The District of Columbia has presented a $2.2 million hospital bill to a mental patient who gouged out his eyeballs with his bare hands while in the city’s care.

The District government claims that Fred B. Harris Jr. owes the city millions of dollars for room and board at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the mental health center where Harris has lived since 1973. He was involuntarily admitted when he was found not guilty of burglary charges by reason of insanity, according to public records.

Doctors diagnosed Harris with schizophrenia, a severe brain disorder that causes people to hallucinate, often violently, records state.

In early 2003, Harris told his doctors that his eyes were making him see awful things and making him want to do even worse things, according to medical records. He told his doctors he wanted to take his eyes out and began clawing at them.

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Doctors at St. Elizabeths ordered Harris to be bound hand and foot, and to be constantly monitored.

One early morning in mid-March 2003, Harris asked to use the bathroom. The orderly who had been assigned to watch Harris didn’t ask for help, a requirement of hospital policy, Harris attorney Joseph Cammarata said. The orderly loosened his ties and Harris pushed the man away and with one hand pulled his eyes out of their sockets, one at a time. Harris, 55, is now blind.

Janice Motley, a family friend from Bowie, informed the District in a letter soon after the blinding that she intended to seek damages on Harris’ behalf.

The District didn’t respond to the letter, her lawyer said. Instead, in early 2006, they sent Motley an invoice for “room and board” dating back to 1982. The bill continues to grow.

The city has claimed Harris has been under the state’s care, rent free, and should pay up. But Harris’ lawyer has said it’s a blatant attempt to keep Harris’ loved ones from filing suit against the city. District Council Member Phil Mendelson, D-at large, has weighed in on the controversy, demanding in a letter to Mayor Adrian Fenty that Fenty rein in St. Elizabeths and calling the bill a crude attempt to bully Harris’ loved ones into belaying a civil suit.

“This is a legal strategy which I find offensive and which Council members (including you) protested,” Mendelson’s letter states.

smccabe@dcexaminer.com