Lawyers for Marion County and a group of crime victims have filed briefs seeking more clout in a federal case overseeing the Oregon State Hospital, arguing that a judge’s order limiting stays there is endangering the public.
The arguments came in separate motions in a long-running civil-rights case that has become increasingly involved in directing the day-to-day operations of the Salem-based state-run psychiatric institution.
In December, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman extended for another year a controversial order setting discharge deadlines for most state hospital patients. The order has meant more people with mental illness who are accused of crimes receive treatment instead of jail. However, critics say the order has created additional public safety and health challenges that local governments are struggling to address.
Both the county and the victims group are seeking what’s known as “intervenor” status in the decades-old lawsuit over the state hospital. The status would give them more say in the case, allowing them to present evidence and file more motions.
Marion County has struggled to gain legal traction in litigation over the state hospital. Last year, Mosman denied the county’s request for intervenor status and issued a withering rebuke after it attempted to extend a patient’s commitment to the state hospital.
Now, a different judge will consider the arguments from the county and the crime victims groups. Last month, Mosman was reassigned from the case as part of the court’s case management plan. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson is now overseeing the case.
As home to the state hospital’s main campus, Marion County officials have repeatedly complained that they’ve been overtaxed by the stream of people exiting the Salem-based psychiatric facility. Last November, The Lund Report detailed similar complaints made by Multnomah County officials and employees.
“These individuals often remain housed in jail, taking up valuable jail resources and in many cases pose risks of harm and liability to the County. In addition, because they will now be denied outpatient services, these individuals will require a higher level of services, further burdening the County’s already strained resources.”
On Friday, Marion County Counsel Jane Vetto wrote in a filing that the county is being overwhelmed by people being released from the state hospital and can’t provide them treatment. The county can’t use the state hospital for outpatient services either, she wrote.
“These individuals often remain housed in jail, taking up valuable jail resources and in many cases pose risks of harm and liability to the County,” she wrote. “In addition, because they will now be denied outpatient services, these individuals will require a higher level of services, further burdening the County’s already strained resources.”
The scenario will result in “an increased number of individuals charged with violent crimes simply leaving services without receiving stabilizing treatment,” she wrote.
Vetto wrote that the county was being unduly burdened by an “unfunded mandate” from the state to provide mental health treatment services — community restoration — for people who need a hospital-level of care.
Ryan Matthews, Marion County’s health administrator, wrote in a filing that Mosman’s order has meant the county’s “community restoration programs experienced an unprecedented surge in cases.” The county’s case load approximately tripled during the first six months of 2023, bringing the program “ nearly to its breaking point,” he wrote.
Some individuals released from the state hospital “have not yet reached a point of even relative stability” and Marion County’s community restoration program sometimes can’t even provide people with the right medications, he wrote. As a result, some people in the program receive no treatment, he wrote.
“Prior to the implementation of the Mosman Order, Marion County was already experiencing the effects of a system-wide shortage of behavioral health staff,” he wrote. “In the time since, hiring and retaining qualified mental health providers to support outpatient treatment has not become any easier.”
Marion County spent over $1 million on its community restoration program in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, he wrote. By the following fiscal year, spending increased to nearly $1.7 million but state support stayed nearly flat at $1.6 million.
Marion County has found itself between conflicting orders from Mosman and state judges committing defendants to the state hospital for longer than the treatment timelines.
Vetto wrote that Marion County became “a de facto party” to the litigation when Disability Rights Oregon, the advocacy group that first brought the lawsuit, asked for a court order mandating that the sheriff’s office transport patients who had met the treatment timelines.
Mosman on March 6 ruled that state hospital treatment timelines in his order took precedence over state judges ordering patients to the facility for longer periods of time.
“And the only reason that the defendant is in this situation is because of Judge Mosman’s orders,The remedy is to fix the ill-conceived order that brings us here in the first place. This court implores our state appellate courts to direct state court judges how to navigate this impossible situation without sacrificing public safety and the defendant’s rights.”
Crime victims weigh in
A group of people who were assaulted by a man with a history of violent criminal charges who has been in and out of the state hospital are also seeking intervenor status.
According to the February 21 filing, Charly Velasquez-Sanchez was most recently committed to the state hospital last year following an altercation outside a school in Salem.
The filing states that on the last day of school at Highland Elementary School, school librarian Laurie Miller had let students outside to play on the playground when she noticed Velasquez-Sanchez approach the area. She approached him and asked him to stay on the sidewalk while children were outside playing.
Velasquez-Sanchez responded by punching Miller in the head and face, the filing states. Ashley Rochetto, an instructional aide who was present, used her radio to ask staff to call 911. Velasquez-Sanchez responded by punching her in the head, pushing her to the ground, kicking her and then punching her in the head as she lay face down.
The filing states that Andrew Limbeck, a school staff member, tried to subdue Velasquez-Sanchez but fell and landed on an exposed sprinkler head. The fall resulted in a fractured hip, torn labrum and punctured abdomen. Velasquez-Sanchez was eventually subdued and the school was placed on lockdown.
At the time, Velasquez-Sanchez was on supervised probation for two separate felony assault convictions and was also on pretrial release for a disorderly conduct charge for reportedly pointing an ax at adults and children, according to the filing.
Velasquez-Sanchez was found unable to aid and assist in his defense and in July 2023 ordered to the state hospital for treatment, his fourth trip to the facility, the filing states. By January, Velasquez-Sanchez was transported back to Marion County and he was found still unable to participate in his defense and was unsafe to be released into the community, according to the filing.
“None of the three victims of Mr. Velasquez-Sanchez nor any representative acting on behalf of crime victims participated in the negotiations that resulted in the Mosman Order,” wrote the filing from attorneys Rosemary Brewer, of the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center, and Erin Olson, who co-founded the group.
They added that the word “victim” does not appear in Mosman’s order and “the Court trampled on the state constitutional rights of crime victims without so much as acknowledging those rights.”
The attorneys wrote in the filing that the Mosman order is supposed to bring the state into compliance with a 2002 court ruling that mandates treatment for defendants who can’t aid and assist in their defense. But they continued that Mosman’s order actually undermines that goal by requiring defendants to be released from the hospital before they receive enough treatment to help with their defense.
Velasquez-Sanchez remains in custody at the Marion County Jail after Marion County Circuit Judge Audrey Broyles earlier this month denied a motion to dismiss his charges. Broyles, who had a different order struck down by Mosman, wrote in her denial that “this court cannot in good conscience find that a dismissal is in the interest of justice.”
She wrote that Mosman’s order “trivializes public safety and victim rights.”
“And the only reason that the defendant is in this situation is because of Judge Mosman’s orders,” she wrote. “The remedy is to fix the ill-conceived order that brings us here in the first place. This court implores our state appellate courts to direct state court judges how to navigate this impossible situation without sacrificing public safety and the defendant's rights.”
The state hospital is not a jail. Sounds like this and another case that just happened in Portland, resulting in someones death, are similar. What happens when someone never has the desire to stay sober at all? Or they've fried their mind with meth and there is no fixing it with what we have available?
There are a ton of issues with mental health in this state that didn't begin or end with the Mosman ruling.