Insane killer escapes on field trip to county fair

[samanthajane13]

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press Writer – 45 mins ago

SPOKANE, Wash. – 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_on_re_us/us_mental_institution_escape

[Mojave]

Why are we taking criminally insane people - especially one who has tried to escape twice before - to the county fair? I seriously can't wrap my head around this at all. This man lit a woman on fire. He should spend the rest of his life away from the public.

[samanthajane13]

Sheriff: WA. escapee duped friend into helping him
By TIM KLASS, Associated Press Writer Tim Klass, Associated Press Writer – 40 mins ago

SEATTLE – Authorities say an insane killer who was recaptured Sunday in south-central Washington after slipping away from the staff of a mental institution on a field trip tricked a friend into helping him elude capture.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says 47-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul had been telling a friend in Spokane for months that he was going to be released from the Eastern State Hospital. Paul went to the friend's house Thursday after slipping away from hospital staff on a field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair.

Knezovich says the friend gave Paul a guitar and a sleeping bag and drove him out of town. The friend contacted detectives Saturday after learning of the escape, and showed them where he dropped off Paul.

Knezovich says authorities used that information to narrow their search. Deputies arrested Paul after spotting him walking out of the trees near Goldendale.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SEATTLE (AP) — An insane killer who slipped away from the staff of a mental institution on a field trip Thursday to the Spokane County Interstate 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.

"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."

But Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie D. Knezovich said Paul had just tried to thumb a ride from an area resident who alerted authorities. Knezovich said the fugitive seemed to be trying to remain on the loose.

Still, he said, Paul was arrested without incident: "As far as I know, he was cooperative."

Based on information from a confidential informant, investigators believe Paul hitched a ride from Spokane to the Goldendale area, Knezovich said. The focus of the search shifted Sunday when authorities learned precisely where he got out of the car, he said. He wouldn't comment further on the ride or why Paul wound up in Klickitat County.

Knezovich said one of those involved in the arrest, Spokane County sheriff's Detective Roger W. Knight, also nabbed Paul after he gave Eastern State Hospital personnel the slip in 1991 during a field trip in Medical Lake, where the mental institution is located.

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.

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.

McComas said Paul would be taken to Yakima following a brief checkup by medics in Goldendale. He is expected to appear in Yakima County Superior Court on a warrant stemming from the initial murder case before being returned to Eastern State.

"This has been one of the largest manhunts in this region for many years," Knezovich said. "A great deal of teamwork went into the capture of Mr. Paul."

Knezovich said he met with Spokane-area residents Saturday to hear their concerns about the case.

"There was a lot of fear in the community, people locking their windows," he said. "I want people in Spokane County to know that tonight they can sleep in peace.

Susan N. Dreyfus, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, issued a statement praising those involved in the recapture.

"We are committed to finding out how and why this happened, why there was an unacceptable (two-hour) delay in notifying local law enforcement of his escape, and how potentially dangerous patients were brought to such a public venue with the reported staffing ratios," Dreyfus added.

Shortly after the escape, Dreyfus 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.

By early Sunday, 50 to 60 federal, state and Spokane-area law enforcement personnel had been shifted from the Spokane area near the Idaho border to Goldendale, the Klickitat County seat, about 145 miles southeast of Seattle and 185 miles southwest of Spokane.

Previously, 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 he passed through Sunnyside.

Knezovich expressed dismay that Paul aroused no suspicion when he left the mental institution with a backpack loaded with clothing, food, an electric guitar and $50 from a Social Security check. "It appears that Mr. Paul had planned this for quite some time," he said.

The field trip to the fair, which included 30 other patients, is an annual event that Paul easily could have anticipated, Reagan said.

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 have needed another dose to avoid the potential for a serious deterioration of his mental condition, Stevenson said.

___

AP Correspondent Shannon Dininny contributed to this story.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_us/us_mental_institution_escape

[RayStar]

Mojave you have a great post here on this thread. It was a shock to me to learn that any hospital of insane people took field trips. It was good news to hear he was captured.

[samanthajane13]

Criminally insane, but out on the street
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press Writer – Sat Oct 17, 2:23 pm ET

SPOKANE, Wash. – Phillip A. Paul in 1987 was declared criminally insane for killing an elderly woman after voices in his head told him she was a witch.

Instead of being straitjacketed and locked away as might be depicted by film or fiction, Paul in the past two decades has spent time living and working in downtown Spokane, fathered a child, created music videos and racked up $85,000 in credit card bills.

His escape during a recent field trip to a county fair exposed a little known truth: The criminally insane often live among us, with little or no supervision.

"Why was he allowed to take such a trip?" an incredulous Gov. Chris Gregoire demanded. "Why did they go to a location that was so heavily populated with families?"

That's a question many in Washington are asking after the Sept. 17 escape, including the escapee's own brother.

"He is in a bad mental state," said Tom Paul of Sunnyside. "Why would you load him up on a bus and take him to a fair?"

The cops who spent three days hunting and finally catching Paul 200 miles away are also upset.

"I can tell you there was an extreme amount of anger in the law enforcement community," said Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who plans to bill the state $37,000 for his department's expenses.

But no one should be surprised. 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.

___

On the Net:

American Psychiatric Association: http://www.psych.org

Mental Health Reporting: http://depts.washington.edu/mhreport/index.php


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091017/ap_on_re_us/us_criminally_insane