyn Goodwin during a robbery.
While police Chief Joe Winkle has called the murder of Goodwin an evil, unprovoked attack, relatives of Hatfield are offering an alternative explanation for the slaying.
For the last 12 years of his prison term, Hatfield was being treated with seven medications for illness including paranoid schizophrenia, his mother and other kin say.
"In prison, Ronnie was on Haldol, Trileptal and other medicine," said his sister, Deborah Mackey, a licensed practical nurse with whom Hatfield lived since August, when he was paroled.
Mackey's house is just 2 1/2 blocks from the convenience store where Hatfield allegedly killed the 59-year-old Goodwin, a shy, petite person devoted to caring for her ailing mother.
"When he got out, he had nothing," Mackey said. "The only thing they did for him was set up an appointment with Comprehensive Mental Health Services. That was like a pre-appointment. He didn't see a doctor or anything until three or four weeks later. When he did see a doctor, they tried to give him samples of medicine like Lexapro (an anti-depressant), which wasn't doing anything."
Eventually, said Mackey, "they did call him in all those prescriptions he had been on in prison, but he had no money to go get them, and we couldn't afford to buy it for him, either." She said: "Before they released him, they said they would have his disability and Medicaid set up so he would not have to worry about money and getting his medication. But then they denied his disability and never made a ruling on his Medicaid."
Hatfield was paroled in August after serving 17 years in prison for armed robbery of a liquor store, assaulting police, and weapons offenses.
During the two months before Hatfield allegedly shot Goodwin, his behavior changed, Mackey said. He couldn't sleep, and he began "talking crazy, like he was going to go get a gun and shoot the cops who put him in jail," she said.
"He spent the last couple of months drinking a lot," Mackey said. "I figured he might get in a bar fight."
Haldol is a fairly potent anti-psychotic medication, according to Philip Coons, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Trileptal is an anti-seizure medication also used to treat psychoses.
"For people who are schizophrenic or bipolar, the chances of acting out violently aren't any more probable than somebody in the general population," Coons said. "However, if you are schizophrenic or bipolar and you also abuse alcohol or drugs, the probability of violence is higher."
On the advice of Delaware County Prosecutor Richard Reed, Muncie police have stopped commenting on their investigation of the robbery-homicide. Reed also declined comment when asked about suspicions from Hatfield's relatives that he was "on something" at the time of the Ricker's robbery. Hatfield is also a suspect in the armed robbery of a Village Pantry 17 hours before the Ricker's holdup.
According to Paul Appelbaum, chair of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, when a patient stops taking medication like Haldol, over time there may be a relapse of the patient's condition and a return of his psychotic symptoms.
However, that doesn't turn the person into a ticking time bomb ready to explode in violence, Appelbaum says.
The largest study ever done on the subject, he says, showed that people with mental illness who do not abuse substances are no more likely than their non-mentally ill neighbors to be violent.
Even paranoid thoughts and most hallucinatory commands are not linked to violence, Appelbaum says.
"But rates of violence increase in mentally ill and non-mentally ill people when substances are abused, including alcohol," he said in an interview. "And they increase more among people with mental disorders. There seems to be some sort of interaction between the disorder and the alcohol or other substance that increases the rate of violence."
Stephen Marder, a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said: "It's hard to understand why someone with a clear record of diagnosis of schizophrenia who's stable on anti-psychotic medication and with a violent history, it's hard to understand why the medicine would be stopped, but I don't know anything about those circumstances."
Hatfield's mother, sister and other relatives believe Goodwin would be alive today if he had continued to take anti-psychotic medicine after his release from prison. They are seeking an investigation of the Indiana Department of Correction, including its parole services division - not to excuse Hatfield's alleged crime but to prevent something similar from happening to someone else. Some of the relatives say if Hatfield's parole officer had been doing her job, Hatfield would have been sent back to prison for substance abuse.
DOC official Pam Pattison has said the agency can't discuss Hatfield's medical condition or medical records while he was in prison or on parole without his written permission.
In a recent e-mail message to The Star Press, Hatfield's mother, Joann Forgason, wrote: "Ronnie called last night and said they had finally given him three or four of his meds. He sounded like the old Ronnie. I told him he needed to sign a release so his medical records could be seen and he said no problem."
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE, January 4, 2005
[Editor's Note: Unambiguous evidence that Donald Cook needs and has long needed sustained and intensive treatment:
"Since 1990, the 47-year-old Chicago man, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has been charged with attacking 14 people."
"Cook has been arrested 29 times, mostly for battery, trespass and disorderly conduct."]
A DANGER ON THE STREETS
Editorial
Does Donald Cook have to kill somebody to get taken off the streets? It certainly looks that way. Since 1990, the 47-year-old Chicago man, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has been charged with attacking 14 people. Four of those alleged attacks occurred just in the last year. Yet, over and over, he's been allowed to remain at large, exasperating the people who say he victimized them and creating a hazard to anyone unlucky enough to cross his path.
His case is a vivid illustration of the need for a more comprehensive and vigorous approach to low-level repeat violent offenders, and to potentially dangerous mentally ill patients who persistently fail to take their medication.
As Tribune reporter Carlos Sadovi recently documented, this is a chronicle of failures on the part of the people who are supposed to protect the public. Cook has been arrested 29 times, mostly for battery, trespass and disorderly conduct, and in 2004, he spent 33 days in Cook County Jail. On two occasions, he was convicted. But charges have repeatedly been dropped after he failed to appear in court.
In such instances, prosecutors are free to have him rearrested so he can face justice--but that has yet to happen. He has also been institutionalized at least 17 times and treated with medication, only to stop taking it upon his release.
One of his victims, Diane Vonneedo, was directing traffic on Aug. 11, 1998, when he approached her and punched her in the face, smashing the bone around her eye and endangering her eyesight. But he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She occasionally sees him even now and radios her colleagues when he's headed in their direction. "I know when he takes his medication," she told Sadovi. "When he doesn't, he has that death stare."
In 2001, Cook, wearing a Superman costume, groped a woman. At that point, a Cook County psychologist evaluated him and concluded that he should not be allowed on the streets, noting that he was "delusional" and "irritable" and that the "defendant is considered a danger to others and subject to involuntary admission in a secure psychiatric facility."
There are three obvious ways to remove the danger Cook presents. The first, and most desirable, is for him to get adequate care to make sure he takes his medication and learns to function in society. The second is for him to be involuntarily committed and treated, which is unlikely due to the shortage of space in mental institutions. The third is for prosecutors to devote the time and energy needed to hold him responsible for the crimes he's charged with and to do what they can to keep him behind bars.
Offenders like Cook tend to fall through the cracks of the criminal justice system because their crimes, though violent, are comparatively minor. So going to a lot of trouble to put him in jail may seem like an unwise use of public resources.
But it's hard to escape the suspicion that, sooner or later, Cook is going to get locked up for a long time. The question is: Will it be before he commits a truly awful crime--or after?
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THE VANCOUVER COLUMBIAN (WA), December 29, 2004
[Editor's Note: And Michael Colvin's well-established need for care as well as the numerous opportunities to provide it:
"My approach was to tell the jury, 'Michael is mentally ill, but he isn't dangerous, and he does have a plan,' she said. She prevailed at trial. Colvin was released on Nov. 22, 2003."
"Michael Colvin lived at Skamania Cove Resort for about five months. The sheriff's office was aware of his mental illness as a result of three contacts with him before the Nov. 12 shooting."]
VIOLENT END FOR MAN WHO SAW ANGELS;
Colvin Shooting Highlights Problems With Justice System
On Nov. 5, a week before the shooting, Colvin called 911 and told the dispatcher he had killed someone several months earlier. A sheriff's deputy took him into custody but released him after a mental health evaluation.
By Kathie Durbin of The Columbian
USA - Michael E. Colvin's odyssey through the criminal justice system began in California's Humboldt County, where in 1998 he stole a sandwich from another jail inmate and struck a guard.
It ended in November at a Stevenson-area trailer park, after he attacked two neighbors without apparent provocation and was shot and killed by a Skamania County sheriff's deputy after brandishing a knife.
In between, Colvin spent a year in California's Folsom State Prison and three years at Atascadero State Hospital, a secure facility for the criminally insane. He was released in late 2003. His uncle, aunt and half-brother, who live in Carson, took him in when no one else would.
Colvin was 40 when he died. He was a big man who stood 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 270 pounds. He was also a paranoid schizophrenic, a mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations and flashes of anger that can escalate to violence.
When he wasn't taking his medication, he saw angels.
Last summer, his relatives moved him into a trailer house at Skamania Cove Resort with a sweeping view of the Columbia River. There he had a taste of freedom after four years behind bars. He swam in the Columbia River and listened to music. His neighbors brought him plates of food. They knew he wasn't quite right in the head. But until the night of Nov. 12, they didn't consider him dangerous.
"He was a really good friend," said Jeffrey Vandermoss, who lived next door to Colvin. "I also worried about him. I don't think he should have been there. He'd make people a little on edge. He'd say, 'There are too many of those darn angels around.'"
Colvin's troubled life and violent death are all too common in the world of the severely mentally ill, experts say. The criminal justice system is poorly equipped to deal with their condition. Most police officers aren't trained to handle crises involving the mentally ill. Most jails aren't staffed to deal with them. Prisons and hospitals for the criminally insane remove them from society, but the court system, with prosecutors on one side and defense lawyers on the other, doesn't always consider what's in their best interest. And support services often aren't available when they are released.
Even when treatment is available, the severely mentally ill people like Michael Colvin may resist it and self-medicate with drugs or alcohol instead.
"If someone is severely mentally ill, just getting them to go to an appointment is difficult," said Mike Piper, director of the Clark County Department of Community Services.
A recent spate of violent incidents involving the mentally ill has drawn attention to the problem. On Dec. 23, 41-year-old Michael Egan was shot and killed by a man he slapped outside the downtown Portland Meier & Frank department store. Police had recently tried to have Egan committed to a hospital because of his mental illness.
On Nov. 26, Shane Cole, previously diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, allegedly stabbed a neighbor to death with a kitchen knife without provocation in downtown Vancouver. His relatives said they had tried without success to get him into a residential treatment program.
Similar factors played out in Michael Colvin's life.
David Colvin, his half-brother, said Michael had visited a mental health clinic in Stevenson a few times and was taking a prescription drug to control his schizophrenia. But he said Michael took the drug only "off and on." He also managed to buy beer despite the family's attempts to keep him away from alcohol.
"He'd take the meds when I told him to take them," David Colvin said. "It was hard. He was scared. He'd have really good days when you could hardly even tell. He'd have other days when he would hear voices and have problems."
A Stolen Sandwich
Colvin's schizophrenia was diagnosed when he was a teenager. He lived for a time in Garberville, on California's north coast, and worked in the woods. Beginning in the late 1980s he was arrested a number of times for driving offenses. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, according to Blair Angus, an attorney for the Humboldt County public defender. Angus represented Colvin in court proceedings that won his release from a state mental hospital in 2003.
"The alleged incident occurred because Michael took a sandwich from a fellow inmate," Angus said. "He wanted to eat the sandwich. He was hungry. It was alleged he was surrounded by some number of corrections officers. He felt threatened. It was alleged he punched one of the officers."
Colvin pleaded guilty to battery of a custodial officer, a felony, in March 1999. He spent a year at Folsom State Prison. Then, in November 2000, he was committed to Atascadero State Prison for three years.
In October 2003 he was returned to the jurisdiction of Humboldt County Superior Court. But District Attorney Paul Gallegos petitioned the court to extend his commitment. He cited an assessment that Colvin's "severe mental disorder is not or cannot be kept in remission" if he did not remain in treatment. He said Colvin represented "a substantial danger of physical harm to others."
Angus argued against his continued incarceration. In an interview, she said she never feared Colvin and was so confident of his ability to defend himself that she asked for a jury trial and called him to testify on his own behalf. The public defender's office bought him shoes to wear for his court appearance.
"My approach was to tell the jury, 'Michael is mentally ill, but he isn't dangerous, and he does have a plan," she said. She prevailed at trial. Colvin was released on Nov. 22, 2003.
Angus said she tried to arrange housing and mental health counseling for her client but could not compel him to get treatment once he was out of the criminal justice system.
"I certainly extended myself on his behalf," she said. "He made his choice."
David Colvin said he had expected Michael would be released to a halfway house. "But they just cut him loose in Humboldt County with no money. All he had was the clothes on his back. He got on a bus and came to Carson."
Relatives Try To Help
In Skamania County, Michael Colvin's relatives tried to provide him with support. "I used to take him grocery shopping," David Colvin said. "I took him to a psychiatrist at a mental health clinic. My aunt and uncle and I would all go by and check on him. We got him the trailer. He was paying us a little every month."
Michael Colvin lived at Skamania Cove Resort for about five months. The sheriff's office was aware of his mental illness as a result of three contacts with him before the Nov. 12 shooting.
On July 13, he called 911 from a pay phone in Stevenson, said he was in danger and asked for a patrol car. That call was logged as a "mental subject."
On Aug. 25, at 1 p.m., his aunt, Alene Bush, reported him missing. According to a police report, she told a dispatcher that he "is schizophrenic and sees angels and things. He is currently not on any medication." She told the dispatcher that the family had been "going through all the channels to get him to see mental health."
At 9 p.m. that day, Luci Ann Vandermoss of Carson called to report that Michael Colvin had stolen her ex-husband Jeffrey's 1981 Chevrolet Blazer. Colvin ran out of gas in Portland. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office arrested him and recovered the Blazer the following day.
Jeffrey Vandermoss was Colvin's next-door neighbor. They knew each other well. He said Colvin knew the Blazer was leaking oil when he took it without permission. "I think he took it with the intent of going home" to Humboldt County, he said. He added that he bore his neighbor no grudge.
Skamania County Prosecuting Attorney Peter Banks charged Colvin with taking a motor vehicle without permission. He was awaiting trial on the charge at the time of his death.
On Nov. 5, a week before the shooting, Colvin called 911 and told the dispatcher he had killed someone several months earlier. A sheriff's deputy took him into custody but released him after a mental health evaluation. "He wanted help," his uncle, Dean Bush, said. "He needed to take his medication."
On Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m., Don Atkins, who lived two trailers down from Colvin, called 911 to report that Colvin had slugged him in the face and had beaten up his 22-year-old son, Van, who is deaf.
In an interview at his Skamania Cove trailer house, Atkins recounted the events of that evening. He said Van left to take a shower. Almost immediately, he heard him screaming and stepped outside to see what was going on. "Michael had him down on the ground with a knife," Atkins said. "He was slugging him. I was yelling at him. Then he came after me. He slugged me with both fists. He hit me in the head so hard, I saw stars."
Atkins said he had been on good terms with his neighbor and had never seen that side of him. "I fixed him a plate of food every night. He seemed appreciative."
But that evening, he said, Colvin's eyes were glazed over. He seemed possessed by anger.
Sheriff's Deputy Tim Converse and Reserve Officer Chris Fassel responded to the Atkins' 911 call. Atkins said the officers pleaded with Colvin to drop the knife, but he refused.
"I told him, 'Michael, you need to go in your trailer.' (Michael) said, 'I'm killing them and I'm killing you.' I was dumbfounded, because Michael did not put the knife down."
Converse shot twice, Atkins said. Colvin died at the scene.
It's not known whether Converse was aware of Colvin's mental illness. He was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Regional Major Crimes Team but returned to patrol duties in mid-December.
The investigation was completed in early December. But Prosecuting Attorney Banks has not released the investigative report pending a final medical examiner's report. According to Undersheriff Dave Cox, a delay in getting a toxicology report back from the state medical lab has delayed its release.
New Medications
Alene Bush said she heard a call for emergency medical assistance at Skamania Cove on her police scanner that evening and called dispatchers to find out whether Michael was involved. No one returned her call.
"I was with Michael that day," she said. "I took him grocery shopping. I told him he had $60 to spend. He was in the best mood. I told him to clean up his trailer. When I left, I said, 'I love you,' and he said, 'I love you, Aunt Al.'"
Michael was on a new medication, and she wonders whether it triggered the attack. "I never saw that side of Michael, she said. "I never saw him violent."
It's also possible that Colvin had been drinking. Atkins said he had seen him carrying beer to his trailer the day before he died, though his relatives had asked residents of the trailer court not to buy him beer.
Dean Bush said he had plans for his nephew. "I had him working on my property. He wasn't retarded. He could do a lot of things."
Family members would like some answers. "I don't want to blame anyone," Alene Bush said. "Maybe Michael was wrong. But it seems like there could have been a better way."
Katherine Plowman of Ashland, Ore., Colvin's former aunt by marriage, said she had felt close to him since she took care of him when he was a child.
"I'm not saying the officer didn't feel afraid," she said. "He may have walked into this blind. But why did they have to kill him?"
Atkins, the neighbor who called police, defended the shooting. "The police were not wrong," he said. "If you have someone charging you with a knife and all you have is a gun, that's what you use. Sure, it would have been nice if they had been able to get the knife away from him. It would have been nice if they could have subdued him some other way."
The Skamania County Sheriff's Office has no Tasers less-lethal weapons that incapacitate suspects using an electrical shock. On Nov. 29, Chief Criminal Deputy Pat Bond asked the Skamania County Board of Commissioners for permission to apply for a $6,500 state grant to buy five Tasers and a training video.
Undersheriff Cox said the grant application had been in the works for two years and was not related to the shooting, adding, "If you can utilize some other form of deterrent to de-escalate a situation, you're going to do that."
Blair Angus, Colvin's attorney, said society has yet to deal with the challenges posed by the Michael Colvins of the world.
"He was lucky. He had people who were trying to do something. But for a mentally ill person to accept treatment is difficult. It takes intensive outreach. It takes money. At this point, we are putting that money into the criminal justice system."
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HERDERSONVILLE TIMES NEWS (NC), February 13, 2005
[Editor's Note: Red flags abound at the Hendersonville Rescue Mission.]
A VARIETY OF PROBLEMS CROP UP AT THE MISSION
Editor's note: The following is a description written by Hendersonville Rescue Mission Program Director Tim Jones of mission residents last summer. The mental health reform, rescue mission officials say, has dumped more homeless people needing psychiatric help into shelters.
Currently on the night of July 22, 2004, 11 of the 25 male residents who stayed here were on medication for mental illness related problems. Four of the 25 male residents had a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Recent examples of the problem include: The paranoid male resident who thought the police followed him around all day in an airplane watching him. He has a volatile temper. The male resident who had visions of Satan talking to him and sexualized images of the "bride of Christ." He also imagined bugs were constantly crawling on him and spreading throughout the dormitory. He has a violent temper. The male resident who was so disoriented that he took a shower with his shirt on. The male resident who single-handedly solved the Cuban Missile Crisis with the direct approval of the president and also went on many other "top secret missions." The male resident who thought there was a "hired killer" in the dormitory and ran out into the recreation room to escape in his underwear. He was terrified to even go back into the dorm to get his belongings. He also had fits of uncontrollable crying. The male resident who was convinced Satan lived with him and followed him around the streets during the day. The male resident who is convinced that the streets of Hendersonville are soon going to be overflowing with dangerous Iraqi women and children who are being given passports to America to escape the fighting. The male resident who went around making threats to everyone in the third person as he was speaking to an invisible person. The male resident who lost his volatile temper after the suggestion that he needed to resume his medications that God told him to stop taking. The male resident who got up in the middle of the night, stripped naked and started going through everyone's belongings and then went outside and stripped again and started chewing on broken glass. The male resident who is so paranoid that he thinks everyone walking up beside him is about to attack him. The male resident who could not carry on a conversation with staff because of all the voices speaking to him -- staff members were simply interrupting the voices and were very difficult to pay attention to. The male resident who thought he was the victim of a corporate conspiracy by Advance Auto Parts. Many of our male residents believe themselves to be the victim of large conspiracies. The female resident who has attempted suicide before and runs away from the mission and her job any time she thinks someone does not like her. This last time she threatened to get a gun and come back and take care of the person she had a disagreement with. The female resident who keeps 'transforming' into a man and cussing and screaming in a male voice and then going out and jumping the fence. She also says two other women live inside her. The female resident who keeps being chased and abused by people she does not know or cannot even describe. The female resident who was afraid of leaving her car during the day. The female resident who got up in the middle of the night, stripped naked and began rubbing on other female residents. The female resident who hears voices from God and then loses her temper over nothing and does "bad things." The child resident who became so agitated and violent with his mother that the police had to have him removed to take him to the hospital to have his medications adjusted.
These are only recent examples. There are also many, many borderline cases.
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