Source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=1460280&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=417987&rfi=8
CENTREVILLE - Nearly two weeks ago, in the space of a heartbeat, a man with a troubled history of mental problems was charged with the kind of crime that belies the myth that small towns are safer than cities.
It began with a routine police response to a noise complaint at a trailer park tucked along Centreville's rural fringes and ended with the deaths of two police officers.
Centreville Patrolman Michael S. Nickerson and Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Deputy Jason C. Schwenz expected confrontation.
They didn't expect to die.
Francis M. Zito, the man accused of shooting both Queen Anne's County lawmen, was on probation for second-degree assault against his mother in February 2000. He wasn't allowed to own a shotgun.
But he did.
According to psychiatric records, doctors first tried to exorcise the demons that hijacked his childhood before he was 9 years old with Thorazine, a powerful anti-depressant.
An evaluation included in his court records reports Zito, diagnosed with schizophrenia and manic depression, had been hospitalized a dozen times. To maintain mental stability, he was supposed to take the powerful drug Prolickson every day.
But he didn't.
Court records reveal that his mother, Betty, has filed seven petitions since 1993, asking for emergency evaluations of her son.
She wrote that Zito "threatened to break my bones and hit me." She said he "cursed and called her awful names," that he was "incoherent and out of control," and she never knew when her son was going to hit her "because he goes off for no apparent reason."
In each petition, the judge found "the emergency evaluee has shown the symptoms of a mental disorder and there appears to be clear and imminent danger of the evaluee's doing bodily harm to the evaluee or another."
One mental health evaluation described him as "too dangerous to remain out among others unsupervised."
But he did.
It appeared clear Zito needed to be monitored to assure he took the daily doses of drugs prescribed to help control his erratic behavior.
But he wasn't.
Records show Zito never finished school, though he eventually learned to read and write well enough to earn a G.E.D.
He never held a job.
His mother tried to keep watch over her son. She owned the trailer park where they lived directly across from each other.
But even she was not immune from his rage. On Jan. 18, just three weeks before the policemen died, Zito's violent behavior toward his mother convinced a judge to grant her petition request filed to have her son evaluated at Kent & Queen Anne's Hospital.
He was no stranger there, having undergone four other evaluations at Kent & Queen Anne's and one at the Memorial Hospital at Easton.
There were other signs that Zito needed help. He allegedly stole from his neighbors' mailboxes because he thought they were taking checks he'd won from the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. He believed former President Clinton owed him money.
A well-known figure around Centreville, Zito often left trouble in his wake as he drifted through town.
On many occasions, business owners ordered him to leave their building.
Centreville Postmaster George W. Schultz said Zito "created scenes in the lobby."
In September, Zito was served with an ex parte order telling him to keep away from a local woman who said he'd called her house and come to her place of employment.
Just the day before he allegedly turned a gun on Nickerson and Schwenz, Zito met with Division of Parole and Probation agent in Centreville and a mental health professional.
According to charging documents, Zito had been ordered to serve three years probation as part of a sentence for the second-degree assault against his mother late in 1998.
In February 2000, Judge John T. Clark III sentenced Zito to four years in prison, with three years suspended, three years probation and 171 days credit for time already served in jail.
The 36-month probation period began June 22, 2000 when he was released from the Queen Anne's Detention Center. A condition of the probation was that Zito be evaluated and receive counseling for psychiatric treatment.
Doug Larrimore, Zito's next door neighbor, said he "slept all day and prowled all night, talking to himself and pretending to shoot at trees and other objects."
Stefan Skipp, who has represented Zito "frequently" in court over the past 15 years, and who entered his appearance for the suspect last week on behalf of the public defender's office, admits Zito has "been in and out of the system for years."
And it is this history of what appears to be a clear pattern of erratic behavior that has left people wondering why Zito was allowed to remain in society without stricter supervision.
It's a complicated answer.
Kent County State's Attorney Robert Strong offered guidelines that dictate what happens if, prior to a trial, a defendant is alleged to be not criminally responsible (NCR) at the time of an offense.
First, the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene must conduct two competency evaluations. If the defendant is found competent and criminally responsible, the case is prosecuted in normal fashion. If the defendant is found not competent, a competency hearing must be held before he stands trial.
If the defendant is found NCR, the defendant must decide whether or not he will accept the finding. If he refuses, the case is prosecuted in a normal fashion, but if he accepts the NCR evaluation, the state reads a statement of facts to the court. If the court accepts the offense and the NCR finding, the defendant is sent to the DHMH to determine if he is a danger to himself or others.
If he is a danger, he remains hospitalized until he is no longer considered harmful and can be granted a conditional release.
The conditions of the release are determined by where the defendant lives, what his after care plans will be and his probation supervision. He is prohibited from having a firearm. If the defendant violates the conditions of the release, the state's attorney is notified and can ask for a hearing to commit the defendant.
Without commenting specifically on the Zito case, Dr. George W. Rever, regional medical director of the Regional Clinics of the Mid-Shore (Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester), admits that there is no simple response to why some mental health patients who appear to be dangerous are allowed to live on their own.
"The courts make the determination whether or not to confine a person who's committed a crime and who appears to have mental problems," said Rever. "Because patients have certain rights, they can't be confined indefinitely."
Rever, who's served the mental health community for more than 40 years, believes a lack of funding is a major part of the equation.
"Prisons and jails aren't set up to treat people who are mentally ill," Rever explained. "Many of them need treatment they can't afford."
He said money for mental health programs is often not a priority when treatment funds become available.
"I share the community's concerns when violence occurs," he said. "But we must be careful not to stereotype the mentally ill. Truthfully, a very small portion of that population commits violent crimes."
Rever suggests a program currently under study in Maryland may offer some solutions. The initiative calls for involuntary out-patient commitment.
"An individual is required to go to treatment and checked to make sure they're taking medication. If they don't show up for an appointment, the alarm goes out."
He said a second approach could allow lawyers, patient advocates and mental health professionals to work with patients to develop advance directives which would get the patient to agree to certain after-care, including appointing an agent to check up on them."
Both initiatives may appease civil libertarians and mental health advocates who vigorously protect the constitutional rights of mental health patients, while also protecting society from patients who exhibit ongoing psychotic behavior and who, despite being repeatedly hospitalized or jailed, refuse to stay on their medication.
Still, many professionals in the field of mental health believe outpatient commitments won't help at least half the diagnosed schizophrenics.
"There was only one way to handle Frank," said Larrimore. "You just had to stay out of his way."
Thanks to the liberal's crusade of "patient's rights," borderline mentally ill people are allowed to be ignored and deprived of the help they really need.