Posted on 03/28/2008 7:56:56 AM PDT by SmithL
The family of a teenage girl who was stabbed and nearly killed last year by a high-security inmate wrongly paroled from San Quentin State Prison has sued the state.
The suit claims Scott Thomas, who was suffering from bipolar disorder, was never treated during his months in solitary confinement in San Quentin. After he was released without supervision on May 18, 2007, Thomas randomly stabbed Loren Schaller, now 16, and 60-year-old Kermit Kubitz at a bakery near Miraloma Park.
Thomas, 26, who was sent to prison nine times for nonviolent crimes between 2000 and 2007, has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial and is incarcerated at Atascadero State Hospital.
"It's quite clear that there were numerous errors made by the state; they never contacted us to make it right," said attorney Andrew Schwartz of Walnut Creek law firm Casper, Meadows, Schwartz & Cook, who filed the claim. "I hope that the state takes the high road and tries to resolve the case."
The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages. It names the state; James Tilton, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; and Robert Ayers, the warden of San Quentin.
The suit says a series of clerical mistakes led to the prison's release of Thomas, who was supposed to be in the custody of his parole officer, and alleges that officials failed to train employees to identify and treat mentally ill inmates.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
If he’d been sent to prison nine times in six years, whatever happened to three strikes and you’re out?
A truly sick and bizarre story . This bakery is located in a nice quiet section of SF and a block from a very large and nice Catholic school my nieces attend.
When was the “3 strikes” rule enacted? When were his violations? How many of the violations were done since the 3 strike rule?
Texas has a 3-strike rule, but the man who attacked me and had 4 priors, wasn’t affected by the rule since the attack against me was the first one since the rule was enacted.
I hope the family gets some money out of this. Just like the relatives of some of the dead in the Wichita rape/killings of Dec 2000. In that case too it was a “clerical error” that allowed one of the scumbags to walk out of prison early. He sure learned his lesson. I guess not getting punished empowered him to go out and slaughter a lot of innocent people.
Wasn’t there also some red tape error that allowed the killer of the student Eve Carson to be back on the streets preying on the innocent? This is intolerable and the officials involved should be punished.
and they wonder why some people support the death penalty, if he’d have been executed this would never have happened!
Thomas, 26, who was sent to prison nine times for nonviolent crimes between 2000 and 2007, has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial and is incarcerated at Atascadero State Hospital.
So it would seem that the good folks at San Quentin created a monster, then released him on to society. They should be made to pay, and quite a few CalPERS covered corrections employees should be made to pay as well.
How does one "randomly stab" someone? Maybe randomly choose someone to stab, and then stab with purpose. Could be a SNL skit..."Hold still while I randomly stab you..."
I'm not making light of the situation, I'm complaining about the reporting.
Pay no attention to the man behind the keyboard.
Since he was convicted of non-violent crimes, they probably didn’t count as strikes. Only specific felonies (can’t tell you which ones) count as strikes.
I believe the California 3 strikes law says if the first 2 were "violent" or "serious" or both, then the 3rd strike can be for anything including shoplifting, there is a "famous" cases where the guy is serving a life sentence for shoplifting golf clubs.
Shoplifting can easily become a felony depending on the value of goods stolen.
Just ask Winona Ryder.
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