Dangerous Mentally Ill Murderer Escapes Field Trip
Written by Janet
Moving it here on its own now, as there are more updates….
Killer confined to Eastern State runs away Spokane
SPOKANE, Wash. —
A killer committed to a mental institution has escaped during a field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair.
Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan says 57-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul was last seen Thursday morning in the northeast part of the fairgrounds. A store clerk told authorities she saw someone matching Paul’s description later in the morning, and Reagan says investigators believe he has gotten outside the fairgrounds.
It’s not his first escape.
Paul slashed an elderly woman’s throat in Sunnyside in 1987, soaked her body in gasoline to throw off search dogs and buried the remains in her flower garden. He was acquitted by reason of insanity but committed to Eastern State Hospital indefinitely.
In 1990 he walked away from custody and attacked a sheriff’s deputy who apprehended him.
- Posted in: Crime & Punishment
- Tagged: field trip, Mentally ill murderer, Spokane Washington, walks away
Newsdesk International 
an update….this guy is a killer….so now the search is statewide.
Authorities have put out a statewide alert for a mentally ill killer who escaped during a hospital field trip to a county fair, leading to fears that he’ll become more unstable and potentially dangerous the longer he is on the loose with no medication.
Sgt. Dave Reagan of the Spokane County sheriff’s office says Phillip Arnold Paul remained at large Friday and officials believe he’s headed to Sunnyside, the town where his parents live. Anyone spotting him should call 911 and not try to confront him.
Paul was committed after he was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1987 slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside. He soaked the woman’s body in gasoline to throw off search dogs and buried the remains in her flower garden. He reportedly said voices in his head told him she was a witch.
He was caught trying to escape four years later, only to knock a deputy unconscious in the booking area following his arrest.
The 57-year-old Paul escaped Thursday during a supervised outing to the Spokane County Interstate Fair for patients from Eastern State Hospital. Thirty-one patients from the mental hospital were on the trip with 11 staff members.
Local officials and fairgoers said they were stunned that mental patients, including at least one with a criminal past, would be taken to the fair.
Patients must be cleared by a treatment team of six to 12 clinicians according to an extensive checklist before they can go on field trips to stores, parks, ball games, fairs and other sites, said hospital spokesman Jim Stevenson said. They wear street clothing and need not all stay together, but staff members are required to keep each patient within eyesight at all times.
The escape led state Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Susan Dreyfus to order an indefinite halt to all outings involving criminally committed patients at the state’s three mental institutions.
Dreyfus also instructed Eastern State to review the policy on patient outings and a plan to prevent similar problems.
“It’s outrageous that security was so inept that a guy who’s officially regarded as criminally insane was able to just slip away from the group.
It was the second escape for Paul. In 1991, he walked away from custody during a day trip in Medical Lake and was captured at Fishtrap on the western Spokane County line. He attacked a sheriff’s deputy in the jail booking area, knocking him unconscious and separating his shoulder, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.
Paul, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was acquitted by reason of insanity after the 1987 killing and committed to Eastern State Hospital indefinitely.
Hospital officials told authorities that Paul hadn’t exhibited violent behavior in years. They argued in the past that he should be released, but his petition for release was rejected in 2003.
He was described as 5-foot-8 and 207 pounds with brown hair and a goatee, was wearing blue jeans and a red windbreaker over a blue T-shirt.
Manhunt Intensifies for Insane Killer Who Escaped During Washington State Fair
Authorities searched by air and land Friday for a criminally insane killer who escaped during a mental hospital field trip to a county fair that has infuriated residents and officials around Washington.
Authorities have said they believe Phillip Arnold Paul is heading to the Sunnyside area, where his parents and many siblings live. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office launched a helicopter on Friday in the search, and the public was urged to call 911 if Paul is spotted.
“He is in a bad mental state,” his brother, Tom Paul, told The Associated Press. “Why would they load him on a bus and take him to a fair?”
That’s a question many are asking.
Authorities at Eastern State Hospital are being criticized for allowing Paul to visit the fair despite his violent criminal past and history of trying to escape. Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard has called it unacceptable, and the state Department of Social and Health Services ordered an immediate end to such trips and launched an investigation into the field trip.
Paul was committed after he was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1987 slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside. He soaked the woman’s body in gasoline to throw off search dogs and buried the remains in her flower garden.
“Why was he allowed to take such a trip?” Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday. “Why did they go to a location that was so heavily populated with families?”
Thirty-one patients from the mental hospital were on the trip with 11 staff members. Patients must be cleared by a treatment team before they can go on trips to stores, parks, ball games, fairs and other sites, said hospital spokesman Jim Stevenson. They wear street clothing and need not all stay together, but staff members are required to keep each patient within eyesight at all times.
Members of an employees union put out a statement saying they had long opposed such field trips.
“They believe he was an extreme escape risk and the administration should never have allowed him on the field trip,” the statement from the Washington Federation of State Employees said. “The workers have unsuccessfully fought to stop the outings for murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane.”
The union said workers alerted superiors “within two to three minutes of discovering Paul’s escape.” But administrators waited nearly two hours before calling law enforcement. That gave Paul plenty of time to disappear.
A handful of schools in the fairgrounds area were in temporary lockdown on Friday morning, but that was lifted because he is widely believed to be heading to Sunnyside to see his family. Sunnyside is about 200 miles southwest of Spokane.
Paul is a white male, 5-foot-8, 220 pounds, with brownish-gray hair, blue eyes, and a goatee. At the time of his escape, Paul was wearing a red windbreaker jacket, with a T-shirt and jeans.
The sheriff’s office said Paul’s medication should keep him stable for 14 days, not 48 hours as previously reported.
His brother said Paul was a high school and junior college wrestler and a martial artist who should not be approached.
“I’m a tough guy but I wouldn’t take him on,” Tom Paul said. “I hope he doesn’t hurt anybody.”
This was the second escape for Paul. In 1991, he walked away during a day trip in Medical Lake and was later captured. He attacked a sheriff’s deputy in the jail booking area, knocking him unconscious, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.
Phillip Paul had a normal childhood in Sunnyside and was popular, but he started acting strangely as a high school student. He said he was hearing voices and thought they were witches, Tom Paul said. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Phillip Paul has been on and off a variety of medications over the years, and also been in and out of institutions, Tom Paul said. He has repeatedly proven unable to live in society, he said.
Paul was living in a halfway house in Spokane last year, but ended up back at the hospital in a very agitated state, Tom Paul said. Hospital officials told authorities that Paul hadn’t exhibited violent behavior in years. They argued in the past that he should be released, but his petition for release was rejected in 2003.
A legally insane killer was on the loose in the state of Washington on Saturday, two days after he escaped during a field trip to a county fair. Phillip Paul was able to elude a massive manhunt in Spokane County, Washington, after escaping on Thursday, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department said.
Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to be part of a trip to a county fair Thursday.
Paul, 47, escaped from the fair around noon, which launched the massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials. Sheriff’s officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer.
A review has been launched on the incident along with the policy that allows patients to take trips, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state’s Department of Social and Health Services.
Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul’s escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.
“These incidents, separate and coincidental, have raised serious questions about the security readiness of our two state psychiatric hospitals,” Dreyfus said.
Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head. He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according the documents. The extent of Paul’s illness was disturbing even to mental health professionals, KREM reported.
The doctors knew of his weird behavior, yet they took him off the hospital grounds? Apparently he knows what he’s doing, as he up and left…and it’s possible he’s going back home….no insane person could do that…he is just evil, and beat the system….to escape a prison sentence….and I’ve never heard of medicine lasting 14 days….I think that part was released as not to panic the public.
More information is coming out….
Union says it warned about mental patient outings
Two days after an insane killer escaped from a field trip organized by his mental hospital, the union that represents mental hospital workers said it had become concerned about the type of patients allowed to participate in such outings.
A police helicopter will canvass from the air, and officers will check transient camps and monitor railroad lines in the search for Paul, authorities said. Patients must be cleared by a treatment team before they can go on trips to stores, parks, and other sites, said Dr. Rob Henry, director of forensic services at Eastern State. They wear street clothing and staff members are required to keep each patient within eyesight at all times.
But Paul’s inclusion in Thursday’s field trip to the fair drew sharp criticism from Gov. Chris Gregoire and the union that represents Eastern State Hospital workers.
Greg Davis, president of Washington Federation of State Employees Local 782, said the union has expressed concerns about public outings to hospital management during official and unofficial meetings. In recent years, the types of patients allowed to participate in the outings has become more inclusive, Davis said.
~~~~A Yakima County judge had ruled two weeks ago that Paul remained a threat to the public because of his aggressive behavior and his decreased awareness of his psychosis~~~~
The Spokane newspaper reported that Paul had repeatedly tried to win full release from his court-ordered commitment, especially after fathering a child with a woman during a conditional release.
Davis said allowing patients like Paul to go on field trips can put hospital workers and the public at risk.
After Paul’s escape, the Department of Social and Health Services ordered an immediate end to trips like the one taken Thursday and launched an investigation into the practice.
Paul is a white male, 5-foot-8, 220 pounds, with brownish-gray hair, blue eyes and a goatee. At the time of his escape, he was wearing a red windbreaker jacket, with a T-shirt and jeans.
In 1991, he walked away during a day trip to a Washington lake and was later captured. Paul attacked a sheriff’s deputy in the jail booking area, knocking him unconscious, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault. Reagan said Paul’s parents in Sunnyside, about 150 miles southwest of Spokane, were the only family members who have kept in constant touch with him. He had been known to call them daily while he was at Eastern State Hospital.
What kind of doctors run that insane asylum?
It appears, he planned his escape, so that to me suggests he knows what he is doing.
Authorities: Insane killer likely planned getaway
Authorities in Washington state say they’re looking into whether an insane killer who escaped from a field trip organized by his mental hospital planned his getaway.
Police continued to search Sunday for Philip Arnold Paul, who escaped Thursday during a trip to a county fair.
Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan says the 47-year-old Paul left little clothing behind in his hospital room and carried a backpack and $50 on the outing.
Reagan says the trip to the fair, which included 30 other Eastern State Hospital patients, is an annual event that Paul easily could have anticipated.
The part that angers me is the fact this man was convicted of a murder, and sentenced does anyone know for how long?, to a mental institution….if that is what they do with the insane, remind me not to go there…when unsuspecting families are put at risk from violent people, that staff know about, is when we need to change policies….and damn quick before another is killed. What if these people attacked a child?
An insane killer who slipped away from the staff of a mental institution on a field trip to the Spokane County International Fair was recaptured Sunday without injury more than 180 miles away in south-central Washington state.
With a helicopter overhead and dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officers swarming around Goldendale, Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, seemed ready to surrender when he walked out to the Goldendale-Bickleton road about 22 miles east of town shortly after 4 p.m., just as search personnel arrived at the scene, Klickitat County Sheriff Rick McComas told The Associated Press.
Spokane County sheriff’s Capt. Dave Reagan said Paul was preparing to hitchhike. But McComas said Paul offered no resistance as he turned himself in.
“He came out of the brush, onto the roadway, as law enforcement officers were going by,” McComas said. “His intent was to voluntarily give himself up because he knew we were going to find him.”
The sheriff said he didn’t know how Paul reached the area, adding the information that he might be nearby came from authorities in Spokane. Authorities have offered no clues as to what Paul was doing in the Goldendale area or where he may have been headed.
Reagan said the arrest was made by Spokane County sheriff’s detective Roger W. Knight, who also nabbed Paul after he gave Eastern State Hospital personnel the slip during a field trip in Medical Lake, where the mental institution is located, in 1991.
Following that arrest, Paul knocked Knight unconscious in the jail booking area, separating his shoulder, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.
McComas said Paul would be taken to Yakima following a brief checkup by medics in Goldendale.
Earlier in the day, 50 to 60 federal, state and Spokane-area law enforcement personnel were shifted from the Spokane area in eastern Washington to Goldendale, the Klickitat County seat, about 145 miles southeast of Seattle and 185 miles southwest of Spokane.
Reagan wouldn’t specify what led to the shift, which occurred on the third day after Paul’s escape. It remained unclear whether Paul met up with anyone after his getaway Thursday morning.
Until Sunday, authorities said they believed Paul would head for his family home in Sunnyside, about 65 road miles east of Goldendale and about 180 road miles south-southwest of Spokane. But Reagan said investigators have had no indication that Paul passed through Sunnyside.
Paul left little clothing in his room, just some underwear and socks, and was carrying a backpack and $50 from a Social Security check when he vanished. The field trip to the fair, which included 30 other patients, is an annual event that Paul easily could have anticipated, Reagan said.
Paul was committed after he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and acquitted by reason of insanity in the slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside in 1987. He soaked her body in gasoline to throw off search dogs.
Jim Stevenson, a spokesman for the state Department of Social and Health Services, said Paul received an injection designed to maintain his mental stability for about two weeks on Wednesday. Only at the end of that period would he need another dose to avoid the potential for a serious deterioration of his mental condition, Stevenson said.
On Saturday Reagan told The Spokesman-Review newspaper that investigators learned Paul had several contacts in the Spokane area after living outside the hospital complex periodically, including stays at The Carlyle Care Center in downtown Spokane.
Paul’s page on the online social networking site MySpace features recordings of nine songs, including one titled “Rock N Roll in the Mental Institution,” by Philly Willy and the Hillbillies. The singing on the recordings was done by Paul, but it was unclear when or where they were made, The Spokesman-Review reported.
“24/7 you been laying in bed,” Paul sings. “You be damn lucky to get those voices out of your head.”
The songs also include lyrics about people outside the institution not caring, a lack of mail, and missing the feel of grass under his feet, the sight of the stars at night and the touch of a woman.
In a brief biography on his MySpace page, Paul refers to the killing as “a four-second mistake” and adds, “Psychotic symptoms were noted over the incident that landed Phil in the psychiatric ward of the Washington State Mental Institution.”
Now I find fault with the following statement…..the friend knew he was committed…..
He went to the friend’s house Thursday after escaping during the Spokane County Interstate Fair, Knezovich said in a release. The friend gave Paul a guitar, a sleeping bag and a leather jacket and drove him out of town. It wasn’t until Saturday that the friend learned of the escape. He then contacted detectives and showed them where he dropped off Paul.
Authorities used that information to narrow their search.
Knezovich said the detectives who apprehended Paul drove up to him in an undercover van, jumped out with guns drawn and ordered Paul to the ground.
“He stated he was ‘done’ and complied with their commands,” he said. Knezovich added that Paul had a hand scythe — a long, curved blade attached to a handle — in his backpack but made no attempt to reach for it.
DSHS: Killer’s field trip ‘should not have happened’
The head of the state Department of Social and Health Services says she does not want to make any excuses for a field trip in which an insane killer escaped from hospital supervisors. “This trip should not have happened,” Susan Dreyfus said, referring to Eastern State Hospital field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair from which Phillip Arnold Paul escaped. Dreyfus said she wants to get to the bottom of what happened with Paul and why hospital staffers waited to hours to alert police.
When a patient is out of your sight in a public place, the first call should have been 911 and it was not. At Western State Hospital in Lakewood, security guards and mental health workers say the answer is easy: Paul should never have been allowed on a field trip in the first place. They say no one should be allowed out of the criminal side of the hospital without first consulting them.
Last week, at Western, a resident of the criminal unit managed to walk out of the locked facility, but was later found at a nearby mall. The union says both escapes come at a time the state is cutting security positions — three from Western’s force of 25. State senator Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, is drawing up legislation to prevent this from happening again.
“We have much stronger laws it appears at the special commitment for sexual psychopaths than for somebody who had murdered,” Carrell said.
In the meantime, Dreyfus has ordered a halt to all field trips for “forensic patients” – those committed for treatment as a result of criminal proceedings – at all three of the state’s mental institutions. “I have been so apologetic to the citizens of Spokane. This should not have happened,” she said. “I cannot make excuses for it and I am so sorry.”
And even more~~~~~
The escape was apparently triggered when Paul’s request to move from the mental hospital to a residential facility in downtown Spokane was rejected by a judge earlier this month. The judge found that Paul represented “a threat to public safety.”
Paul had petitioned and won conditional release to the downtown facility, called The Carlyle, twice in the past, fathering a child during one of his releases. His most recent release ended in January after his mental condition reportedly deteriorated.
Many are wondering why Paul would ever be released from incarceration. Because Paul was found not guilty by reason of insanity, he is not serving a criminal sentence, Dreyfus said. Under state law, the patient can petition for conditional release if they can convince a judge they are mentally healthy.
Dreyfus said one result of this incident is that the state Legislature may be asked to change the law so that criminals who are judged to be insane would be sent to prison if they are deemed cured.
Eastern patients have taken outings into the community for years, and hospital officials say they can be a useful tool in treatment. All such trips are on hold as the state examines its practices in light of the escape. The state Department of Social and Health Services has promised a security review will be completed within 15 days.
Knezovich plans to ask the state Legislature to ban field trips for the criminally insane. He also plans to bill the state for helicopter flight time and overtime for about 10 deputies.
Well it’s official…..she should be
Gregoire ‘Embarrassed’ Over Insane Killer’s Escape
Gov. Chris Gregoire told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that she is “embarrassed” over the escape of a criminally insane killer at a county fair, and that “policy changes” to prevent anything like it from happening again are almost certain.
Gregoire spoke briefly with KIRO 7 reporter Chris Egert before her 2009 Life Sciences Summit at McCaw Hall in Seattle.
Gregoire said people could lose their jobs over the situation, but that she is waiting for a planned 15-day Department of Social and Health Services investigation to be complete before making any decisions.
Gregoire revealed that she has asked King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg to assist in an open investigation into the case.
Phillip Arnold Paul disappeared into the crowd at the Spokane County Interstate Fair during a trip last week with 30 fellow patients.
Paul, 47, spent three days on the run before he was captured Sunday afternoon near Goldendale. Monday he was returned to Eastern State Hospital near Spokane.
Also, since he was confined to the mental institution, he was enrolled at one of the colleges, and that has people also in an uproar….how can a criminally insane person be allowed to attend college?
Insane killer says escape unplanned
Insane killer Phillip Arnold Paul says his escape during an Eastern State Hospital trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair was on impulse and not planned.
He told KXLY-TV he saw an opportunity at the fairgrounds and took it. He was on the run for three days before he was arrested Sunday near Goldendale and returned to the mental hospital.
Paul says he hid in woods where he used to camp and expected to be caught. He says he wouldn’t try to escape again.
“I know that, you know, I shouldn’t have ran the other day but, I’ve just been inside a building for so long and I just thought well, you know, I’ve got learn stuff so sometimes I learn it the hard way I guess.”
Paul was committed to the mental hospital in 1987 after he was acquitted by reason of insanity for killing a 78-year- old Sunnyside woman.
Hospital CEO Harold Wilson has resigned. The escape remains under investigation by the Department of Social and Health Services.
ESH staff at fair told not to call 911
Eastern State Hospital staff were told not to call 911 following the disappearance of schizophrenic killer Phillip PaulPhillip Paul from a group outing to the Spokane County Interstate Fair, officials with the Department of Social Health and Services said Friday.
Paul escaped from hospital staff on September 17 and was captured September 20 on a rural south-central Washington highway.
Paul was committed after he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and acquitted by reason of insanity in the slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside in 1987.
DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus and Richard Kellogg, director of mental health systems at DSHS, explained the circumstances surrounding Paul’s escape in a news conference Friday.
According to Kellogg, when hospital staff, who were supervising the fair outing, realized Paul was missing they called the hospital to ask if they should call 911. Kellogg says staff at the fair called the hospital twice to ask and both times were told not to call police.
Hospital policy states that staff are to immediately notify authorities and the failure to do so represents “significant breakdowns by staff at the hospital.”
Dreyfus stated during the press conference that the staff’s failure to call 911 “raises serious community concerns” and that their inaction “impeded law enforcement.”
Paul went missing around 11:45 a.m. and the Medical Lake Police Department was eventually notified two hours later.
When asked who told staff at the fair not to call 911, DSHS officials declined to release that person(s) identity, but added 12 hospital staff members were aware of Paul’s disappearance before law enforcement was notified.
Dreyfus said that the suspension of group outings remains in effect and will stand until DSHS officials can be assured that proper procedures will be followed.
The news conference comes one day after hospital CEO Hal Wilson’s resignation became official. Wilson’s resignation was directly related to Paul’s escape as he stated in a letter to Dreyfus.
“Based on the recent circumstances of a patient escaping… I think it is best that I resign my position as Chief Executive Officer,” wrote Wilson.
Dreyfus also commented on the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office hopes to be reimbursed for the costs associated with capturing Paul saying DSHS will work with the sheriff’s office as best they can.
The sheriff acknowledged that search and arrest activities are already funded in his budget, but he maintained that the costs were expenditures that only arose based on questionable Eastern State Hospital policies and procedures.
The total cost of the search came to $37,495.03.
An update:my comments are at the bottom of the article…
Thousands of people have been declared criminally insane in the United States over the decades, and at any given time large numbers of them are not in custody. Paul was among 31 patients from Eastern State Hospital on the field trip to the fair. All were from the forensics unit, meaning they had been committed to the hospital because of a crime. All such field trips, which were common, are now suspended in Washington.
The field trip was possible because people found not guilty by reason of insanity are legally patients, not prison inmates. They have no sentence to serve. The goal of mental hospitals is to cure them and return them to society. Better treatment, including psychotropic drugs, plus a focus on patients’ rights, have resulted in many being released in just a few years.
Thomas Gergen, for example, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2003 for killing his pregnant wife and their unborn child. The King County man spent five years at Western State Hospital before doctors concluded he had responded well to medication for schizophrenia and he was released.
The number of people found not guilty by reason of insanity in the United States each year is not readily available, although the figure is thought to be small. In Washington, the number is between 25 and 35 a year. No one compiles national statistics on such cases, or on how long people remain in custody, said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum of Columbia University, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association.
There are also no nationwide statistics on whether the criminally insane who are released commit new crimes of violence, he said.
A 1996 study of 43 forensic patients at an outpatient treatment program in Chicago found that eight had been arrested or commited new crimes after being released from a mental hospital.
While the notion of criminally insane killers escaping from hospitals to go on killing sprees is a staple of slasher movies, there are few instances where that actually occurred.
More common is the story of Phillip Paul. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 1987 slaying of a 78-year-old woman in Sunnyside, during a period when he could not control his schizophrenia.
He was sent to Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, a suburb of Spokane. Paul escaped in 1990, but was immediately recaptured. He attacked and severely injured the deputy who was booking him back into jail.
Yet in 1992 he was considered well enough to attend classes at Spokane Falls Community College, and to work in retail stores for up to 30 hours per week.
In 1998, he left the hospital for two-week visits with his family in Sunnyside, and in June 2000 was allowed to move in with them. By October he was ordered back to the mental hospital because of delusional behavior.
In 2005, he was granted conditional release by a judge to move into an assisted living center called The Carlyle in downtown Spokane. He dated a woman, who eventually bore him a son. But he was back in the mental hospital within four months for refusing his medications.
In 2007, Paul was again released into the community, but in January of this year was ordered back to the mental hospital because of erratic behavior.
During his various releases, Paul wrote songs and created music videos for his band, “Philly Willy and the Hillbillies.” Many of the songs – with titles like “Rock n Roll in the mental institution” and “Nut Hut,” were about mental illness. He obtained several credit cards and went on shopping sprees that led to a bankruptcy filing.
In interviews after his capture, Paul, 47, has said he was just looking for some “sunshine.”
“I knew it was the wrong thing to do. I just wanted my freedom so bad,” Paul told a television station. “I didn’t hurt nobody and wasn’t planning on doing that.”
In Washington, the Department of Social and Health Services operates two units for the criminally insane, at Eastern State and Western State Hospital in Lakewood. There are 359 patients in the two forensics units.
In the last fiscal year, 11 were discharged from Eastern State, where the average length of stay was three and one-third years. At Western State, 17 patients were discharged, and the average stay was three and two-thirds years.
Escapes from the forensics units are rare, according to DSHS.
Since 1999, there have been only four escapes from Eastern State, and only one escape from Western State, the agency said.
David Weston, chief of the agency’s Office of Mental Health Services, said people should not be surprised that killers live among them. Many people who are actually convicted of murder serve their time and are released, Weston said. Also, it is wrong to believe that people who suffer from mental illness are more dangerous than criminals who are sane.
“The stereotype that these are the most dangerous people in society is simply not true,” Weston said. “They are much less dangerous than many routine criminals.”
Authorities must balance protecting the public from any future violence, while treating the patient and preparing them to return to society, Weston said.
Jennifer Stuber, who studies mental health stigma at the University of Washington, said coverage of Paul’s escape raised many negative stereotypes, especially terms like “insane killer.” “Some of the headlines were really upsetting,” she said. “They imply that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with violence.” “This was an escape, not a murder,” she said.
So, just because he hadn’t yet committed a murder, and escaped, it was okay? I consider this comment rather insulting….”Also, it is wrong to believe that people who suffer from mental illness are more dangerous than criminals who are sane.”
State Considering All Criminally Insane Patients Move To Western State Hospital
The state is considering moving all criminally insane mental patients to Western State Hospital in the wake of an escape from Eastern State earlier this year, a report released Thursday said.
Eastern State may be unable to safely deal with the most dangerous patients in its forensic unit, and consolidating people found not guilty by reason of insanity at Western State could save money and should be studied, the report from the Washington State Psychiatric Hospital Safety Review Panel said.
http://www.kirotv.com/health/21994837/detail.html
Judge strips mental patient who was subject of manhunt of right to live away from hospital
A state judge ruled Friday that Phillip A. Paul, the criminally committed Eastern State Hospital patient whose escape during a September field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair outraged residents and led to changes in state policy, should be stripped of his right to live away from the hospital campus.
Paul, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had been in and out of the hospital on court-approved conditional release several times since killing a 78-year-old Sunnyside, Wash., woman in 1987 during a psychotic episode.
His last conditional release ended in January 2009, when the managers of the Carlyle Care Center asked the state to remove Paul from the downtown Spokane halfway house. His behavior had become erratic and aggressive because he was not taking his medications.
Yakima County Superior Court Judge Michael Schwab formally revoked Paul’s conditional release, citing the potential for Paul to become dangerous if he fails to take his medication. He did not rule out that Paul could one day be released again, however.
Paul doesn’t acknowledge he suffers from mental illness and has long resisted some of the efforts of his psychiatrists.
He is openly critical of the mental health system and craves freedom, according to the lawyer who represented him Friday.
The Judge also found Paul to be in danger of “elopement,” legal parlance for an escape risk.
Since he won’t likely take his medications and could become dangerous and flee, the judge ruled in favor of the state.
While the doctors offered some differing opinions on Paul, they all agreed that he has a “lack of insight” about his paranoid schizophrenia — a necessary step to accept and control his mental illness.
In the past several months, for instance, Paul has insisted that he suffered from drug-induced psychosis from taking PCP earlier in his life.
Dr. J.R. Henry, director of forensics at Eastern State, testified that Paul believes in the possibility of magical events and that he can be treated by taking alternative remedies such as fish oil and herbal vitamins — rather than the powerful pharmaceuticals prescribed by his doctors.
Another psychiatrist also testified about some of Paul’s unusual behaviors.
Eastern State psychiatrist Dr. Dodds Simangan, who sees Paul regularly, said he has been storing and drinking his urine during the past year and continues to do so as “part of his urine therapy.”
Dr. Imelda Borromeo, another hospital psychiatrist who visits with Paul on a monthly basis and testified that she has altered his medication regimen with good results during the past several months, said Paul told her that drinking his urine “calms his nerves.”
There’s no harm in drinking fresh urine, she testified under cross-examination by Paul’s attorney, Daniel Fessler, and explained that the practice is known as an alternative folk remedy to keep healthy. She said the practice is not a symptom of mental illness.
In his plea for some kind of possibility that he might again by a candidate for at least conditional release, Paul said in the hearing Friday that he knew his victim for many years and believes she would want what’s best for him.
“The woman I killed wouldn’t want me to rot away like this,” he said.
But Ann Mottley-Whitney, the daughter of Ruth Mottley, Paul’s victim, said her mother did not know Paul well and she wants him locked away for safety.
Paul strangled Ruth Mottley in 1987, poured gasoline over her body and hid it after voices in his head told them she was a witch, according to court records.
During the massive statewide manhunt for Paul last September, Mottley-Whitney said she feared for elderly people Paul might find. She has shied from media coverage but has attended all of Paul’s court hearings for two decades.
Fessler, the attorney for Paul, argued that had Paul been convicted of first-degree murder in Mottley’s death, he likely would likely have been released from prison by now. But his commitment to Eastern State Hospital upon his verdict of not guilty by reason of mental illness has ensnared him in the state’s Byzantine mental health system, Fessler said.
State psychiatrists, policymakers, and the courts all have a role in what degree of freedom Paul can enjoy.
The privileges he earned through treatment allowed him to return to Yakima County for extended periods just years after he killed Mottley. When Yakima officials asked to have him removed, Paul was eventually allowed to live in the Carlyle.
With that option erased, even if Paul qualified for conditional release the state has few options for housing.
The judge told Paul that his decision to revoke his conditional release should not be interpreted as hopelessness.
Judge Schwab reiterated that the state has an obligation to protect the public, but also to protect and serve mental health patients.
Paul’s high-profile escape and capture last September brought the spotlight to the state’s therapeutic practices of allowing patients to go on field trips.
Many changes have followed, including the resignation of Eastern State’s top administrator, said John Wiley, spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services.
Staff training has been revamped and new policies and procedures are in place to tighten security if the therapy practice of field trips resumes.
When the field trips resume, new rules on who goes and the ratio of patients to staff have been implemented.
Washington mental patients resume some outings
The state has quietly resumed some field trips for mental health patients, months after a patient who killed a woman in 1987 escaped during an outing and prompted suspension of the program, a state official said Wednesday.
The Department of Social and Health Services in January adopted new rules to allow the trips to resume, with the rules now dictating that no more than four patients can go on field trips at one time, agency director Susan Dreyfus said.
Those trips must have a therapeutic benefit, adequate staff must be along and local law enforcement must be alerted, she said.
Phillip Arnold Paul escaped during an outing for 31 patients at the Spokane Interstate Fair last September. He was recaptured three days later without incident in central Washington.
“We will never go back to larger groups,” Dreyfus said during a news conference at Eastern State Hospital, where Paul had been living on and off since he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the slaying of a Sunnyside woman in 1987.
All field trips for mental patients at Eastern State and Western State Hospital were suspended immediately after Paul’s escape, and there was widespread criticism of the trips from politicians and the public.
The DSHS revamped its procedures regarding field trips, which are considered important in helping ease a mental patient back into society.
Dreyfus said the reforms included detailed assessments of a patient’s escape risk; better training for staff on alerting authorities to an escape; a search of patients’ backpacks when they leave or return from a trip; and notification of local law enforcement about an upcoming trip. A field trip also requires the approval of the hospital chief executive.
Paul was gone for an hour before 911 was called, and he had packed his belongings in a backpack when he left the hospital.
Since the new rules were adopted in January, individual patients who had been civilly committed to Eastern State have been allowed to leave campus for trips.
There have been no group outings, and no patients who are incarcerated for crimes have been allowed to leave Eastern State, DSHS spokesman John Wiley said.
The agency was not immediately able to provide information on any outings from Western State, near Tacoma.
After Paul’s escape, a state investigation revealed that there were too few staff on the trip to the fair, and that numerous rules were violated by management and staff at Eastern State. The head of the hospital resigned.
Seven employees of Eastern State were disciplined as a result of the escape, said DSHS Mental Health Systems Director Richard Kellogg. None were fired, but the punishments ranged from a demotion to suspensions and reprimands.
Escapes from state mental hospitals are extremely rare, according to DSHS. Since 1999, there have been only four escapes from Eastern State, and only one from Western State, the agency said.
Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Paul was committed for the 1987 strangling and slashing of 78-year-old Ruth Mottley in Sunnyside. Paul told authorities that voices in his head told him Mottley was a witch who was casting spells on him.
AP