The following is an excerpt from a sad recent story in the Seatle news. My
reason for including it is to demonstrate the ongoing need for changes in
our treatment laws - I believe we need the ability to more easily get
treatment for people who are too sick to seek help themselves.  If you ever
run across any stories of lack of treatment and the repercussions please
forward them to me.  I publish another free newsletter that goes out every
few weeks focused on helping advocates change laws so that our loved ones
can more easily get treatment. - Brian.
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Seattle Local News : Sunday, Aug. 31, 1997
 Jail staff knew Ho was volatile, still freed him
 by Linda Keene  Seattle Times staff reporter

The staff of the King County Jail knew Dan Van Ho was mentally ill,
potentially violent and had been referred for treatment at Western State
Hospital, but they released him anyway, just 11 days before he fatally
stabbed a man in an unprovoked attack, The Seattle Times has learned.

 Ho is at Western State Hospital now, but it took the slaying of retired
Seattle Fire Department Capt. Stanley Stevenson to put him there.

 Ho, 30, was charged with first-degree murder in the case Wednesday.
Stevenson was attacked last Sunday as he was walking back to his car after
a Mariner baseball game.

 In the week since, the death has sparked a huge inquiry into why Ho was
released from the King County jail - despite a psychiatrist's report
calling him dangerous and in need of confinement. Jail workers had the
option of holding Ho and asking for an evaluation by a King County
mental-health professional (MHP).

 The frustration level is so high at the King County jail that seven
employees talked with The Times, saying it was only a matter a time before
there was a case such as Ho's.

 "We see people come and go, when we know that someday they will kill
somebody," said Paul Jerskey, a nurse on the jail's psychiatric ward who
works for the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. "We're
sorry, we're sad, we're shocked (at the Stevenson death), but we knew it
was going to happen. And, we've been saying it a long time."

That sentiment is heard in other jurisdictions, too. A Renton judge has
become so upset with the poor follow-through on commitment efforts that
she's begun threatening King County with contempt of court if MHPs don't
make the evaluations she requests for mentally ill inmates.

 Private citizens have no such leverage - as many families have learned.
They, too, are angry with the system, describing heart-breaking efforts to
have loved ones detained.

 "Our son was never put in the hospital until he reached his lowest point -
until he hurt himself or someone else," said a Kent woman who has followed
the Ho story with horror because of her own experience with her mentally
ill son. "But for the grace of God, that could have been my son who killed
that man."

With regard to this unnecessary death in Seattle this past week.  If anyone
has any need/desire for more information on the case, there are about a
dozen stories that have been published in the past week in the Seattle
Times on Dan Van Ho (the killer).

To retrieve these stories go to the following web page:

http://www.seattletimes.com/todaysnews/search.html

        From this URL click on the news, then click archives listed on left
hand column, then click Archives since Feb 1996, than enter Dan Van Ho in
the keywords window all lower case,then click search. There are 11 full
story articles listed here.

Brian.