Leaving Arizona   Of taking my leave of one the most unsafe states in the country today and heading for friendlier lands.          AND JUST IN CASE THE  ADMINISTRATORS AT ASH/ADHS/BHS THINK OTHERWISE, HEAR ME NOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU : I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE, IN FACT, AND MY DEDICATION TO SEEING THAT YOU PEOPLE ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ABJECT LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE SAFETY AND HEALTH OF YOUR CLIENTS IS FAR FAR FAR FROM OVER.

        Following over two full years of experiencing the deeply mismanaged system of behavioral health care in Arizona, a period of my life was horrifyingly punctuated by thirteen torturous months in the state's only plug term public mental health facility, The Arizona State Hospital, I am getting the hell out of Arizona in order to set up shop in a safer and more humane region of this nation. I have give all I have to give, at this point, in terms of residing in Arizona as a person diagnosed with serious mental illness, and while I very much regret that I cannot remain immediately at the side of the state's at risk adults in the behavioral care system,I am taking full advantage of the only resource that I really feel can be trusted in my world today: An old and very dear friend. I am privileged, indeed, to have a host of very good old friends, and while we have not necessarily remained in close contact, my truest friends know exactly who they are, and I have never questioned their presence in the landscape of my personal life, because we earned our relationships over many long years through trust and mutually shared precepts of  basic decency and friendship.                                                                                                                                                        

       This is not to say that I will not be continuing my dedication to human rights and related patient abuse issues at The Arizona State Hospital, however. The fact is, following this point in time, I will be provided with far better resources as a writer and activist-advocate, and I will not have the immediate bad taste in my mouth that inherently comes with living in Arizona at this time. I will also be fully able to travel to and from the state as needed in order to participate in at least there yet to be scheduled court proceedings, and/or other like activities specific to my rapidly developing work as an advocate for mental health patients in Arizona.

       My instinctual suspicions of deeply endemic shortfalls in the Arizona Department of Health/Behavioral Health Services are increasingly being confirmed in every possible way as I painstakingly continue my investigations of patient abuse at ASH and beyond. I was recently made aware of an upcoming federal court proceeding in regards to at least one other patient at the Arizona State Hospital, (Warren v. Brewer, 2: 2011cv 01901), for example, and own feelings about the possible findings in relation to last last Thursdays hearing (case #2011-BHS-0263-DHS) were boosted today by a prominent Arizona attorney who was kind enough to review my notes from the case.

 Meanwhile, other investigations are turning up all sorts of administrative and governmental corruption in various offices of Arizona government, and a front page story in today's Arizona Republic offered the following data in this context, as follows: 

Arizona political scandals back in focus with investigations

Recent probes hurt state's image, stir public distrust

54 comments by Dan Nowicki - May. 19, 2012 11:22 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona has never been known for squeaky-clean politics. Its elected officials have been embroiled in some of the most sensational scandals of the past few decades, including the Keating Five, AzScam and the alt-fuels fiasco. One governor was impeached and removed from office while another resigned after being found guilty of bank and wire fraud. A former U.S. congressman from Arizona has been awaiting trial for years on charges including extortion, embezzlement and money laundering.

But to some it seems Arizona has recently opened a new chapter in its raucous political history, as investigations and allegations of corruption and abuse of power have ensnared law-enforcement officials and an unprecedented number of sitting lawmakers. The targets of inquiries have included some of the best-known political names in the state: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Maricopa Attorney Andrew Thomas, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

         On Wednesday, the latest shoe dropped: state Rep. Ben Arredondo, D-Tempe, was indicted on federal charges of bribery, mail fraud, extortion and lying. Federal prosecutors allege that Arredondo, a former Tempe City Council member, took gifts such as pricey professional sports tickets in exchange for taking official action on behalf of a phony company that actually was a front for the FBI.

Arredondo previously was embroiled in yet another controversy surrounding gifts from the Fiesta Bowl to politicians.

         Arredondo's arraignment is scheduled for May 30 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Lee Stein, Arredondo's attorney, told The Arizona Republic last week that his side views the facts of the case "very differently than the government, but we'll do our talking in court."

        While there always have and likely always will be crooked politicians along the lines of former state Rep. Richard Miranda, D-Tolleson, who quit the Legislature this year before pleading guilty to federal felony wire fraud and attempted tax evasion charges, longtime political observers say that the fact that so many law-enforcement officials are under investigation is a new and disturbing trend that hurts the state's image and fuels public cynicism about government.

        And they lament what they see as a general lack of leadership and political will to address the situation. They long for the days when Arizona had influential public officials such as the late former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., who famously informed President Richard Nixon that he couldn't avoid impeachment over the Watergate scandal and later called on scandal- and gaffe-prone Gov. Evan Mecham to resign.

        "The decibel level of what's happened recently is unprecedented in the history of Arizona," said Jack August, a historian who has written several books about the state's politics. "It's almost like we're a renegade state."

        For Arizona, that's saying something. Its legacy of corruption has its roots in the Wild West of pre-statehood days and includes a series of unforgettable political scandals and crimes and a rogues' gallery of scoundrels. The 13th Territorial Legislature misappropriated so much money in the 1880s that it became immortalized in the history books as the "Thieving 13th." In less-distant times, Don Bolles, an Arizona Republic reporter who made his name in the 1960s and 1970s exposing rampant corruption in state government, was murdered in a car-bombing in 1976. (Think, if you will, of the risk I that I have taken thus for by standing up to administrate staff at ASH and beyond in the state behavioral health care system, and the assistance that I have had from local media: IT IS NOT OVERLY FANTASTIC OR IRRATIONALLY FEARFUL TO HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT HOW DANGEROUS THE PEOPLE IN POWER ARE HERE IN ARIZONA>  

       But August and other observers say that the combination of high-stakes investigations now unfolding may eclipse even historic Arizona episodes.... 

      Two of Arizona's U.S. senators -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Dennis DeConcini -- got caught up in a national scandal related to their relationships with disgraced developer and financier Charles Keating.....

      "There is a history here, but we are seeing today is different," August said. "This is much more high profile."
                                    High-profile cases

         In addition to the Arredondo indictment, other high-profile cases involve:

   -Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio, a Republican who is being sued by President Barack Obama's U.S. Department of Justice over accusations of racial-profiling and other civil-rights abuses related to his anti-illegal-immigration operations. A separate federal abuse-of-power investigation also is ongoing.

   -Recent Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his deputy Lisa Aubuchon, who were ordered disbarred April 10 by an Arizona Supreme Court disciplinary panel for ethical misconduct in connection with prosecutions they launched against other Maricopa County officials and judges. Rachel Alexander, another Thomas aide, had her law license suspended for six months and a day. Aubuchon and Alexander are appealing; Thomas is not.

   - Arizona Attorney General, Tom Horne, a Republican is under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged illegal coordination with an independent third-party group during his 2010 election campaign.

   - Pinal County Sherriff Paul Babeu, a Republican who until May 11 was running for Congress. Babeu and his agency are under investigation by three agencies, including the U.S. Office of Special Counsel that is looking into possible violations of the federal Hatch Act, which makes it illegal for certain government employees to engage in partisan politics. Other investigators are looking into whether Babeu abused his power by threatening a former Mexican boyfriend with deportation and whether the Sheriff's Office destroyed public records.

         Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley told The Arizona Republic that concerns about public corruption are greater today than at any time during his career. As county attorney, Romley oversaw the AzScam sting that resulted in the 1991 indictments of seven state legislators who took bribes from an undercover "wiseguy" police informant who pretended he was pushing for legalized gambling in the state.

        After AzScam shook the political landscape, there was strong consensus "that this was not acceptable conduct," Romley said. Today there is a stark attitude of "anything goes" in politics, he said, and seemingly no leaders a la Goldwater who appear inclined to intervene and stop it.

        "What's shocking to me today is that there are allegations of potential corruption by law enforcement," said Romley, who served as county attorney from 1989 to 2004 and again on an interim basis in 2010. "That to me is a distinguishing difference. Whether it's Thomas, whether it's Horne, whether it's Arpaio, whether it's Babeu -- that to me changes the dynamics dramatically. Because that was always sort of our line of protection. We could always trust law enforcement."

          After AzScam, lawmakers passed reforms, banning campaign contributions from state lobbyists while the Legislature is in session, requiring lobbyists report gifts to legislators and mandating ethics training for themselves.

        "The Legislature hasn't done any self-correction, as it did with AzScam," August said.

Arredondo is the fourth Arizona legislator to find himself in serious trouble this year. Three state lawmakers exited under clouds during the recently concluded legislative session: Miranda and state Sen. Scott Bundgaard and state Rep. Daniel Patterson, who both resigned after being accused of domestic violence and while facing the prospect of expulsion.

        In another pending case, U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., was indicted on federal corruption charges and did not seek re-election in 2008. He is still awaiting trial.

        "People appear to be more willing to commit ethical transgressions if they feel that it is in service of some higher purpose," said Jen Overbeck, a psychologist and assistant professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "I'm not saying that they have good intentions. It's just how people justify to themselves what the rest of us see as some pretty heinous unethical actions."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/05/19/20120519arizona-political-scandals.html#ixzz1vTCyBS9t

         IN CLOSING: This article makes clear that Arizona is haven for high level corruption and related criminal conduct. I personally attest to the fact that staff at every level of employ at The Arizona State Hospital, I experienced endemic dereliction of duty to the public good and directly related criminal patient abuse on a daily basis for the entirety of the time that was I was hospitalized there between early January, 2011 and late February, 2012. In further illustrating the nature of these problems, I also attest to the fact that I made it my mission to civilly protest every instance of serious misconduct that I witnessed or was personally subjected to, to literally anybody willing to listen, but my good faith attempts to report misconduct were systematically rejected and suppressed as a matter of standard administrative practice at ASH and in the Arizona Department of Health/Behavioral Health Services for the entirety of my time there. All of my claims in this context were rejected as being unsubstantiated, frivolous, imagined, or false. It is was across the board the same thing every time. 
         FR0M THIS POINT IN TIME, MY SUBSEQUENT ARTICLES WILL BE DRAFTED AND PUBLISHED FROM SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN ARIZONA, BUT  JUST IN CASE THE  ADMINISTRATORS AT ASH/ADHS/BHS THINK OTHERWISE, HEAR ME NOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU : I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE, IN FACT, AND MY DEDICATION TO SEEING THAT YOU PEOPLE ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ABJECT LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE SAFETY AND HEALTH OF YOUR CLIENTS IS FAR FAR FAR FROM OVER.


paoloreed@gmail.com