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Gray blasts attorney general’s attempt to collect from mental patient
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The District’s effort to collect $2.2 million from a mental patient who gouged his eyes out in city care has drawn fire from D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who said billing the blind man violated a city policy once advocated by Mayor Adrian Fenty.
Gray said the D.C. attorney general’s attempt to dun Frank Harris Jr. for the huge payment for room and board covering decades during which Harris was at St. Elizabeths Hospital was “hard to justify.” Gray pulled that phrase from a letter Fenty signed as a council member in 2002 as he and the rest of the council implored then-Mayor Anthony Williams not to try to recover payments from people in city care when D.C. was being sued for negligence.
The District presented the bill dating back to 1987 to Harris after his guardians filed a negligence lawsuit. Harris, first hospitalized in 1973, blinded himself after being released from restraints while in the care of a single hospital employee in 2003. Harris had been restrained after he threatened to pull out his eyes because they were making him see “awful things.”
Fenty’s administration has not responded to calls for comment. The D.C. attorney general justified the bill by saying it would compensate the city tax payers if a large judgment was rendered against the District in the Harris case. The trial in that lawsuit is set for Oct. 15.
But Gray questioned that legal strategy which he said contradicts District policy. In a letter sent to the mayor last week, Gray reminded Fenty that in 2002 he and other council members urged Williams to avoid using liens in a case involving mentally retarded wards of the city.
“This, too, would be ‘hard to justify as a matter of public policy, public relations and agency accountability,’ ” wrote Gray, reciting a portion of the council’s letter to Williams. Gray is the second council member to question billing Harris. Council Member Phil Mendelson last week called the city’s invoice for $2,229,644 “crude.”
Mendelson, Harris’ guardians and their attorney Joseph Cammarata will criticize the city’s policy and its carelessness in handling mental patients during a news conference today.
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:46 AM MST on Thu., Oct. 11, 2007 re: "Gray blasts attorney general’s attempt to collect from mental patient"
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3:05 PM MST on Wed., Sep. 5, 2007
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4:43 PM MST on Thu., Aug. 30, 2007
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2:20 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 29, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
So, this criminally insane person who's too poor to afford his own care and too violent to be out on the streets is put into a hospital, given free room, free meals, free meds, and free phone. He voluntarily goes off his own meds and decides that it's a good idea to gouge out his own eyes. Where was this "lifelong friend" when he was out commiting crimes? Where was this "guardian" when he decided to go off his meds and wreak havoc in the city? And so now, the mayor's efforts to collect what it cost to care for this person are "hard to justify" when this person decides to sue the city because someone wasn't watching him gouge his eyes out??? The only thing that's "hard to justify" is our tax dollars going to pay off this shady lawyer and this "lifelong friend" AFTER our tax dollars have already paid for his care, meds, housing, and food! This is a crock and the only thing Fenty should be ashamed of is allowing himself to be bullied into backing down from a TOTALLY justified counter
121 agree | 114 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why shouldn't Mr. Harris be able to recover what the District owes him? The man has a mental illness, and due to the District's incompetence, he's been stuck in an institution for decades where he receives substandard care. Due to the District's own incompetence, this man gouged his eyes out. And now they want to bill him for these supposed "services?" Is there any more degrading way that the D.C. government could spit on a man and take away his dignity? Kudos to Vincent Gray and Phil Mendelson for sticking up for him.
146 agree | 128 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Before taking sides, let's look at the facts. 1) Why is Phil Mendelson interested in this case? The District does this everyday. Why this one? Because Joseph Cammarata and his law firm are contributors to his campaign. 2) When did Ms. Motley become Mr. Harris' guardian? Probably, I am willing to bet, after Mr. Harris gouged his eyes out. 3) Why is Mr. Joseph Cammarata running to the press now? This case appears to be 4 years old. Why now? Because he is not going to get a penny if the District bills Mr. Harris. 4) Why do they want the money? To benefit Mr. Harris or to benefit Mr. Joseph Cammarata and Ms. Motley? Mr. Harris is a criminal committed to DC's care. He can't leave the institution without a court order. He is not going anywhere. See this for what it is, a corrupt politician taking care of the interests of the ambulance chasing lawyer that contributes to his campaign and not of the taxpayers of the District of Columbia.
139 agree | 134 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is nothing but an illicit attempt by Mr. Cammarata, the plaintiff's attorney and his political croney to taint the jury in a lawsuit that has absolutely no merit in an attempt to recover legal fees that he would otherwise be unable to recover. Mr. Harris was a criminal found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered to be committed to St. Elizabeth's in lieu of prison. He would not see a dime of any money that a jury awarded. The money would go to Mr. Cammarata and his firm that do not care anything about Mr. Harris and Ms. Motley their puppet guardian who has no relation to Mr. Harris whatsoever. Why doesn't the Examiner ask Mr. Cammarata and Mr. Mendelson when it became District policy to violate the law which states that forensic patients "shall be billed" for the services provided to them by the taxpayers in order to pay back campaign contributors of Council Members.
146 agree | 121 disagree
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