RE: ADHS/DBHS OGA Docket #H090611S0009 The Evolution Of A Grievance: Wherein, following over one full year of systematic suppression of my right to due process in relation to a criminally imposed sequence of administrative abuse of authority at The Arizona State Hospital, I prepare to go to hearing.

AFTER OVER A FULL YEAR OF PROCEDURALLY HALF-ASS DELAYS, THE ABOVE DOCKET FILE HAS MORPHED INTO A LEGAL CASE:  OAH #2012C-BHS-0338-DHS.  (THIS ARTICLE RELATES TO AN EARLIER APRIL 09, 2012 ARTICLE, "FACTS OF LIFE #1-4"). ON JULY 16, 2012, A HEARING WILL BE CONVENED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE ARIZONA OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS, WHEREBY I WILL BE REPRESENTING MYSELF ON BEHALF OF ALL PATIENTS, PATIENTS FAMILIES, AND ANY OTHER LIKE PARTIES OF INTEREST WHO CARE ABOUT THE RIGHTS AND NEEDS OF PATIENTS AT THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL. THE MATTER TO BE REVIEWED IN THIS HEARING RELATES TO GROSS ADMINISTRATIVE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY THAT I WAS SUBJECTED TO OVER A PERIOD OF THREE (3) DAYS IN LATE MAY, 2011, WHEREIN MY FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT AS A HUMAN BEING TO REMAIN FREE OF UNDUE OR UNLAWFUL CONSTRAINT, COERCION, THREAT, AND INTIMIDATION WAS FLAGRANTLY ABRIDGED OVER A PERIOD OF SEVENTY TWO (72) FULL HOURS. THE ACTIONS TAKEN AGAINST ME IN THIS CONTEXT CENTRALLY INVOLVED MY PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN AT THE TIME, DR. PERVAIZ AKHTER; THE CHEIF MEDICAL OFFICER AT THE TIME, DR. STEVEN DINGLE (WHO HAS SINCE BEEN PROMOTED!!!); DR. LYNN LYDON; AND STAFF OF THE ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL, INCLUDING A SECRETARY NAMED CINDY FROELICH AND AN ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL NAMED JOEL RUDD (aka "the mortician").

       I  have already discussed this matter in several previous articles (please see 4/9/12 "Facts of Life #1-4, specifically Fact #1). The unlawful misconduct of the individuals most centrally involved in this matter are some of the most powerful officials in the daily lives of ASH patients, as they represent the clinical office's senior primary care physicians and an administrative level physician, all of whom wield the authority to issue a wide range of administrative actions over any given patients' life at any given time; as well as staff members of the Arizona Attorney General's office, who maintain an office right  there on the hospital grounds- literally- and whom exercise an inordinate degree of power over a broad array of each and every patient at ASH' lives. Together, albeit it in clumsy fashion, these seemingly separate forms of authority came together and willfully engaged in very grievous acts of criminal abuse of authority in an attempt to force me into entering a contractual agreement wherein my fundamental constitutional rights as an ASH patient and as a citizen of this nation were very graphically at stake. It is my contention that they engaged in this misconduct in order to punish me for voicing my lawful right to be put in contact with my court appointed attorney; and when I refused to participate in the clearly unlawful process that they initiated in this context, I was further subjected to graphic displays of highly unlawful abuses of administrative authority that led to me being unduly restricted to critical level "suicide watch" (wherein the restricted patient cannot so much as take a shit without having a staff person standing or sitting within arms length), in spite of there being absolutely no clinical basis for the action. Through all of this, and despite experiencing high anxiety and associated duress, fear for my safety, and graphic indignity, I maintained my civility and fully cooperated with these actions because I wanted to be reasonable about it all as it played out, but I also knew at the time that things were clearly out of control in terms of the actions that these people took. 
       The most troubling element of the administrative abuses of authority that I was subjected to in this matter flowed from the willingness of the Arizona Attorney General's (AZ AG) office to actively engage in legal misconduct that basically amounted to a very unreasonable waste of tax payer money in the end, and unquestionably only served a purpose of imposing the duress that I experienced throughout the entirety of these events. 
       The whole sequence of clearly malfeasant acts against me began on the morning of May 25, 2011, when a secretary (Cindy Freolich) from the legal office there at ASH, which functions under the direct authority of the AZ AG, tried to unlawfully coerce me into signing a legal document that I was not required to sign, and then threatened to have me discharged "onto the curb out in front of the hospital" at the end of the day if I did not sign the document, despite me telling her that I was actively trying to consult with my court appointed attorney on the matter. Later on in the day, and after the  "suicide watch" had been unlawfully imposed on me, this same woman escorted a court server into my room, and I was presented with a sixteen (16) page legal document that didn't even have any legal standing because it was in direct conflict with my legal status at that time and the given authority of the Arizona county where I had come to ASH from. The legal document itself was drafted and produced under the direct authority of Joel Rudd, he in fact signed it, and this is where my approach to representing myself in this upcoming hearing begins.
       Less than one week ago, I was advised by the Arizona Department of Health Services that the very long overdue scheduling of this matter for judicial review had been completed (the events specific to this case occurred well over a full year ago). Upon cursory review of the scheduling document, I immediately saw that Joel Rudd and the Office of the Arizona Attorney General have the balls and basic ignorance to believe that they will be representing ASH and ADHS in the case at hand, in graphic defiance of the fact that this imposes a deep conflict of interest onto the proceedings as they stand today. The original grievance document that was drafted and submitted on my behalf by the uber-competent (and, sadly, former) ADHS Office of Human Rights advocate John Gallagher, very clearly identifies both Cindy Froelich (by name), as well as the legal document prepared by Joel Rudd, as centrally involved parties to the chief allegations included in the grievance itself. 
       Upon seeing that Joel Rudd is the assigned counsel for ASH in this case, and on the basis of my instinctual concern that it just ain't right for one of the same people who subjected me to the gross abridgments of my rights in this case to be representing himself , as well as my professional experience, (I know a hornswoggle when I see one), I the appellant immediately submitted a motion to the court to have Joel Rudd and the AZ AG removed as representative counsel for the appellee. I did in good faith attempt to submit this motion via the courts own electronic forms and submittals system, but strangely enough, my computer is having difficulty communicating with the court in that context. So today, I faxed the following motion document to the court, and as per my obligation as the appellant in the case, I also faxed a copy of the motion to Joel Rudd. I really have no idea how smoothly this one particular motion will go, as the power dynamics are pretty acute (I am little more than an ant to these people), but I am intent on seeing that my fundamental rights(s) to due process and equal protection under the law are not violated, and that my related right to a fair and impartial hearing is preserved, as well. I feel that I make myself pretty clear in the below document, as follows:

OAH Electronic Motion Submission (Steps 1-9)

1. Your Name:  ------  (aka PJ reed)

2. Your E-Mail Address: -----------

3. To: Administrative Law Judge K.A.

4. Docket Number: 2012c-BHS-0338-DHS 

5. Pending Hearing Date: May 17, 2012 

6. You may submit your motion by entering the motion and grounds on this form (see 6a), or you may submit an existing document as an attachment (see 6b). You may also do both if necessary.

    6a. Motion and grounds (enter text or attach document): 

I am the appellant in the above proceeding (case #2012c-bhs-0338-dhs). I am submitting my motion to the tribunal to have Joel Rudd and the Arizona Attorney General's removed as representative counsel for the appellee in this case on the basis of very clear conflict of interest issues. The original grievance document in this matter, which was researched, drafted, and submitted to ADHS on my behalf by a former staff person from ADHS Office of Human Rights, clearly identifies Mr. Rudd, and at least one employee who works under his direct authority in the legal office at AzSH, which is an AHDS entity/facility, as parties to the central allegations upon with this case is founded. This conflict of interest is a gross abridgment of my rights to due process and related access to fair and impartial court proceeding(s). I am attaching one page of the original gr. doc, mentioned above, that clearly identities by name an AzSH/AZ AG legal secretary named Cindy Froelich who works under the direct authority of Mr. Rudd, and who willfully engaged in unlawful conduct specific to this case; at a later date, I will also be submitting the full original gr doc as evidence in support of my allegations. If there are any problems with this submittal, please advise me accordingly at the soonest possible time. Thank you. Patrick Pickens.       

    

    6b. Attachment to be included (optional): Doc 0003 image
(Attachments should be less than 10MB -- smaller is better) 

7. IMPORTANT: Every party must make sure that all other parties are notified and given a copy of any motion or letter sent to an administrative law judge.

(See OAH Procedural Rule R2-19-108(E).) 

You may choose to automatically notify other parties by e-mail (see 7a), or you may manually send notices to other parties via some other method such as postal mail or fax; in that case you must enter those addresses in 7b.

        

     7a. Additional parties to be notified by e-mail:          

         (Separate e-mail addresses with spaces) N/A

         A copy of this motion (including any attached file) will be automatically sent to each e-mail address that you enter in the e-mail notification box.

        7b. Other parties that have been notified:

 (Include name, notification method, address or fax number, etc.)

               Joel Rudd, Office of the Arizona Attorney General, by fax to: 602-542-4085   

8. Entering the word AGREE in the signature space below constitutes my certification that I have read the document, that I have a good faith basis for submission of the document, and that it is not filed for the purpose of delay or harassment. 

Signature: AGREE (signed, too)

Upon submission, you will receive a confirmation page if your submission was successful. If you receive anything other than a confirmation page, 

you must resubmit your motion. Keep a copy of your confirmation page as proof of service.

(END)

      

      This will be my third foray into the realm of the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). I have moderate confidence in the resources provided by OAH, my past experience being relatively uneventful, but I have also witnessed very narrow consideration of not only the full merits of the issues under review, as well as the blatant failure of one judge to thoroughly review directly applicable provisions of law. The process is ongoing, of course. Below is the official scheduling document for this upcoming, July 16, 1012, hearing.

IN CLOSING: I will be laying out the full procedural history of this case in at least a couple upcoming articles, including a recap of the various events specific to this situation when it arose in late May, 2011,  and details about how it felt to be so graphically denied my fundamental rights to dignity, safe and secure care, freedom from discrimination as a disabled person, and my related right to not be subjected to undue restraint or unlawful uses of coercion, intimidation, threat, or any like forms of abuse of authority over my life. This is beginning of something, and it is far from over.

       Please do whatever you can, oh reader, to support this cause. Patient abuse at The Arizona State Hospital is criminal and it is radically inhumane. Help me bring about meaningful reform at ASH and throughout the Arizona behavioral health care system. 

paoloreed@gmail.com