Lucille
10-21-2012, 05:11 PM
What a nightmare. DH saw this story on Brian Miller's FB (http://www.facebook.com/VoteBrianMiller) page today.
Carolyn Barnes is a victim of a much larger problem in America society. The blind, unquestioning belief in authority. She is being held on no evidence, pre convicted in the minds of law enforcement and a corrupt judiciary. The following blog is in the public domain for all to understand what has happened, to encourage you to take action, and let the Apparatchiks responsible know that the people will not allow this to happen anymore.
http://freecarolynbarnes.blogspot.com/
State bills some court-detained mental patients for their care
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional/state-bills-some-court-detained-mental-patients-fo/nShyD/
Carolyn Barnes received her latest hospital bill on Oct. 3.
“Dear Ms. Barnes,” it said. “You owe the Kerrville State Hospital $97,728 as reimbursement for the support, maintenance and treatment it provided to you for dates of service March 20, 2012 through September 30, 2012.” If the bill was not paid or successfully challenged, the letter continued, the hospital would file a lien against Barnes’ property.
More surprising than the amount of the bill are the circumstances. Unlike most hospital patients, Barnes neither asked for nor wants the care she has been receiving at Kerrville, one of the state’s 10 taxpayer-supported psychiatric hospitals.
Two years ago a Williamson County judge ordered her into the hospital system when she was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. According to the order, she is to be held until her competency is “restored” — that is, she is psychologically stable enough to answer the charges against her in court.
She’s not alone. Records show the state hospitals bill about a dozen patients every year with the expectation they can and will pay for their criminal court-ordered psychiatric care. Experts say it’s part of a larger trend of trying to squeeze more money from those charged with or convicted of crimes.
[...]
The Texas Department of State Health Services, which operates the hospitals, says competency restoration typically takes about three months. But Barnes has been a complicated patient. A licensed attorney, she has alleged a conspiracy of county officials to incarcerate her and refused to work with her court-appointed attorney.
As a result, she has been an unwilling ward of the hospital system for more than 16 months. She was admitted in June 2011, a year after she was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly firing a handgun at a U.S. census worker who had walked onto her property. Barnes has denied the incident.
After several months at a state psychiatric hospital for potentially violent offenders, she was moved to Kerrville. In late August, a state district court judge found her still unfit to stand trial and ordered her confined to the hospital for another year. She is being billed at the rate of $509 a day.
[...]
Because of her lengthy confinement in Kerrville, she and her son have struggled to pay their bills. Last month, Williamson County sued to recover $8,000 in delinquent property taxes on her Liberty Hill home.
“You can’t forcibly commit someone and then make them pay for it,” Barnes said in an interview from the state hospital. “For $509 a day, I could be in a five-star hotel.”
Jones video in '99 on Williamson County corruption (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xedh_aLIg74&feature=related). I sent this story to him too. Hopefully he'll bring some attention to her plight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHbUResgqy8
Carolyn Barnes is a victim of a much larger problem in America society. The blind, unquestioning belief in authority. She is being held on no evidence, pre convicted in the minds of law enforcement and a corrupt judiciary. The following blog is in the public domain for all to understand what has happened, to encourage you to take action, and let the Apparatchiks responsible know that the people will not allow this to happen anymore.
http://freecarolynbarnes.blogspot.com/
State bills some court-detained mental patients for their care
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional/state-bills-some-court-detained-mental-patients-fo/nShyD/
Carolyn Barnes received her latest hospital bill on Oct. 3.
“Dear Ms. Barnes,” it said. “You owe the Kerrville State Hospital $97,728 as reimbursement for the support, maintenance and treatment it provided to you for dates of service March 20, 2012 through September 30, 2012.” If the bill was not paid or successfully challenged, the letter continued, the hospital would file a lien against Barnes’ property.
More surprising than the amount of the bill are the circumstances. Unlike most hospital patients, Barnes neither asked for nor wants the care she has been receiving at Kerrville, one of the state’s 10 taxpayer-supported psychiatric hospitals.
Two years ago a Williamson County judge ordered her into the hospital system when she was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. According to the order, she is to be held until her competency is “restored” — that is, she is psychologically stable enough to answer the charges against her in court.
She’s not alone. Records show the state hospitals bill about a dozen patients every year with the expectation they can and will pay for their criminal court-ordered psychiatric care. Experts say it’s part of a larger trend of trying to squeeze more money from those charged with or convicted of crimes.
[...]
The Texas Department of State Health Services, which operates the hospitals, says competency restoration typically takes about three months. But Barnes has been a complicated patient. A licensed attorney, she has alleged a conspiracy of county officials to incarcerate her and refused to work with her court-appointed attorney.
As a result, she has been an unwilling ward of the hospital system for more than 16 months. She was admitted in June 2011, a year after she was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly firing a handgun at a U.S. census worker who had walked onto her property. Barnes has denied the incident.
After several months at a state psychiatric hospital for potentially violent offenders, she was moved to Kerrville. In late August, a state district court judge found her still unfit to stand trial and ordered her confined to the hospital for another year. She is being billed at the rate of $509 a day.
[...]
Because of her lengthy confinement in Kerrville, she and her son have struggled to pay their bills. Last month, Williamson County sued to recover $8,000 in delinquent property taxes on her Liberty Hill home.
“You can’t forcibly commit someone and then make them pay for it,” Barnes said in an interview from the state hospital. “For $509 a day, I could be in a five-star hotel.”
Jones video in '99 on Williamson County corruption (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xedh_aLIg74&feature=related). I sent this story to him too. Hopefully he'll bring some attention to her plight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHbUResgqy8