Originally published Friday, September 18,

2009 at 6:06 PM

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Insane killer escapes on field trip to

county fair
A criminally insane killer who escaped

during a mental hospital field trip to a

county fair remained on the run Friday,

and furious residents and officials

wondered why such a dangerous person

was out in public.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

Associated Press Writer

SPOKANE, Wash. —
A criminally insane killer who escaped

during a mental hospital field trip to a

county fair remained on the run Friday,

and furious residents and officials

wondered why such a dangerous person

was out in public.

Authorities believe Phillip Arnold Paul,

47, is heading to the Sunnyside, Wash.,

area, where his parents and many

siblings live. The Spokane County

Sheriff's Office used a helicopter to

search Friday, and officers also searched
transient camps along railroad tracks in

the area. The public was urged to call

911.

"He is in a bad mental state," his

brother, Tom Paul, told The Associated

Press. "Why would they load him on a

bus and take him to a fair?"

That's a question many are asking.

Authorities at Eastern State Hospital are

being criticized for allowing Paul to visit

the fair despite his violent criminal past

and history of trying to escape. Spokane

County Commissioner Mark Richard has

called it unacceptable, and the state

Department of Social and Health

Services ordered an immediate end to

such trips and launched an investigation

into the practice.

Paul was committed after he was

acquitted by reason of insanity in the

1987 slaying of an elderly woman in

Sunnyside. He soaked the woman's body

in gasoline to throw off search dogs and

buried the remains in her flower garden.

"Why was he allowed to take such a

trip?" Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday.

"Why did they go to a location that was

so heavily populated with families?"

Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the

Department of Social and Health

Services, said those questions would be

answered in an investigation she has

ordered that included both state mental

hospitals. She was peppered with

questions at a news conference, but

deferred nearly all of them until the

15-day review, which will be in part

conducted by the state Department of

Corrections, was finished.

Dreyfus said it is not unusual for

so-called "forensic" patients, who are

being held against their will, to earn the

opportunity to go on field trips as part

of their therapy. The mental hospitals

also treat people who are mentally ill but

have not committed crimes.

Thirty-one patients from the mental

hospital were on the trip Thursday with 11

staff members. Dreyfus said she did not

know how many of those had violent

criminal backgrounds. Patients must be

cleared by a treatment team before they

can go on trips to stores, parks, and

other sites, said Dr. Rob Henry, director

of forensic services at Eastern State.

They wear street clothing and staff

members are required to keep each

patient within eyesight at all times.

Henry said trips to the fair were an

annual event. The last escape from the

forensic unit occurred in 1992, he said.

It is possible the review will end such

outings, Dreyfus said.

Members of an employees union at

Eastern State put out a statement

saying they had long opposed such field

trips.

"They believe he was an extreme escape

risk and the administration should never

have allowed him on the field trip," the

statement from the Washington

Federation of State Employees said. "The

workers have unsuccessfully fought to

stop the outings for murderers, rapists

and pedophiles committed to the hospital

as criminally insane."

The union said workers alerted superiors

"within two to three minutes of

discovering Paul's escape." But

administrators waited nearly two hours

before calling law enforcement. That gave

Paul plenty of time to disappear.

Dreyfus said it was not clear how long it

took for law enforcement to be alerted.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich

insisted on the two-hour delay.

Sheriff's officials were told Paul had $50

at the time of his escape.

"Fifty dollars will buy you a bus ticket,"

sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan said.

In addition to local law enforcement, the

Washington State Patrol joined the

search, as did an inmate recovery team

from the state Department of

Corrections.

Paul is a white male, 5-foot-8, 220

pounds, with brownish-gray hair, blue

eyes, and a goatee. At the time of his

escape, Paul was wearing a red

windbreaker jacket, with a T-shirt and

jeans.

The sheriff's office said Paul's medication

should keep him stable for 14 days, not

48 hours as previously reported.

His brother said Paul was a high school

and junior college wrestler and a martial

artist who should not be approached.

"I'm a tough guy but I wouldn't take him

on," Tom Paul said. "I hope he doesn't

hurt anybody."

This was the second escape for Paul. In

1991, he walked away during a day trip in

Medical Lake and was later captured. He

attacked a sheriff's deputy in the jail

booking area, knocking him unconscious,

and was convicted of first-degree escape

and second-degree assault.

Phillip Paul had a normal childhood in

Sunnyside, 200 miles southwest of

Spokane, but he started acting strangely

as a high school student. He said he was

hearing voices and thought they were

witches, Tom Paul said. He was

diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Phillip Paul has been on and off a variety

of medications over the years, and also

been in and out of institutions, Tom Paul

said. He has repeatedly proven unable to

live in society, he said.

Paul was living in a halfway house in

Spokane last year, but ended up back at

the hospital in a very agitated state,

Tom Paul said. Hospital officials said

Paul hadn't exhibited violent behavior in

years. They argued in the past that he

should be released, but his petition for

release was rejected in 2003.

This is about the most ludicrous [ besides the Godeka story] scenarios possible for it to be lawful to allow these people to walk out of the institutions at all! I want to know if at deliberation amongst the jury at their trials, if the jurist knew that convicting as "Insane" and guilty would then house these people in a place where they could walk free within our communities? I think not!

I think that these people need special accommodations, but not at the cost of putting innocent people in jeopardy!

I want to know why it is, that the public is not made aware of the practices of these hospitals when it come to these type offenders? These people are sick and I understand that. I understand that they do not need to be in a normal prison population where they could possibly be violated by other prisoners. However, the answer seems a little more grounded than the current practice of these institutions allowing "fieldtrips."

I feel like I want to get signitures to stop this at the mental institutions or subs like the one on Coburg Road in Eugene Oregon where Godeka currently lays his head down and sleeps after a good meal and a good movie on his T.V.