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It turned out to be no day at the fair for law-enforcement, fair officials, state mental health experts and the community at large on Sept. 17.
That’s when 47-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul, who was among 31 criminally insane Eastern State Hospital patients who visited the Spokane County Interstate Fair, walked away from the group and out of public sight for three days.
For the next 72 hours, concerned public-safety officials and incredulous community residents wanted to know the same thing: How could someone who has been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic – and who violently murdered a 78-year-old woman near Sunnyside 22 years ago – be allowed to attend the fair?
That question, under the scrutiny of Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services, will likely be answered in the next few weeks.
It appears administrators at Eastern State gave the OK for Paul and the other patients to attend the fair. Dreyfus said Friday she ordered ESH to curtail any similar excursions until a “critical incident review” was completed to figure out what went wrong. This will include an examination of hospital policy about patient outings and a mitigation plan to prevent similar incidents in the future.
“I am confident Secretary Dreyfus will develop a new approach that will ensure that something like this never happens again,” Gov. Christine Gregoire said in a prepared statement Friday.
According to Sgt. Dave Reagan, spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, ESH officials waited too long to let law enforcement know that Paul was on the loose and could be anywhere in Spokane Valley, where the fairgrounds are located, or the surrounding area.
“He walked away…sometime around 11 a.m. Thursday, but his escape was not reported to the sheriff’s office until around 1:15 p.m.,” Reagan said, which gave Paul a big head start on deputies.
Officials with the sheriff’s office – as well as law-enforcement professionals in Yakima and Klickitat counties – were relieved Sunday when Paul was captured outside Goldendale on Sunday around 4 p.m.
“The good news for our community is that they can go to sleep…a little safer,” Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at the time.
According to investigators, after Paul slipped away from the ESH group at the fair, he duped a friend in Spokane into driving him to Goldendale. Apparently, the friend had never seen the various newscasts regarding Paul’s escape.
Thinking Paul had been released from the hospital, the friend gave the suspect a guitar, sleeping bag and other items. After learning of Paul’s escape called, the man called authorities and showed them where he dropped Paul off.
Investigators in an unmarked van spotted Paul walking out of the trees near the roadway on the Goldendale-Bickleton Highway. The three officers jumped out and, with service pistols drawn, were able to get Paul to the ground. He said he was “done” and complied with all commands.
One of the officers said Paul had a hand scythe protruding from his backpack.
Paul was taken to Yakima County Jail, where he was charged with failure to comply with the terms of commitment. He was later transported back to ESH near Medical Lake.
Among the group who located Paul was sheriff’s Detective Roger Knight, who was injured by Paul in a failed escape attempt in 1990. At that time Paul fled a field trip to Medical Lake and began heading southwest toward his family’s home in Sunnyside. Deputies, including Knight, responded and made the arrest.
While booking Paul into jail, the man suddenly attacked Knight, knocking him down and out, and injuring his shoulder so severely it needed surgery to be fixed properly.
Knezovich had his own reasons to be glad to see Paul back in the care of mental health officials. He’s frustrated with the costs, both in terms of dollars and manpower, that the escape inflicted on his and other participating agencies. He later expressed the possibility of attempting to receive reimbursement from DSHS, including the cost of operating a helicopter that searched the area for Paul.
Sheriff’s investigators developed “very good” information early that Paul was headed westbound, Reagan said, and that Paul had entered a business west of the fairgrounds and asked for a job application. Meanwhile the fairgrounds were thoroughly searched in case Paul was still on the premises. Nearby rail yards and hobo camps along the Spokane River were also searched. But all indications showed it was likely he would head back to the Sunnyside area.
Fair officials reported a drop in fair attendance the day after the escape. They also said they would develop new policies with Spokane County commissioners to ensure that blocks of tickets will no longer be sold to potentially dangerous individuals from ESH.
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By
Mike Huffman
