Review/Rerun: Arizona State Hospital and the  Brutal Death of April Mott, a beautiful young woman who would have no connection to the grossly unlawful misconduct of ASH administrators had they only met their simplest obligations to the public.

INTRODUCTION: In the last 4 weeks, two crucial legal events occurred specific to the unlawful conduct of ASH administrators. First, in southern Arizona, a district judge found that the unwillingness of Hospital officials to release the details underlying patient deaths at ASH had occurred in gross violation of state and federal law (see: "Judge orders state to hand over death records." Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services, August 02, 2014). Then, more recently, Scripps Media, Inc. (owners of Phoenix area's ABC affiliate news station ABC Ch15 filed a suit against ADHS Director Will Humble and the administrative staff of ASH, in the Maricopa County court (Phoenix) on the grounds that the failure of ASH  to report a over 20 sexual assaults on ASH patients to police had occurred in graphic violation of the public trust (see: "Records Demanded on Sexual Assaults." Capitol News Services, Monday August 11, 2014). These issues are 100% on point with my observations, experiences, and accrued knowledge base as one time ASH patient (Jan. 2011-Feb. 2012). I am thus republishing some the of the details underlying one of most heinous illustrations specific to the deeply corrupt misconduct of the Hospital's highest ranking executive staff. 

Herein, revisit to the story of Jesus Rincon Murietta and the tragic death of April Mott.  

INVOLVED STAFF: Assistant Attorney General Joel Rudd; former Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stephen Dingle (who is now the CMO of the entire AZ Behavioral Health Services network) and any other staff psychiatrists who were aware of this issue; former Chief Operating Officer and current Chief Executive Officer Donna Noriega; psychiatrist Dr. Stephen O. Morris; former Chief Executive Officer Ann Froio; former Chief Executive Officer  Cory Nelson  (now Deputy Director of the entire AZ Behavioral Health Services network).

Jesus Rincon Murietta did as a matter of fact violently escape the confines of The Arizona State Hospital in late May, 2011. I learned of this the following morning. I then awaited the publication of some nature of report in the media, for Murietta was known to be very violent, with a history of lethal suicide attempts, as well. A danger to others and a danger to self, as per the law.  No such report emerged however, which after 3 days compelled me to contact the news desk at The Arizona Republic newspaper, Phoenix's main press. Speaking on a patient telephone within ASH I shared the barebones fact that an ASH patient was on the loose with an editor, who's immediate response fell along the lines of "This a great tip!" I subsequently spoke with investigative reporter J.J. Hensley, sharing any information I knew of in the context. His next step was to confirm my report, which he sought to do by contacting the administrative office at ASH. (see: "Victim's family questions why man was free. Mental hospital halted search; escapee now a mUrder suspect". J.J. Hensley, Arizona Republic, September 28 2011).

FACT: At that point in time, when Mr. Hensley inquired as to the validity of my report to him, Hospital officials patently denied that any escapes had occurred in the given time frame. As a direct consequence of this blatant attempt of ASH administrators to cover up the fact that an ASH patient had successfully escaped the Hospital itself, Murietta was able to roam free in the greater Phoenix community for approximately 90 days. During that time he had at least three serious run-ins with Phoenix police, who were not aware of the fact that he had recently escaped a Level I psychiatric facility (ASH); he was thus released. In late August, 2011, Murietta brutally beat and then cut the throat of April Mott. 

Friday, April 6, 2012

         Following his arrest in the horrific death of April Mott, it took about 4 weeks for Jesus Murietta's defense to even realize that he had issues relating to mental illness, again, this due to the administrators of ASH's willful failure to meet their obligations in terms of the public trust. I personally contacted Murietta's assigned public defender from the Hospital itself and informed her of the fact that he was resident patient at the Arizona State Hospital who had violently escaped that facility approximately 90 days before Ms. Mott's death.  ASH is a public entity, licensed in accordance with regulatory commissions  here in Arizona, as well at the federal level. How is it that ASH' administration could get away with this sort of activity? That is a question that I have had to consider for many many months, the vast majority of it while there in ASH, where patients have a reasonable expectation of feeling safe, ASH being a "hospital" and all; and today I am working to explore this mystery through participating in critical inquiry such as the blogging networks. But I have my own notes, too (and man did I ever take good notes while I was a patient at ASH).

         When I first arrived at ASH, I was personally pretty freaked out by the possibility that I would be surrounded by a bunch of raving lunatics, even some of the hospital staffers in the Tucson hospitals made comments to the effect of ASH being a really scary place. I learned, however, in relatively short time, that the patients are not the problem at ASH, and in terms of any justified fears that I heard from other patients, it was all about abusive staff.

         But before I go much further into detailing my experiences at ASH, I need to state a disclaimer of sorts: There are good people at ASH. Sadly, they are the minority, and power dynamics being what they are, the miscreants (including doctors, nurses, security, and administration) rule the land once anybody enters the grounds of ASH. But I definitely met a handful of basically nice folks working there at ASH, and I feel that I made some good Friends amongst certain of the staff that I had dealings with. And speaking of you folks, I thank you from my heart for your goodness in the face of all the wrongdoing there in ASH. You know who you are, and I would not have gotten through my experiences there if not for the likes of your kind, pearls in a virtual wasteland of utter depravity and inhumanity.

         I did have one problem however, relating to the fact that even the good people at ASH don't take a meaningful step forward and speak out publicly about the shit going on around them day in and day out. Yes, of course it is question of job security, but that is simply not a sound justification, for the state employee contracts obligate employees to report abuse, and so on. What, then, is the problem?  Why won't any of the ASH file reports on behalf of the patients? From what I saw, it is all about anendemic fear that is instilled in the staff with job security in mind. I had the opportunity to briefly interact with more than one good hearted staff person on this question, and it was made clear to me that they were afraid for their jobs. These are employees who fully understood and agreed with my strongest concerns about abuse and so on. For example, with the Jesus Murietta affair in mind, ASH admin. refused to confirm Murietta's very existence to their knowledge when the reporter JJ Hensley asked about the escape, citing HIPPA and basic privacy standards (which of course is a crock of shit, because ASH admin. is not allowed to hide behind HIPPA in order to further unlawful conduct). So Hensley asked me to at least try and find one employee- anybody- willing to drop a dime and anonymously call him from a pay phone or whatever, merely to verify that Murietta was a former patient at ASH. But the two persons who I suggested this to literally cringed at the idea of doing anything like that because they knew that no matter what the circumstances, if they took action in contradiction to ASH obvious flow of practice, they could lose their jobs. Instilling any such fear into the minds of employees is in direct defiance of federal statutes relating to work place safety and related responsibility. Whistle blower statutes, too, apply in contexts such as this, but the state rpr4esentatives responsible for hiring ASH staffers somehow instill in them that they better not speak out about anything, or else they can kiss their jobs goodbye. Therein, I believe it is nothing any more or less glamorous or dastardly than common state government malfeasance, all at the expense of the patients.

        In closing on the day, I will offer a quick peek into what my literal admission to ASH was like, because things took a turn towards the worst that quickly. I had no longer been admitted to ASH that I learned that someone at ASH, most assuredly a member of the security staff, had stolen a bottle of my medication. The staff at ASH didn't put it that way, of course, but I went to the trouble of looking into the disappearance of the meds in question, and much to the chagrin of the rat bastards at ASH, confirmed the truth of the matter. This is how it went down: I arrived at ASH in an ambulance that had transported me from the Tucson hospital that handled my reference and application to ASH. In that ambulance was a sealed plastic bag containing my medications, including a full (unopened) bottle of sixty 10mg Ambien sleeping pills. I know there was an unopened bottle of Ambien in the bag because I had watched a nurse at that Tucson hospital inventory each medication in full as he then placed them into and then sealed the plastic bag. Such processes are standard practice when it comes to medication. Likewise, the ambulance attendants are required to submit written notice confirming the presence of such sealed bags of medications at both ends of the transport, and there are cameras on board the ambulances that come into play with this process in mind. At ASH, however, staff did not inventory my medications when they entered them into the ASH system; and I was informed  a later time that the Ambien was missing. On the street, Ambien has a reasonable street value. I have heard one 10mg pill can sell for $5.00. It's that simple, and when I continued over time to ask for a full explanation from ASH administration, including my final assigned social worker, Mr. Robert Washington, all I got was a run around. Plain and simple stonewalling, all for a measly couple of bucks, and so far as ASH admin. is concerned, it's all business as usual.

        As my first primary assigned psychiatrist, Dr. Laxman Patel, put it: "This is the state hospital. What do you expect?"         

      

Please help me fight for the rights of the pateints at the Arizona State Hospital. My email address is as follows:

paoloreed@gmail.com