"Numerous state psychiatric hospitals have recently been exposed for violations and/or deficiencies in patient care and safety, including several that have come under U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation. The reports show that these facilities are not safe, sanitary or rehabilitative places."
(S. Wagner, Director of Litigation and Prosecution, The Citizens Commission on Human Rights. November 24, 2007)
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| Dr. Cara Christ. Director, Arizona Dept. of Health Services 2015-the present. |
"There is absolutely no way that the decision was made to deny the public knowledge of the escape itself and Murietta's presence in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area without Dr. Dingle's full awareness of that decision." (PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse. April 05, 2012.)
Since her appointment to the highest ranking position in Arizona’s public health care system in 2015, Arizona Department of Health Director Dr. Cara Christ has repeatedly stated that there have been “great improvements” in the state’s sole long term public mental health care facility, Arizona State Hospital (ASH). To date however, January 2018, Dr. Christ has never provided any evidence or information about just what these “improvements” at ASH are, in fact. This is of very real concern to the staff of this publication, given that Dr. Christ’s immediate predecessor (Will Humble ADHS Director 2009-2015) willfully relied upon producing a pattern of overt and untruthful propaganda that served to delay a subsequent process of critically needed oversight and accountability at ASH. Propaganda that defied the realities specific to the ASH operation, including but not limited to preventable patient deaths, the tragic murder of a young Phoenix woman, and a wide range of patient generated concerns expressed in grievance submissions; and as such, granted the former administrators of ASH further opportunity to continue operating ASH in a manner deeply harmful to the welfare of the Hospital’s patient community. These issues have been exemplified by the information provided in this blog since 2012, as well as in a number of scathing investigative findings of the staff of ABC Ch15 circa 2013-2015; (As reported previously in this publication, at least three preventable deaths occurred due to this fact).
The following article was originally published sometime in the first twelve months of the life of this blog, PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital Patient Abuse. We are republishing this information as one means to remind our readers of how dismally substandard the operation at ASH was circa 2010-2012, and in order to raise consideration as to whether in fact any legitimate improvements have in fact come about since Dr. Christ was granted directorship over Arizona’s public health care system.
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INTRODUCTION
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| Jesus Murietta; April Mott |
A Modern Horror Story: Wherein the Administrators of the
Criminal Misconduct of Senior Ranking Medical Staff and Administrators In Order to Avoid Accountability. Jesus Rincon Murietta. A friend.
(Originally published April 05, 2012)
At the heart of my coming to understand how unlawfully The Arizona State Hospital (ASH) goes about its day to day business as the sole long term mental care hospital in the whole state of Arizona, is the story of Jesus Murietta. This is a shocking, and very sad story, and I do not want any of directly affected individuals to misinterpret why I am willing to include this story in my personal writing.
The fact is, ASH' administrative misconduct directly led to a young woman's death in the Phoenix community, and I know that had ASH done the right thing when they had the chance to (rather than putting their own selfish interests first), the young woman would not have died. Bottom line. Furthermore, I was centrally involved in bringing the truth of this horrific sequence of events to the attention of the public, and there was an extensive newspaper story published in the Arizona Republic newspaper in late September, 2011, that fully relates this fact. (see "Victim's Family Questions Why Man Was Free," Sept. 28, 2011) Thus, I unwillingly became very involved in this story while I was receiving "treatment" for depression at the Arizona State Hospital. I had to put myself at risk in order to try and see that ASH do the right thing, because that is how I live my life. Of course, ASH refused to do the right thing, and a person died. A travesty, and nothing less.
I first met Jesus Murietta in the summer of 2010 in Tucson, at St. Mary's Hospital Extended Care Unit (ECU), before either one of us was referred and admitted to ASH; and although he was typically very heavily dosed with whatever anti-psychotic medication or whatever the hell they had him on at the time, shuffling around like a mummy or something, I became casual friends with him there that summer, largely because he used to sit and listen to me play an electric piano that they had at ECU, and he used to joke around a little bit, ribbing me because I couldn't play any Chopin, or Monk. But I was also pretty wary of Jesus at the time, because regardless of how dosed up on drugs they had him, he pretty regularly used to attack male technicians there at ECU, and his attacks were fairly formidable, given the circumstances. But he never gave me any trouble at all, and I came to like him by the time he was shipped off to other realms once he had carried out his fourth attack on a staff member in as many weeks, I had no firm idea of where they might have sent the man at the time, but I must admit, when I arrived at ASH in early 2011, I wasn't surprised to almost immediately run into him.
Jesus was seemingly an entire different fellow by the time I next saw him at ASH, this would have been 5 or so months after he was transferred away from ECU in Tucson. Primarily, I could tell right away that he clearly was not nearly so heavily medicated as he had been at St. Mary’s ECU. He was buoyant and in fine physical health, and we rekindled our casual friendship right away. But Jesus is at least 25-30 years younger than I, and as such, over subsequent months he carried on his lifestyle at ASH in a manner that one would only expect out of a guy his age, hanging out with other young people on the ASH patient mall, and so on.
In late May 2011, I learned one morning from a security guard that Jesus had successfully broken out of ASH the previous evening. I was told that Jesus had grabbed a staff member's electronic i.d.card and security pass and used it to basically walk out of ASH at about 9:30 p.m., and that to the security guard's knowledge, he had not yet been recaptured. I found the story interesting, to say the least, and I immediately looked into whether there were any news stories about the matter. I presumed, in fact, that there would have to be some sort of public story about it, because Jesus is clearly a dangerous guy when his head isn't right, and knowing as I did that he was somewhere in the greater Phoenix community immediately concurred me.
I was also worried about Jesus, because he had escaped ASH at around ten at night, in gym shorts and a muscle shirt, with no wallet, etc., and ASH is located in a very bad part of Phoenix's south central district. But preliminary inquiries I made turned up no evidence of any public news to the effect of his being at large in the community. And as time passed from that first day following his escape, with notice to the citizens of Phoenix via the media or other like resource, I began to suspect that something fishy was going on. I suspected, in fact, that it had to with what I already knew about the abject ineptitude of the administrators I had by then come to interact with, and that those people were very likely trying to cover up the fact that a patient had virtually walked out of the place, despite the multi-fenced perimeters, electronically secure doors, and quasi-qualified security staff. In order, it was equally obvious to me, to avoid due accountability.
With these concerns in mind, I then decided to contact the local Phoenix newspaper, The Arizona Republic, (the state’s largest newspaper), and share what I knew about the issue. I initially spoke with an editor, who upon hearing the fundamental detail, exclaimed ”Yes, this is a great tip!” I was subsequently put in contact with a reporter named JJ Hensley, who expressed a fairly keen interest in my report as it stood. In our first conversation, I specifically expressed my main concerns about the affair to him as follows:
1) I was concerned about the public safety issue, knowing that Jesus could at times be very volatile and violent.
2) I was equally concerned about Jesus' safety as a mentally ill person, knowing as I did that he had departed ASH in the late evening dressed in very little clothing, with no identification (patient i.d.'s are taken away form ASH upon admission) and presumably little or no money, etc.
3) And I was concerned that ASH administration was in the process of trying to avoid accountability at the expense of the public's right to be advised of such concerns, as well as at Jesus' expense as a mentally ill person.
After that first meeting, Mr. Hensley told me that he would have to see what he could come up with in terms of verifying my account. It was his intent to follow up our discussions via contact with Hospital administrators, in order to acquire reasonable confirmation of my report to him.
Important to note that I directed Mr. Hensley to keep my name out of it all. I was already pretty frightened by the things I had seen at ASH in terms of staff misconduct, and I did not wish to put myself any more at risk of harm by staff than I already was. Yes, it's pretty messed up to think that patients are frightened by ASH staff, but its true, for many of the more experienced (longer term) ASH patients who I came to know bluntly told told me that they were at times terrified of staff. This terror did in part relate to the possibility of gravely dangerous forms of retaliation. I thus stated that I had no interest in notoriety or personal gain as being the primary source to this matter, and that my sole concerns flowed directly from the three I had expressed in our first conversation.
In any case, Mr. Hensley and I hung up our after a short conversation, and I sat back somewhat comfortably, believing as I did that the reporter would surely come up with something about Jesus' escape. But after about 10 days, when I had not yet seen any news, I called Mr. Hensley and basically asked what was going on. Hensley then advised me that ASH administrators had denied any patient escapes in the related time frame, and that in any case, they could not comment as to the affairs of ASH patients across the board.
In short, Mr. Hensley could not confirm my report, so he had to drop his investigation in the matter. I could tell from his time voice at the time that he was questioning my credibility, too, which makes sense (I was, after all, just one or another insane man calling from the state mental hospital). This turn of events more then simply frustrated me then, for I knew that it was yet another case of ASH getting away with something. But I saw no way to do anything more, so I effectively let it go.
By late summer 2011, I had basically put the Jesus Murietta affair behind me, largely because many other serious concerns had become central to my very survival at ASH by that time. In short, my willingness to oppose various issues going on at ASH that I recognized as being detrimental to my wellbeing and that of my patient-peers, detrimental if not outright criminal in nature, had created overt patterns of staff resentment towards me. Leaving me at times in sincere fear for my life. Literally, because the Murietta affair in itself had already clarified to me that the Hospital’s senior ranking medical staff (that being staff psychiatrists and the facility’s chief medical officer, Dr. Steven Dingle) were very much willing to put their disturbingly selfish (sociopathic) interests before the welfare of the public; and not to mention, ergo, what they might willing to do in order to silence me, a Hospital patient well outside of public awareness. (More information about these issues will be detailed in this blog at a later time.)
Even my most worrisome concerns regarding Jesus’ threat to the public at large could not have led me, at that time, to understand the full potential of the situation as it stood then, summer 2011.
Sitting outside by myself one morning about three months after Jesus' escape, the same security guard who had advised me of Jesus’ escape approached me yet again. She asked me if I had seen the newspaper yet that day. I told her that I hadn’t, and asked her “Why? What am I missing?”
Her verbatim response: ”It’s Jesus. It’s bad.”
I immediately walked to the nearby patient library, where I reviewed the front page up the front page of the Arizona Republic, I was shocked.
“Phoenix man arrested in girlfriend's violent death” (Arizona Republic. August 30, 2011. Associated Press.)
I then called JJ Hensley, the reporter at the AZ Republic newspaper who I had initially reported Jesus' escape to. Hensley and I had a brief, very awkward conversation, as the both of us came to terms with the fact that the same young man that ASH had been unwilling to release information about when he escaped had gone on to brutally murder a young woman named April Mott.
These are Mr. Hensley's exact words: "I feel like her blood is on my hands."
My response: ”Not exactly. It is the one’s you spoke to here at ASH, the ones who lied to you. The blood is on their hands.”
Following our conversation on that late August day, Mr. Hensley took it upon himself to more thoroughly conduct a formal investigation into the improprieties of ASH' actions specific to this sequence of events. He thus learned that not only had ASH' administration gone out of its way to alter the truth regarding the details of Jesus' escape by changing the official record in such a way that Jesus escape had been characterized as a legitimate discharge, but that they had also interfered with the flow of several criminal investigations during the course for the summer, in the months and weeks preceding Ms. Mott's brutal slaying, wherein Jesus had been arrested two or three times in relation to relatively minor criminal activity, but because the police knew nothing about Jesus connection to ASH, and so on, he was released each time.
As stated at the outset of this account, this entire story was published in in The Arizona Republic newspaper in late September, 2011, in a story written by Mr. Hensley. (See: “Phoenix victim's family questions why man was free. Mental hospital halted search; escapee now a murder suspect.” JJ Hensley. Sept. 28, 2011.)
This was the nature of this sequence of events, as they played out between late May, 2011, and late August. When Jesus Murietta escaped from ASH in late May, 2011, Hospital administrators, and I am willing to guess that this would have included but not been limited to the chief medical officer at the time (Dr. Steven Dingle), the chief operating officer (Donna Noriega), Jesus attending ASH psychiatrist (Dr. Morris), and most assuredly the Hospital's legal counsel (Joel Rudd of the AZ Attorney General's Office) decided to not publicize the escape.
Every morning at 9 a.m., all senior ranking staff at ASH meet for a general operations conference, wherein formalized discussion of key facets of the Hospital's affairs on any given day occurs. I believe one can safely surmise that the issue of Jesus' escape was on the table, and the decision had to have been made then and there, to not go public about Jesus' escape. It should be noted, too, that during this period of time (April-August, 2011) ASH was operating without a duly hired chief executive officer, a condition that arguably lent to the relative disarray at that time, and the related selfishness and stupidity of this formal decision. In this sense, it was in part the failure of ADHS officials such as Director Will Humble to ensure that the ASH operation be conducted as per the public trust that did contribute to this tragedy. I am firmly of the opinion that ASH administration, in complicity with ADHS officials, made this decision in order to avoid accountability.
And the directly associated fact is that I came to realize as time progressed during my 13 month stay at ASH, that these people do conduct themselves in this way as a matter of standard practice, with a literal "to hell with the rights and wellbeing of others" attitude that I was personally subjected to time and time again. As are all ASH patients, on a day in-day out basis.
In this case, that attitude led to the brutal killing of April Mott, and Mr. Hensley's story in the newspaper clearly presents a picture of the sort of misconduct I am going to expose in this blog. The people responsible for this sequence of events, and myriad other wrongdoings, need to be held fully accountable under law and public policy. The citizens of Arizona deserve as much, particularly the patients at ASH and their families. Nobody should be subjected to the egregious and sub-standard mental health care that ASH' current administration and clinical staff so willingly practice. Anybody willing and able to come to support of the patients at the Arizona State hospital can feel free to email me.
DATELINE 2018: Outside of the fact that so much ugliness lays beneath the truth to this whole story, it should be noted, in as tactful a manner as possible, that Jesus Rincon Murietta is today rotting away- still suffering from serious mental illness- in the Arizona State Prison, where medical care of any kind is limited to an arguably inhumane degree. Murietta is in prison, when he should still be in a hospital.
And April Mott, very respectfully speaking, is still dead, her family and loved ones left to fret over what just might have gone different.
No Hospital staff or state officials were in any way held accountable for the cover up of Murietta's escape and/or the consequent death of April Mott. But let it be clear: THE BLOOD OF APRIL MOTT IS ON THE HANDS OF EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL INVOLVED IN THE ISSUES SPECIFIC TO THIS HORRIFIC STORY.
And April Mott, very respectfully speaking, is still dead, her family and loved ones left to fret over what just might have gone different.
No Hospital staff or state officials were in any way held accountable for the cover up of Murietta's escape and/or the consequent death of April Mott. But let it be clear: THE BLOOD OF APRIL MOTT IS ON THE HANDS OF EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL INVOLVED IN THE ISSUES SPECIFIC TO THIS HORRIFIC STORY.
The narrowest breadth of wrongdoing in this case directly extends to the role in it all of the longstanding chief medical officer at ASH, Dr. Steven Dingle. The fact is, there's absolutely no way that the decision was made to deny the public knowledge of the escape itself and Murietta's presence in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area without Dr. Dingle's full awareness of that decision. And as such, no one person more to blame for that action, or with Ms. Mott's consequent and preventable death, then he. This action accurately characterizes Dingle’s inability to conduct himself in accordance with his responsibilities as a licensed doctor, most specifically with respect for his DUTY TO WARN. He more then any other one doctor at ASH had more awareness of this duty. And yet even today, 2018, Dingle is allowed to function as ASH' most highly ranked medical officer.
The wrongdoing extends, as well, to various officials in the department of health, be they legal officials, administrative officials, and so on; for it is they who have direct responsibility in terms who works at ASH, and all other aspects of the ASH operation in relation to the public good.
The willingness of these people to put the interests of the public somewhere far below their own sickeningly selfish interests (a young woman was brutally, very, very brutally murdered!) more then scratches the surface of just how crucial it is for we the public to understand how deep the threat of harm is when it comes to such selfishness. And in knowing this, to realize how gravely in danger the patient community at ASH may be today, hammers home the need for continued oversight. Since 2015 and appointment of Dr. Cara Christ to the helm of ADHS, a number of similar issues have yet agin arisen, including at least two arguably preventable patient deaths there in the Hospital itself.
A Hospital, I will just say again. A HOSPITAL.
The patients at ASH are the central stakeholders in all that goes on there, this is plain fact. Yet I reasonably contend that it is only the fact that ASH’s patient community has the status of being mentally ill that these issues exist. I know as well that the “What happens at ASH stays at ASH stays at ASH” mentality is no less strong then it was during my time there, circa 2011-12. Contributing to ongoing violations of patient rights and associated harm. This has been confirmed in a very recent meeting of the Hospital’s Human Rights Committee (which as per statute is to function independent of any employee of the state, including and foremost actual Hospital staff), and the documented actions in that meeting of current CEO Dr. Aaron Bowen, who blatantly tried to suppress the concerns of a patient about Dr. Steven Dingle's irrefutable history as a depraved sexual behavior. A history that further defines Dingle's lack of fitness and character as a licensed medical doctor.
As stated above, the patients at ASH are the central stakeholders in the overall operation of ASH; as well as citizens of Arizona and the greater USA, who have civil and human rights equal to each and every ASH employee. The involved patient’s right to raise this issue in his or her own voice is protected as per the United States Bill of Rights. If there is any one message that we believe Christ and Bowen need to be reminded of today, that would be it. Along with the fact that beyond these specific rights, ASH patients are members of a “special class” in terms of law and policy, as individuals disabled under state and federal law by their given diagnosis, and therein protected by the provisions the American’s With Disabilities Act (ADA).
And as stated already, I strongly believe that is the disability of ASH’ patients that compels some ASH staff to conduct themselves in violation of law and policy, believing in no uncertain terms that ASH patients are both undeserving of equal rights and unable to speak up in defense of those rights. Patterns of disregard for the lives and wellbeing of mentally ill persons that have been known to human culture since time immemorial.
As per the provisions of ADA and the fundamental awareness of any reasonably conscientious person today, this nature of misconduct by these people is definitive discrimination. Bottom line.
You, Dr. Cara Christ , are 100% responsible for doing the right thing today. So do it, already.
Dingle has to go, at a bare minimum. More later.
paoloreed@gmail.com
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I would really love input of any kind from anybody with any interest whatsoever in the issues that I am sharing in this blog. I mean it, anybody, for I will be the first one to admit that I may be inaccurately depicting certain aspects of the conditions
at ASH, and anonymous comments are fine. In any case, I am more than willing to value anybody's feelings about my writing, and I assure you that I will not intentionally exploit or otherwise abuse your right to express yourself as you deem fit. This topic is far, far too important for anything less. Thank you, whoever you are. Peace and Frogs.