There is a hearing scheduled in Patricia’s criminal case for June 18^th, This will be the latest in several hearings over the last nine months on the question of Patricia’s mental competency. To date, all of the hearings have ended without the presentation of any evaluations or evidence. As of the last scheduled hearing the competency evaluation is still underway.

            There are several sealed pleadings in Patricia’s criminal case. This not unusual in a case where mental illness is an issue, but the District Attorney’s office, despite all of their public support for victims, has never contacted me since Patricia’s arrest in September of 2007. Not even to inform me that several hearings were cancelled.

            My ego leads me to conclude that my successful ability to bring our case to the public attention and, possibly, to influence decisions, has led to a conscious decision on the Department of Corrections, the District Attorney’s office, and even the Honorable Judge Murdoch, to prevent my interference in this case.

            I discussed the DA’s attitude in a previous blog and do not anticipate even the illusion of victim support from Brandenberg and her staff. Obviously, Patricia and her attorney consider themselves in opposition to me, and I do not blame the Department of Corrections for attempting to avoid further conflict with me.

            The truth guys, is why bother? To be less then kind, our conflict over the years arose out of your refusal to acknowledge the extent of Patricia’s mental illness. You caught up with me and we now share the next problem – how to do deal with Patricia’s illness to insure the safety of my family and society as a whole.

            I am under no legal or moral obligation to leave this responsibility to the “professionals” as they demonstrate time and time again how they simply make things worse, with the exception of Judge Murdoch. Yet, I am responsible to my family, to my children, a responsibility Judge Murdoch does not carry. In case the point is clear, although this case has consumed over half of his life, Montie is only eleven years old.

            I, along with the children, am the victim in this case, but Patricia is not the only offender. The Beast Machine prodded and poked Patricia until she lost control of her already fragile mental health. I never abused Patricia, but the Social Worker who stood in open Court and called me a rapist based on nothing other then her own agenda and Patricia’s mental illness, did abuse Patricia by feeding Patricia’s illness just to advance her own agenda.

            Having asserted my right to my rights, I really do not see my intervention in Patricia’s future. Frankly, I have given up on the Beast Machine’s ability to either help Patricia or contain her. As stated previously, I also understand their unique ability to make things worse. I just do not know what they can do. I suspect their own thoughts along this line are the basis for the continued delays in trying to figure out what to do.

            Since Patricia’s arrest last September I continue to puzzle with this question and the possible solutions Judge Murdoch may impose. I see five possibilities.

            One, declare Patricia mentally incompetent.

Two, admit Patricia to the State Hospital in Las Vegas for civil commitment.

            Three, release her to continue probation.

            Four, return her to prison to finish her initial suspended sentence.

            Five, release her completely.

            One, declare Patricia mentally incompetent – I am just not seeing this as a real option. The standard in this case is her ability to help with her own defense. Over the hearings this year, Patricia demonstrated both her awareness and control of her defense.

Two, admit Patricia to the State Hospital in Las Vegas for civil commitment – This is the solution recommended by Patricia’s probation officer. There are two problems with this. First, I believe Patricia has already been through a civil commitment evaluation in Las Vegas and quickly discharged. This occurred during the interval between her release from prison and her arrival in Albuquerque and discussed in an Albuquerque Tribune article at the time. I do not see any changes in circumstances that would make Vegas revaluate their decision made during her last visit.

Also, and this goes along with option one; I do not perceive Patricia’s form of mental illness as among those normally treated in mental hospitals. I do not believe she is schizophrenic but a psychopath. The prognosis for treatment of psychopaths is negative.

So, Vegas discharged her once and they are not likely to keep her a second time. Although, I do consider it likely they will send her to Vegas for a second evaluation. This is simply an expedient way to deal with the impossibility of her case.

            Three, release her to continue probation- I see this as a likely outcome, just reset and give her another chance. Not that she deserves one, but what other realistic options does the State have?

            I do not  see my self in a position to object to this course of action, her release back to supervised probation and a new half-way house. I, along with others, forsee this ending in a repetition of her last release.

            Four, return her to prison to finish her initial suspended sentence— Despite the wonderful program on Dateline a couple of weeks ago about women who hire hit men and their prison sentences, I was not uncomfortable with Patricia’s initial sentence. The Judge anticipated this very future -- send her to jail for a couple of years and hopefully she would learn her lesson, if not send her back to jail for the rest of the eight years.

            I only see this happening if the Judge is convinced that Patricia can not be rehabilitated, is not treatable for mental illness, and an immediate danger.  If nothing is going to change, this just postpones the inevitable.

            Five, release her completely—I assume this is within the judge’s discretion and there is some basis for it in the statutes dealing with mental incompetency.

            There is part of me that wonders if this would be safer then releasing her on active probation. Active probation set her up in conflict with her probation officer, case worker, and mental health providers. This conflict quickly bled over to her filing new DV charges against me.

            On the other hand, there is always the concern that if Patricia has no one else to fight with, she will fight with me. You would hate to be the judge who loosened a sentence only to have it blow up in your face a few months later.

            Well, these are my possible options and the truth is they all are inadequate. I do not envy Judge Murdoch his decision. The wild card is Sanders, if he is still involved with Patricia then all bets are off and I am for any option that removes him from the picture. Patricia’s probation officer shook off Sander’s continued involvement several months ago, but I am not sure. Since I never understood this relationship, I will not attempt to predict Patricia’s or Sander’s behavior.