The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office and a former Western State Hospital doctor accuse the state of releasing patients without warning and endangering the community.
In a scathing resignation letter last week, Dr. Laetitia Geoffroy-Dallery said the hospital is making “willfully and ignorant decisions that continue to endanger our patients, their families, and the community at large.”
She specifically cited a case involving the release of a man against the wishes of a risk assessment, only to see the man die 12 hours later.
The example was cited by Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett in an interview with KOMO News on Monday, in which she suggested that her office is not getting thirty days’ notice before an involuntarily committed person is released into society or charged with a crime. Robnett said her office has not been properly notified by DSHS, nor the hospital, about recent decisions on so-called “Felony Flip” cases.
