RERUN. One citizen dead, another one wasting away in prison: Of Jesus Rincon Murietta. 

I have published and republished again the details underlying this story since my discharge from The Arizona State Hospital in late February, 2012. Wherein, following the brutal murder of a beautiful young Phoenix woman,  the central character involved in one of The Arizona State Hospitals' most egregious scandals in recent history concludes the first of 20-21 years in state prison, while the one's directly responsible for the cycle of violence underlying his conviction continue to draw their pay from Arizona's collective citizenry. 

RECAP: Beginning in late May, 2011, following the failure and refusal of ASH staff across the board to report or divulge information specific to the escape of a violent patient, and concluding most dramatically in late August, 2011, with the brutal murder of an innocent young woman, Arizona citizens as a whole were subject to the same forms of potentially lethal ineptitude that the patients at ASH are subjected on a daily, around the clock basis.

     Meanwhile, each and every one of the high ranking state employees centrally involved in this matter are still benefitting from the trust afforded them through their positions as state employees, and in fact, no less than three of such high ranking ASH staff have been promoted! (former ASH Chief Medical Officer Steven Dingle; former ASH Supervisor  Cory Nelson; and current ASH CMO Laxman Patel).  

DECEMBER 2013 UPDATE: As of this time, April Mott's family has suffered the tragic impacts of her untimely death for well over two full years. I wish them well under the circumstances, but as per my own personal family life, I do understand how difficult it is to come to terms with the unexpected death of a loved one, particularly when that family member is as young as April is (I lost an older  brother in 1974, when I was 12, and he was 23). Likewise, as of this point in time, Jesus Rincon Murietta is about 13 months into his 20-22 year prison sentence, a man affected by gravely serious mental illness now subject to well recognized shortfalls in the Arizona corrections system specific to such health concerns. 

OCTOBER 2012 UPDATE: I was just apprised by one of Jesus Rincon Murietta's legal representatives that at a sentencing hearing convened yesterday in the Maricopa County criminal court (Oct. 4), Murietta pleaded guilty to second degree murder in relation to his role in the death of April Mott in late August, 2011. He will be sentenced on November 2, 2012, and faces the possibility of twenty two (22) years in prison and lifetime probation. 

     

DISCUSSION: Herein, the near end of a despicably tragic saga that began in late May, 2011, when Jesus Rincon Murietta successfully took advantage of lax security conditions in order to violently escape the confines at The Arizona State Hospital, fleeing with only the clothing on his back into the turbulent neighborhoods of central Phoenix at approximately 9:30 in the evening. His presence in the greater metropolitan district posed immediate lethal threat to the public, while also creating crisis in terms of this patient's needs and welfare as a man affected by serious mental illness, diagnosed as such and known to be a danger to himself and others. Following Murietta's escape, senior ASH clinicians, including (former) ASH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle, and Murietta's primary attending ASH physician at the time, Dr. Steven Morris,  willfully altered the factual details about the incident in complicity with ASH's executive level staff (including ASH's acting CEO at the time, Ann Froio, as well the hospitals' in-house legal counsel, assistant attorney general Joel Rudd); and as a group, unlawfully engaged in a blatant cover up of the escape itself in order to avoid accountability and possible oversight/backlash from state and/or federal regulatory bodies. Approximately 90 days later (late August 2011), after running amok in the greater Phoenix metropolitan  area for the entire summer, Murietta viciously beat and stabbed a young Phoenix woman named April Mott to death. Murietta was almost immediately arrested, but it wasn't until after an investigative story written by a reporter named JJ Hensley (from the Arizona Republic newspaper) was published on September 29, 2011, that Murietta's attorney even became aware of the fact that Murietta suffers from serious mental illness. Likewise, April Mott's family, and other persons directly affected by this sordid series of events, were not made aware of the underlying story relating to April Mott's murder until they, too, had heard these details through news reports aired or published 30-45 days after she died. (see: "Victims Family Questions Why Man Was Free", by JJ Hensley, Nov. 28, 2012, Arizona Republic/AZ Central.com).

      As I have described in several previous articles in this blog, including one of my very first, (see: "A Modern Day Horror Story", April 05, 2012), I was the sole primary source of information supplied to JJ Hensley in relation to his final report about this affair. I, in fact, did initially contact and report the escape itself to Mr. Hensley 3-4 four days following that first step in a cycle of violence that will continue to ripple in the collective memory of all persons directly harmed by the decision not provide the public with due alert in the context, but when Mr. Hensley spoke with Hospital administrators at that time, he was told that no escapes from ASH had occurred in the respective time frame, which does stand as clear and irrefutable evidence specific to the cover up itself. Only after Ms. Mott was killed, with an attendant story about the event and associated information relating to Mureitta's subsequent arrest was published on the front page of The AZ Repunlic newspaper in late August, 2012, was Mr. Hensley able to confirm my initial report to him about the escape. I called Mr. Hensley back as soon as I learned that Jesus had killed Ms. Mott, and literally told him "Remember the man who I reported as having escaped from ASH three months ago, you know, the escape that ASH administrators denied? Well that man is on the front page your paper today. Jesus Rincon Murietta.....!"  After alerting Mr. Hensley yet again about the factual details underlying this matter, he conducted the aforementioned investigation and news report, publishing his four page feature article outlining the details of 90 day cycle of violence that originally arose in direct relation to the substandard clinical and administrative practices at The Arizona State Hospital. I am not claiming my role in this process in order to receive any commendations or other like praise, for my concerns and related efforts in the context are in no way beyond what any person of reasonable conscience would do under the circumstances. It is sad indeed that even media was unable to provide the public with their due notice about the escape as an undeniable consequence of ASH administrations' abject dereliction of duty. But that is how things go at ASH. I attest to this with absolute sincerity.

My only aim is to clarify one critical reality:

Despite the fact most of the staff at ASH knew about this escape, no staff member of the state's sole public mental health care facility had the courage to step forward and share the details of the escape with the public in any fashion or context, was well in terms of subsequent news reports that loudly published Murietta's role in April Mott's death almost 90 days after he escaped. The unwillingness of staff to take such action flows directly from the highly illegal practice  of retaliation that senior ASH clinical staff and administrators wield when and if anyone- staff and patients alike- make waves via openly sharing information about the internal conditions at ASH. The simple fact is that if I- while hospitalized at ASH- had not taken the initiative to concern myself with fairly obvious administrative misconduct in relation to ASH's senior clinical and executive staff specific to the escape, there is every possibility that no aspect of the underlying history of this affair would have ever surfaced. In other words, if they had had their way as per standard practice at ASH and beyond in the ADHS/BHS public health care system,  the Hospital's administrative staff  including Rudd, Dingle, Morris, ASH C.O.O. Donna Noriega, Froio, etc., and the immediate supervisors in the Arizona Department of Health Services (including ADHS Director Will Humble) would have kept a tight wrap on the fact that an escaped ASH patient brutally murdered an innocent young woman, and Jesus Murietta would have never been identified as such, subject to criminal prosecution with no regard for his mental illness and related civil rights in terms of due process and equal protection. Likewise, if ASH staff had merely done the right thing and issued a formal report specific to Murietta's escape at the time it occurred, April Mott would still be alive today. And yes, I was systematically retaliated against once senior ASH staff became aware of my efforts to report the escape itself. This is the state of affairs as it stands today, and I can prove it. 

ASH is still (2013-14) being run under the authority of the same goddamn people who directly caused this series of events to occur, including the same goddamn doctors, who are still granted the privileges associated with the responsibility of caring for and handling the treatment needs of ASH seriously mentally ill and highly vulnerable patients. The vulnerability of ASH patients extends to virtual voicelessness, and as this matter proves, even when someone such as I did everything I could at the time to draw critically due attention to the escape when it occurred, ASH administrators went around the mountain and back in squashing the merits of my initial reports to JJ Hensley, and my credibility as such, was temporarily put into question as a consequence of these administrators' lies. Thus, the cycle of violence that ultimately led to April Mott's death and Jesus Murietta's prison sentence as per the holding of the Maricopa County criminal court was initiated by nobody other than the high ranking state employees that I have identified above (and countless times in the past); and just as they bent over backwards to refute my original reports about the escape itself, ASH's administrative staff are still engaged today in precisely these same sorts of tactics, willfully and knowingly preventing the truthful flow of information underlying these matters as a whole.

      I first initially contacted JJ Hensley of The Arizona Republic newspaper in late May, 2011, in order to report Jesus Murietta's escape within a week of that specific event, for it was apparent by then that the administrators of ASH had not reported the escape. The subject itself was being discussed by patients as well as staff, centered around the question "Why didn't the newspaper report this?" In my own right at the time, I had three very specific concerns, as follows:

1) I was worried about the welfare of Jesus Murietta. I consider Jesus to be a friend, this because we had previously met (pre-ASH) and grown fairly close in a Tucson area mental health facility (St. Mary's Hospital Extended Care Unit [now closed]), and given his serious mental illness and associated disability, I was sincerely worried about his welfare as soon as I learned that he had escaped ASH with nothing but the clothes on his back into central Phoenix at approximately 9:30 in the evening. As for one critical aspect of Jesus' mental illness, I knew, for example, that he had made at least one very serious (lethal) attempt to kill himself, which stands as only one crucial feature of Murietta's primary diagnosis and cause for long term hospitalization. 

2) I was also immediately worried about the issue of public safety. The affects of Jesus' mental state cause(s) him to have a propensity for violent outbursts associated with his mental illness and related  hallucinations; in the Tucson facility, for example (St. Mary's Hospital extended care unit [now closed]), I had witnessed Murietta very aggressively  attack male staff on at least 3 occasions (wherein he would fall into a state of near catatonic stupor leaving him disoriented to a point of utter confusion in all senses); and at ASH, it was known that he had attacked both staff as well as patients on numerous occasions, too (including within a week or two of his escape, on a woman restricted by severe physical disability to a wheel chair).

3) I was equally disturbed by the fact that the administrators of The Arizona State Hospital were engaging in what I recognized as an obvious cover up of Murietta's escape which was posing grave danger in terms of public safety in all senses. Via my earliest experiences as an ASH patient (circa spring 2011), I had learned by this time that various senior staff members are willing to engage in graphic dishonesty and unlawful patterns of misconduct clearly designed to condone and preserve ongoing patient abuse at ASH and related administrative abuses of authority in defiance of the public trust, so I was immediately suspicious about the underlying motivations relating to why they did not dutifully report Murietta's escape to the greater public, including Phoenix area police, etc., in order to ensure that the public as well as Murietta not be at risk of harm. 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize and see through the criminal misbehavior of that I witnessed and was subjected to at ASH. And as the details of this particularly horrific saga proves, senior clinical staff (ASH psychiatrists), administrators (executive officers and associated legal counsel), and officials in ADHS/BHS are more than willing to put the welfare of their clients and even the greater public at critical risk of great harm in order to protect themselves from due oversight and accountability. Herein, the motivation that compelled me to contact the editorial news desk at The Arizona State Republic newspaper approximately 4 days after the escape itself, with the public interest in mind, in all senses. But when ASH administrators were contacted by feature news reporter JJ Hensley at that point in time, they willfully denied that the fact any escapes whatsoever had occurred in the related time frame. Ergo, Jesus Murietta was left out in the cold, as it were, unmedicated and acutely affected by serious mental illness; while the greater public was exposed to the threat of this young man's most violent behavior. 

As stated above, I consider Jesus Murietta a friend, in spite of this matter as it stands. But more importantly, I recognize and value him as a human being. This is not to say that I in any way feel that he deserves anything less than full accountability, in his own right, for his actions specific to April Mott's horrific death. Jesus is not the first or only person I have considered to be a friend at some point in time, only to learn later that they are (were) capable of outright homicidal behavior. In such cases, I do try to remember these individuals for their positive characteristics and to never forget that they are human beings; I also attest that in my own right, I rarely if ever make friends with people who have absolutely no positive characteristics. Fortunately, there simply are not that many people like that in my world- particularly now that I am no longer around or under the care of such people at The Arizona State Hospital, including Dr. Perviaz Akhter, Donna "You are soooo busted!" Noriega, Joel "the mortician" Rudd, and so on. 

Specific to the decisions and motivations underlying ASH's willingness to obscure the facts about the escape when good faith inquiries about the event were submitted by JJ Hensley, the individuals centrally involved at that time failed to exhibit the primary concerns that I- a lay person with no experience in administrative heath care- had following  Jesus Murietta's escape from ASH in late May, 2011 (with respect for Murietta's safety, and that of the public), and instead put their own selfish interests first.   

In Jesus' specific case, the bare bone fact(s) is that April Mott would not have died in late August, 2011, if not for the criminal misconduct of both ASH's senior clinical staff (e.g., Dr. Steven Dingle, who was actually promoted not long after this scandal occurred and still works for ADHS/BHS today!) and executive staff (Noriega, Rudd, Froio, Morris). 

One citizen dead, another one wasting away in state prison, where the flow of mental health care is likely as bad, if not worse, than the substandard medical-mental health care and practices  currently in effect at The Arizona State Hospital. The bare bone fact is that if not for the malfeasant misconduct of these highly paid state employees, in whom the citizens of Arizona bear great trust in terms of ensuring that no citizen be subjected to undue threats to safety and well being in general, April Mott would be alive today, and Jesus Rincon Murietta would not be in prison.

  ONLY IN ARIZONA. SUBSTANDARD MEDICAL-MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND PRACTICES THAT HAVE PUT THE CITIZENS OF ARIZONA IN GREAT PERIL. 

As stated, I wish all/any of April Mott's family and friends my heartfelt wishes for reasonable healing and recovery from this atrocious cycle of violence.  As for Jesus, to the extent that he now knows what the future looks like, I do hope that he survives the worst impacts of his struggles with serious mental illness, as those affects stand today. He will not acquire release from prison before the year 2030, and given his youth and mental state, he is facing about as tough a body of consequences as any American might encounter in this age. He is a man, and I know that he is very strong. Maybe he will survive this, somehow, and emerge a better, healthier man than he was when he escaped from ASH. Not likely, given the limitations of the prison experience, but possible, and if there is any one thing that I feel Jesus Murietta deserves today, it is the simple presence of possibilities. This, in spite of his worst potential as man affected by serious mental illness. I will say again that do not mean to disrespect April Mott's  family and friends, or otherwise defer the horrific impacts of Jesus' behavior as it stands today. There is simply no happy ending to this tale, and my primary concern has to do with the fact that the people directly responsible for this cycle of violence are still sitting comfortably in the employ of the state, receiving pay that comes straight out of the pockets of Arizona's collective citizens. Getting away with it, lock-stock-and barrel. It is that bad.

IN CLOSING: Keep in mind that given the blatant disregard for the welfare and safety of the general public illustrated is indicative of issues of equally critical significance there within the walls and fence lines of The Arizona State Hospital itself, where there is next to no open/transparent expressed information specific to the rampant presence of patient abuse and associated clinical and administrative ineptitude/untruthfulness. In other words, if these people are willing to deny the greater public their due rights, just imagine how much more so they are to violate and demean the rights of ASH patients, all of whom are seriously mentally ill and disabled, and highly vulnerable to neglect, exploitation, and abuse.        With these factors in mind, here at the outset of a new year (2014), please keep up your dedication to helping me defend the rights, dignity, and general well being of Arizona's most seriously ill citizens. The patient abuse at The Arizona State Hospital is ongoing- of this I am rock solid certain- and it needs to stop. The abuse of hospitalized vulnerable adults is sickeningly inhumane, highly illegal, and downright unacceptable. 

paoloreed@gmail.com