Judge orders API to prepare for supervised release of mentally ill man who killed wife
Published Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE -- A judge has ordered Alaska Psychiatric Institute to prepare for the supervised release of a patient considered potentially dangerous by psychiatrists.
Brian Dussault is the last Alaskan found not guilty of murder because of insanity. He has spent most of the last 24 years at the state mental hospital.
But his lawyer says the 51-year-old man deserves a chance at freedom.
"He's not a convict. He's a patient," said lawyer Avraham Zorea, who now lives in the Seattle area but is spending this spring and summer in Alaska working on Dussault's release.
At a hearing Tuesday before Superior Court Judge John Suddock, Dussault sat quietly with his hands cuffed in front of him. For much of the last year, he has lived in API's forensic unit, the most secure part of the hospital.
Suddock wants Dussault moved into a less strict unit. If he does well there, the judge wants him out of the hospital under conditions such as testing for drugs and alcohol and monitoring by a private psychiatrist.
"API is not supportive of his release," psychiatrist Larry Maile, API clinical director and head of the forensic unit, said after Tuesday's hearing.
A forensic review board at API that includes law enforcement, a public defender, a prosecutor and API treatment staff also doesn't recommend his release, Fayette said.
The judge wants a report back by June 19.
Dussault killed his wife during a schizophrenic breakdown in February 1984. In a bizarre, rambling interview with Anchorage police at the time, he said her body had been invaded by red crystal squares sent by beings trying to control everything. He emptied his semiautomatic into her, reloaded, emptied it again, thought maybe she was still coming round, so he sprayed her with water. Should have done that at the start, he told police. "They" don't like water.
Dussault doesn't have to prove he's sane to get out of the hospital, just that he can be adequately supervised and that the community can be protected, said assistant attorney general James Fayette.
He said Dussault over the years has been a difficult and defiant patient, sometimes not going to group sessions or AA meetings, the sorts of things his doctors say would show progress.
Psychiatrist Aron Wolf told Suddock by phone Tuesday that he is willing to check that Dussault takes his medication if he's released. He could live in an assisted living facility in the Mountain View neighborhood that now houses mainly sex offenders recently out of prison, under the plan reluctantly fashioned by API. And he has money to pay for it all, Suddock noted.
Dussault gets military benefits of about $2,500 a month, the judge said. Before he killed his wife, he was medically retired from the U.S. Air Force because of mental illness. He also receives about $2,400 a quarter from a family inheritance, according to a brother, who spoke by phone from New York at Tuesday's hearing.
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Yeah let's give a psyco killer another chance at freedom. So who's next with little red crystals. For real he needs to stay under supervison. He is a danger to the community and he had already proven that 24 years ago. How about his wife he killed, how about the closure for her family. Maybe you should ask them if he should be released. I just think its pathetic how our judical system allows sex offenders and murders to have a second chance at freedom. Makes you feel safe about letting your children out to play in the yard doesn't it?
"He's not a convict. He's a patient," said lawyer Avraham Zorea, who now lives in the Seattle area but is spending this spring and summer in Alaska working on Dussault's release.
I am sorry, anyone who empties a gun twice into their wife is a convict, sane or not. If you don't have the wiring upstairs to not do something like this, then you are a threat to the community.
Like any other defense attorney trying to get an convicted criminal off or a lessor sentence because they "can be rehabilitated"... I would say this:
"If you think this person(s) is a good enough person to let back into society, you take them in to your family...and you are responsible for their actions. If in fact your judgment of them is correct, there will be one less good citizen in our correctional facilities *in this case API*. If not, you will serve the time with them, and obviously you won't be practicing law anymore."
Technicalities are not reasons to let murderers/convicts back into society... Warrant/no warrant Sane/insane. Murder is murder.
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It would follow that Mr Zorea, in keeping his principles intact, should take third party custodianship of Mr Dussault if he intends to foist him back on society, particularly the innocent segments of society that might be defenseless to Dussault's delusions.
LEAVE HIM IN THERE....THERES ALREADY ENOUGH SENSELESS MURDERS AND WHAT NOT IN ANCHORAGE
This is whacked! I'm not a big fan of the head doctors but but I gotta agree with them here, this guy reloaded and emptied again and apparently has been a pain in the tail while at API. This is just WHACKED!!!
Were these judges to have a clue about reality they'd be extremely reticent about releasing mentally ill offenders. I agree, with a comment written elsewhere that the judge should be forced to have the releasee live next to him or her.
I am acquainted with a person who unknowingly married a bi-polar spouse. When the marriage ended the spouse alienated the kids from him and the courts would do nothing. Actually, the judge blamed the woman's husband and only warned the gal to be nice - nothing but talk. It's no wonder many have no faith in our court system.
http://www.adn.com/crime/story/412560.ht...
Published in the Anchorage Daily News, three extra paragraphs on the above story:
Dussault doesn't pay a dime to live at API -- the state can't charge someone committed involuntarily for treatment, Fayette said. But he's blown money on cars and women and a house, which is now in foreclosure, the judge and others have said.
Dussault is the only Alaskan found not guilty because of insanity for murder since the notorious case of Charles Meach prompted the state Legislature to make the defense much harder to use. Using an insanity defense, Meach was found not guilty of a 1973 murder. Then, in 1982 while on a day pass out of API, Meach shot and killed four teenagers in Russian Jack Park.
Meach was found guilty of the four park murders and died in prison.
As to Dussault, the judge wants everyone to report back to him on June 19.
This story did bring to mind the Charles Meach case.
1982 story in the NY Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...
There are several key things missing from this story.
1. Why has he been in the most secure unit of API for the last year?
2. Is the doctor's assessment based on his mental state on or off medication?
The judge is requiring that he be eased out of API - not just turned loose on the streets, which is something.
I think the fact that he emptied his gun into her twice shows just how unstable his mind was at the time of the murder. I have no idea how many bullets are in a clip for the weapon he used, but I'm presuming the first round is more then enough to kill someone. He however thought there was still a chance she was alive - clearly not someone who is thinking clearly.
If he can function outside of API while on medication then I agree with the judge - he wasn't convicted of anything, and he has been in API for a very long time. I do think that there needs to be a lot of oversight of this man to ensure that he is functioning outside of API and not dangerous.
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