Edzz
10:38pm, November 26, 2003
[Edit]
[Delete] | Hospital officials offer plan for Hinckley to make unsupervised home visits
By Sam Hananel, Associated Press, 11/26/2003 16:20
WASHINGTON (AP) The man who wounded President Reagan is ready to leave a psychiatric hospital for unsupervised visits with his parents, a hospital psychiatrist said Wednesday, testifying that John Hinckley Jr. no longer poses a danger to himself or others.
Paul Montalbano, pretrial chief of forensic services at St. Elizabeths Hospital, said Hinckley is ready to begin the visits under conditions that government experts have recommended.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman indicated last week that he was prepared to let Hinckley make the trips with certain restrictions, but he first wanted to hear testimony from officials at St. Elizabeths, where Hinckley has been for the past 22 years.
The new guidelines require Hinckley's parents to stay with their son at all times, call the hospital periodically to check in with doctors and make sure he takes his medication and stays away from weapons. Hinckley and his parents are prohibited from contacting or speaking to the media, and his parents must return him to the hospital immediately if there are behavior problems.
''I think it is important that the outings be part of a risk reduction strategy,'' Montalbano said. ''I believe that successful visits can actually make him less dangerous.''
The Reagan family opposes Hinckley's latest request. Sarah Brady, wife of Reagan press secretary James Brady, who was badly wounded in the attack, also expressed concerns in a letter to the court released Wednesday.
''We do fear for our safety,'' Mrs. Brady wrote. ''He ruined Jim Brady's life once. We don't want him to do so again either physically or emotionally.''
''In the past he has lied to and fooled his parents, his doctors and law enforcement,'' she wrote.
Hinckley, 48, has been a patient at St. Elizabeths since he was acquitted by reason of insanity in the shootings of Reagan and three others outside a Washington hotel in March 1981. Hinckley said he shot the president to impress actress Jodie Foster.
Montalbano testified during the fourth and final day of a hearing on Hinckley's request to make the unsupervised visits. Friedman has not indicated when he will make a decision.
Under the hospital's three-phase plan, Hinckley would begin by making two unsupervised day visits with his parents in the Washington area. Phase two would allow him to make two overnight visits, also in the Washington area. The third phase would permit him to make six overnight visits to his parents' home near Williamsburg, Va.
Montalbano said the new guidelines are not ordinarily required of a patient considered a low-risk threat, like Hinckley, but would be followed out of caution given his high profile.
The only concern Montalbano expressed was that Hinckley was still ''guarded'' about sharing his emotions with physicians and often presented himself in an overly positive light. But he said the visits may get Hinckley to open up more.
Hinckley sat quietly near his attorneys during the hearing and did not testify. His parents sat in a section reserved for the public.
On cross examination, government attorneys asked about instances in which Hinckley has misled his treating physicians. In 2000, Hinckley did not immediately disclose that his former girlfriend, Leslie deVeau, a former patient at St. Elizabeths, had purchased a biography of Jodie Foster. The incident led the hospital to move Hinckley from minimum to medium security for several months.
Government lawyers also asked Montalbano why the hospital's new guidelines don't prohibit Hinckley from seeing deVeau during unsupervised visits. Montalbano said Hinckley and deVeau are still close and that the relationship has helped Hinckley improve his condition.
Hinckley's bid to make the visits got a boost last week from testimony by two psychiatrists for the government. They said his request should be approved but with more restrictions than originally proposed.
Under a 1999 federal appeals court ruling, Hinckley has been able to take supervised day trips off hospital grounds. Secret Service officers have kept watch, and that surveillance would continue during the unsupervised outings.
On the Net:
http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/district-court-recent.html
Oh Btw John, Osama & Saddam are both boinking Jodie Foster. - Ed
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