Field trips at mental hospitals in Washington state suspended after mentally ill killer walked away from fair

From The Associated Press:

SPOKANE, Wash. — Field trips from Washington's two state mental hospitals will remain suspended indefinitely because of an insane killer who walked away from a trip to a fair in Spokane last month, the Department of Social and Health Services said Friday.

Agency Secretary Susan Dreyfus said the state will keep investigating the failure of Eastern State Hospital staff to call 911 immediately after Phillip Paul left the Spokane County Interstate Fair.

The state is also studying the decision-making that went into the Sept. 17 trip, including why Paul was allowed to participate.

Paul was committed in 1987 for the slaying of a Sunnyside woman. He was recaptured without incident near Goldendale a few days after escaping.

"Once I have clear answers to those two questions, I will take any appropriate disciplinary action," Dreyfus said.

Eastern patients have taken outings into the community for years, and hospital officials say the trips can be a useful tool in treatment. But Dreyfus said she would also create a panel of experts chaired by Dr. Richard Veith of the University of Washington to look into the department's field trip policy. The panel will include clinical, legal and security experts, a consumer advocate, and law enforcement.

Dreyfus wants the panel to recommend ways to ensure patient, staff and community safety while providing appropriate therapy for patients. She expected the panel's report by December 1.

"Although public safety must be our first concern, it is important that we not let this unfortunate incident frame how we as a state see people who live with mental illness," Dreyfus said. "Mental illness touches all of us, and people can indeed recover and lead successful lives."

Paul, 47, was with a group of 31 patients from Eastern State when he escaped. He spent three days on the run before he was captured peacefully and returned to the mental hospital.

The escape brought harsh criticism about the field trip and prompted Eastern State chief executive officer Harold Wilson to resign.

Escapes from the state mental hospitals by people committed there for crimes are extremely 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.

Paul's escape was apparently triggered when his request to move from the mental hospital to a residential facility in downtown Spokane was rejected because a judge found that Paul represented "a threat to public safety."

Paul had previously won conditional release twice, fathering a child during one of his releases. His most recent release occurred in 2005 and ended in January after his mental condition reportedly deteriorated.

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, he was committed for the 1987 strangling and slashing of 78-year-old Ruth Mottley in Sunnyside. Paul, 25 at the time, snapped Mottley's neck and slashed her throat twice. He then doused her body with gasoline and buried her in her own flower garden. Paul told authorities that voices in his head told him Mottley was a witch who was casting spells on him.

In a telephone interview with KXLY-TV of Spokane, Paul said his escape was an impulsive act.

"I guess I want freedom and it eats at me so bad sometimes," he told the station.

Because Paul was found not guilty by reason of insanity, he is not serving a criminal sentence. He can be released whenever a judge deems him 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.