3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 10, 2018
Washington state psychiatric hospital called ‘hell’
Conditions fail
safety standards
By MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Behind tall
brick walls and secure win-
dows, hundreds of patients at
Washington state’s largest psy-
chiatric hospital live in condi-
tions that fail U.S. health and
safety standards, while over-
worked nurses and psychia-
trists say they are navigating a
system that punishes employ-
ees who speak out despite crit-
ical staffing shortages.
“They don’t have enough
staff to protect patients, or
provide them with the bare
minimum of care,” said Lisa
Bowser, whose mother spent
two years at Western State
Hospital and suffered dozens
of falls and assaults.
“Going there was like going
into hell,” said Bowser, who
has sued the state-run facility.
“I honestly thought they would
kill her before I could get her
out.”
U.S. and state regulators for
years have found health and
safety violations at the 800-
bed hospital, ranging from
assaults on staff to escapes of
dangerous patients, includ-
ing a man accused of tortur-
ing a woman to death. Even
after that 2016 escape, a nurs-
ing supervisor told The Asso-
ciated Press that a patient who
had been charged with murder
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee, third from right, speaks
in front of Western State Hospital in Lakewood in May.
and found not guilty by rea-
son of insanity was placed in a
less secure ward and the nurse
faced retaliation after report-
ing the danger to nonviolent
patients.
Despite a shakeup in lead-
ership and vows to correct
problems, the hospital con-
tinually puts patients at risk,
according to a surprise fed-
eral inspection. Some didn’t
get oxygen and blood-sugar
checks; injuries weren’t prop-
erly treated; they were held
in restraints too long; and the
building remained a fire haz-
ard. Some violations were
cited in inspections going back
to 2015.
After years of chances,
the federal Centers for Medi-
Tensions flare up at
Portland ICE protest
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Offi-
cials say two protesters were
arrested and two federal offi-
cers suffered minor injuries
Monday in a flare up at the
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement headquar-
ters in Portland.
Protesters have been sta-
tioned near the facility for
weeks, seeking to end the
Trump
administration’s
zero-tolerance immigration
policy.
Rob Sperling, a spokes-
man for the division respon-
sible for protecting federal
buildings, told KGW the
generally peaceful protest
grew heated Monday when
several protesters pulled
down tape that separated
demonstrators from the ICE
building.
Federal officers followed
the protesters into a nearby
camp and were soon sur-
rounded. Other federal offi-
cers used pepper spray to get
the officers out of the protest
camp.
Two protesters were
arrested on charges of assault
and trespassing on federal
property.
Another protester was
arrested earlier Monday in
an unrelated incident.
Junction City building
explodes; racial slur,
symbol found
Associated Press
JUNCTION CITY — A
building northwest of Eugene
in Junction City exploded
and burst into flames.
The
Register-Guard
reported that authorities,
including the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire-
arms and Explosives, and
Junction City police are
investigating the cause of the
early Monday explosion and
fire.
Authorities say a swastika
and a racial slur were found
spray painted at the scene.
Junction City Police Chief
Bob Morris says the cause of
the fire is suspicious. Author-
ities on Monday had not been
able to contact the building’s
owners.
State business records
show Irene and Devon Hunt-
ley bought the building in
2015. Morris said they were
renovating the building,
which had been used as an
insurance office, to become a
restaurant.
care and Medicaid Services
stripped the hospital in Lake-
wood of its certification and
federal funding, totaling $53
million a year and about 20
percent of its budget.
Gov. Jay Inslee said he
wants the state to change the
way it handles the mentally
ill with a system that allows
some patients to live in smaller
facilities but that it’s making
inroads.
“We have been on a course
correction to turn this ship
around and we are continu-
ing on that course of improve-
ment,” the Democrat told AP.
‘They wouldn’t
bathe her’
Bowser’s mother, Sharon
BEND — A weed-killer
that killed thousands of pon-
derosa pines near Sisters has
been linked to the deaths of
other trees outside Sunriver
and possibly across Oregon.
Dale Mitchell, the Oregon
Department of Agriculture pro-
gram manager, says an inves-
tigation found that the active
ingredient in Perspective may
have killed dozens of ponder-
osa pines outside Sunriver.
The Bulletin reported
the Deschutes County Road
Department sprayed the her-
bicide along two main roads
that lead in and out of Sunri-
ver in 2013 and 2014.
Chris Doty, the depart-
SEATTLE — A count of
orcas in the Pacific Northwest
indicates that no calves have
been born for the last three
years, resulting in a 30-year
population low.
The Seattle Post-Intelli-
gencer reported the annual
census of Puget Sound’s killer
whales has counted 75 across
three southern resident pods.
The census also reported
two orcas missing and pre-
sumed dead.
Researchers say the dwin-
dling whale numbers are linked
to pollution and a decreasing
primary food source.
Pollution can accumu-
late in the orca’s prey and get
Retaliation
Psychiatrists said they
faced similar treatment.
Three said they were repri-
manded for objecting to man-
agement decisions that put
patients and staff at risk. Two
were fired, and the other was
Voters to
decide in
November
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — Law
enforcement
and
busi-
ness leaders on Monday
announced their opposition to
an initiative petition to repeal
the statewide sanctuary law.
Multnomah County Sher-
iff Mike Reese said the law
prohibiting the use of state
and local resources to enforce
federal immigration law has
worked well since it was
passed more than 30 years
ago.
“Our current law allows
police agencies to appropri-
ately share information with
our federal partners when a
crime occurs. It creates clear
guidelines to help local law
enforcement navigate the
complicated
immigration
strategies and policies at the
federal level,” Reese said. “It
keeps our local police focused
on solving crimes by letting
victims and witnesses know
that they can report crime to
us without fear of their immi-
gration status. It also ensures
our deputy sheriffs and
police officers don’t become
embroiled in the politics of
immigration enforcement.”
The state law applies when
ment’s director, says the road-
side spraying is done to reduce
the amount of flammable grass.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture has notified
the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency of the situ-
ation. The offices are dis-
cussing the possibility of
strengthening the language
on the label for Perspective.
Southern resident orca population hits 30-year low
Associated Press
comment on the allegations,
referring questions to the
state attorney general’s office,
which didn’t respond to multi-
ple emails and calls.
Kelly Stowe, a spokes-
woman for the Department
of Social and Health Ser-
vices, said the agency is work-
ing with the governor’s office
on funding options after the
recent inspection cost the hos-
pital federal dollars.
Employees say manage-
ment punishes those who chal-
lenge decisions.
Nursing supervisor Paul
Vilja filed a complaint last
December after a man who
was found not guilty by rea-
son of insanity in the deaths
of multiple people was moved
from a secure ward into one
with limited security.
“I said you are endangering
my patients and he’s a risk for
escape,” Vilja told the AP.
The health department
agreed with Vilja’s concerns,
but he was moved to the med-
ical records department within
a week. He couldn’t work with
patients for six months but was
recently told he can move back
to the ward. Vilja has filed a
whistleblower complaint.
removed from patient care.
Dr. Michael Quayle sued
the hospital claiming he faced
a hostile work environment
after reporting expired and
improperly stored meat. A jury
awarded him about $550,000
in December 2016.
Dr. Joseph Wainer wrote
an editorial in a local newspa-
per and statement for a court
claiming “a systemic culture of
retaliation, discrimination and
bullying.” He was put under
investigation and told to leave
the hospital.
Dr. Jay Jawad said he
objected to a management
decision to discharge his
patients and faced investiga-
tion and loss of his clinical
responsibilities.
Wainer and Jawad were
later told that the investiga-
tions were closed with no find-
ings. They have sued the hos-
pital and the health department
claiming retaliation.
The facility has lost 15 psy-
chiatrists in three years with no
new hires, according to a hos-
pital worker who didn’t want
to be named for fear of being
fired. And instead of nurses,
the institution hired “nurse
educators” who don’t see
patients, the worker said.
Lawmakers have pressed
the hospital to create a staff-
ing model that will allow ade-
quate funding for nurses, but
the facility keeps asking for
overtime funds that are “unac-
countable,” state Rep. Laurie
Jinkins said.
Police, business leaders speak out
against state sanctuary law repeal
Herbicide may have killed trees in central Oregon
Associated Press
Struthers, was committed to
the hospital for depression in
2014 and stayed through 2015.
Bowser said she began to see
bruising on her mother’s body
and found fungus covering her
feet.
“They wouldn’t bathe her,”
Bowser said. “She would tell
me that another patient hit
her.”
Bowser said her mother’s
room was covered with gar-
bage, and she began to suffer
falls that broke her arm and
hip. Her mother also was sexu-
ally assaulted on several occa-
sions, Bowser said.
Staff thought a regis-
tered sex offender placed
on Struthers’ ward was safe
around older patients because
he was a “child molester, not
adult rapist,” according to an
email that licensed mental
health counselor Mark Allen
sent to hospital officials and
was acquired by Bowser’s
lawyer.
Allen said the encounter
appeared to be between two
consenting adults. The prob-
lem is Struthers was commit-
ted to the hospital because she
could not take care of herself,
said Bowser’s lawyer, James
Beck.
Struthers died at a different
facility in 2016. Bowser sued
Western State Hospital and
the state Department of Social
and Health Services, which
oversees the facility, claiming
abuse and neglect.
The agency declined to
stored in their fat, making the
killer whales more suscepti-
ble to disease by a suppressed
immune system. The main
food source for orcas is Chi-
nook salmon, which are not as
numerous as they once were.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Jonathan House/Portland Tribune
Andrea Williams, executive director of Causa, a statewide
immigrant rights group, speaks to reporters about the
launch of the official campaign against Initiative Petition
22, which would repeal Oregon’s 31-year-old sanctuary law.
a person’s only crime is being
in the country illegally.
Reese appeared with San-
dra McDonough of the Port-
land Business Alliance on
Monday at the Northwest
Health Foundation in Portland
to explain why they oppose
Initiative Petition 22. The
appearance was one of five
events held around the state
to mark the beginning of the
campaign against the repeal,
Oregonians United Against
Profiling.
More than 80 businesses,
labor organizations, faith and
civil rights groups and law
enforcement leaders have
joined the coalition against IP
22.
Other law enforcement
leaders, including Deschutes
County District Attorney John
Hummel, also have expressed
support for the sanctuary law.
On the national level, the
International Association of
Chiefs of Police and other
police organizations have
opposed involving local law
enforcement in federal immi-
gration enforcement.
The Oregonians United
Against Profiling campaign
against IP 22 earned that name
from the history of the sanctu-
ary law, said Andrea Williams,
executive director of Causa,
a statewide immigrant rights
organization.
“At that time, Oregonians,
including U.S. citizens, were
being harassed by local police
demanding to see their papers,
and people were afraid to go to
the police for help,” she said.
Oregon lawmakers passed
the sanctuary law in 1987 in
response to widespread racial
profiling of immigrants. In one
high-profile case in 1977, Del-
miro Trevino, a U.S. citizen of
Mexican descent, was arrested
at a restaurant in Independence
because police suspected that
he was undocumented. He
later filed a class-action suit,
and his lawyer, Rocky Bari-
lla, went on to win election in
1986 as a state representative
— becoming the first Latino
elected to that position in the
state’s history. He introduced
the legislation that established
the sanctuary law, winning
support from both Democrats
and Republicans.
“The most important job
for local police is solving local
crimes and keeping commu-
nities safe,” Williams said.
“Police need the trust of the
community to do their jobs.”
Cynthia Kendoll, president
of Oregonians for Immigration
Reform, who helped organize
signature gathering for IP 22,
was not immediately available
for comment. But Kendoll has
said in the past that part of the
goal of the initiative is to pre-
vent undocumented immi-
grants from using local ser-
vices intended for Oregonians.
IP 22 appears likely to land
on the November ballot after
sponsors turned in more than
110,000 signatures to the Ore-
gon Secretary of State’s Office
by the deadline.
The secretary of state’s
office is in the process of veri-
fying the signatures.
Ron and Sherry Howser
of Oceanside, Ca. observed
their 40th anniversary with
re-commitment vows and a
ceremony on June 17, 2018
at the home of her parents
Ken and DeLores Richards of
Astoria.
In celebration, songs were
provided by their son Nick
and wife Ashley, sister Lori
and friend Dale, and her
parents. The couple dressed
in Ruby Red colors in
commemoration of 40 years.
Sherry and Ron were married in Clatskanie, Oregon
on June 17, 1978 at the Church of Christ. Sherry was
raised in Clatskanie and the couple met after graduation.
They have sons Nick Howser (Portland) and Jon Howser
(Kelso).