September 25, 2009 in City

Sheriff bills state for expense of search for hospital escapee

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The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will submit a $37,000 bill to the state for the cost of hunting down escaped Eastern State Hospital patient Phillip A. Paul.

The manhunt, which involved a team of deputies and the Sheriff’s Office helicopter, was launched after Paul walked away from a hospital field trip at the Spokane County Interstate Fair, said Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

Paul was captured Saturday afternoon in rural Klickitat County.

“We’ll bill the governor, and she can work out where she wants to send the bill,” Knezovich said.

Since being found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1987 killing of a Sunnyside, Wash., woman, Paul has spent most of his life in the state mental hospital in Medical Lake.

Paul was one of 31 patients from the hospital’s forensic ward taken on a field trip to the fair Sept. 17 under the supervision of 11 hospital staff members. The hospital did not notify authorities of Paul’s escape until two hours after he disappeared.

The resulting search cost the Sheriff’s Office and Spokane Valley police $20,834.88 in overtime, $8,652.87 in regular salary, $7,873.41 in costs associated with the sheriff’s helicopter and $133.88 on meals, according to a summary of expenses released Thursday by Knezovich.

Knezovich said that while his office is funded for such cases, the expenditures associated with tracking down Paul arose because of “questionable Eastern State Hospital policies and procedures.”

Two comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  rshroll on September 25 at 1:09 p.m.

  Who gets charged when Spokane County Law Enforcement or other police agencies have to look for an inmate escaped from Spokane County’s Geiger Correctional Facility? From what I recall this has happened more than once. And isn’t an escape from any facility possibly the result of questionable policies, procedures, and/or practices? Are helicopters even useful when there isn’t an initial location to begin tracking (like within a couple of blocks with a very recent sighting)? Did Arizona charge Spokane County when Spokane County fugitive and escaped Geiger inmate Roger H. Nordling was captured by Arizona Highway Patrol officers? Did Whitman County Sheriff’s Office charge Spokane County when an extensive search was performed after Geiger’s escaped fugitive Clifford C. Pluff was spotted at the Tekoa City Pool? Etc.

• 

  mono on September 25 at 8:51 p.m.

  Good luck in holding the DSHS management responsible for this act of putting the public at risk. The only one held accountable was the CEO Hal Wilson who is 70 years old and could retire anytime. The others who are culpable and should be investigated and found accountable are.

  DOUG PORTER DSHS Assistant Secretary PORTEJD@dshs.wa.gov; 360-725-1863

  RICHARD KELLOGG, (Fired former director of the DSHS Mental Health Division) KelloRE@dshs.wa.gov; 360-725-1550

  DAVID WESTON: DSHS Chief of Mental Health Services WestoDB@dshs.wa.gov 360-725-1133