Investigations

In a dramatic change to their controversial discharge practices, Nevada health officials no longer will send state psychiatric patients alone on buses to cities across the country, they said Wednesday.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said Tuesday that his office will pursue a criminal investigation into whether Nevada's primary state mental hospital has engaged in "patient dumping" across state lines.

Over the past five years, Nevada's primary state psychiatric hospital has put hundreds of mentally ill patients on Greyhound buses and sent them to cities and towns across America.

To attract tourist dollars, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval unveiled a cheery little ad that displays the Silver State's sunny side and is set against a toe-tapping version of "Don't Fence Me In," the sort of tune that can worm its way into your head.

A year before Ohio-based Dyson Corp. supplied the giant bolts that recently ruptured on the new Bay Bridge, a California Department of Transportation auditor flagged the firm for deficiencies in related areas.

Shotzy Faith Harrison cradled her father's face for the first time in years Thursday afternoon, staring into eyes that were large and hazel and misty, very much like her own.

Meet James Flavy Coy Brown. Mentally ill for much of his life, he was discharged from a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital and put on a bus to Sacramento. He disappeared into the cold streets in February but has resurfaced to tell his story.

The State Bar Court has recommended disbarment of Del Norte County District Attorney Jon Alexander, forcing the county to replace him as its chief law enforcement officer.

James Flavy Coy Brown was not the only patient in recent weeks to be dispatched from a Nevada state psychiatric hospital to far-off cities with little regard for their safety, a state investigation confirms.

The California Department of Transportation said Monday that it was reviewing whether the large bolts that broke last month on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge had failed quality-control tests by the agency's materials lab.

At last count, the California state prison system housed 33,777 inmates diagnosed with significant mental illness, including 6,051 with severe conditions such as schizophrenia.

Nevada state mental health officials acknowledge that they bought bus ticket tickets for at least 99 psychiatric patients and sent them to California since last July.

A state psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas "blew it" by discharging a mentally ill patient to a Greyhound bus bound for Sacramento last month without ensuring he had care and housing in California, Nevada health officials admitted Thursday.

For nearly 17 years, Silvia Cata cared for elderly clients in her home on a dead-end street in Sacramento's Gardenland neighborhood, a residential enclave flanked by tire shops, lube and oil joints and a check-cashing store on the corner.

Assemblyman Richard Pan is required to live in the district he represents, but he apparently is spending little time in the residence he purchased to comply with the law, a Bee investigation shows.

Like much in Vegas, the façade of Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital is deceiving.

A California state lawmaker is calling for a federal investigation into the alleged "dumping" of a Nevada mental patient last month in Sacramento.

They stood in the crisp morning air clutching Red Bulls and bearing arms: Bushmaster rifles poking from backpacks, HK pistols nestled in cases, Colt semi-automatics propped on shoulders.

In what appears to have been an egregious case of interstate patient dumping, a 48-year-old severely disturbed schizophrenic says he was released from a state mental institution in Las Vegas more than two weeks ago, put on a Greyhound bus to Sacramento and told to call 911 when he got here.

James Flavy Coy Brown arrived at Loaves & Fishes carrying his walking papers from a Nevada state mental hospital and a schedule detailing his 15-hour bus ride from Las Vegas to Sacramento.