Martin F. Abernathy
These Killings Are NOT New...
Fri Apr 29, 2005 20:19
216.19.125.20
Here's a case from more than twenty years ago...
+++++++++++
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
February 28, 2003, Friday FINAL
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 736 words
HEADLINE: MENTALLY ILL KILLER'S PRISON TIME ALMOST UP
BYLINE: TRACY JOHNSON AND MIKE BARBER P-I reporters
The widow of a Seattle police officer gunned down in 1984 now faces the
unsettling reality that the man who did it - deemed "dangerously mentally ill" just last year - will walk out of prison in 10 days.
She worries that Michael Trott will quit taking his medications. That he'll leave the walls that have confined him for nearly 20 years for killing Officer Nick Davis and become violent again.
State prison officials are trying to make sure that doesn't happen.
"What we're trying to develop is a transition program for him," said Victoria Roberts, community-protection administrator for the state Department of Corrections. "There's always risks with the mentally ill."
Department officials are trying to find a place where Trott, now 51, can live and continue to get mental-health treatment and medication. They hope to find a group home or maybe even a state mental hospital to take him so he won't simply be plopped down on the street.
Fortunately for them - and perhaps for the public - Trott is willing. He was sent to prison several years before "community supervision" was routinely tacked on to the end of criminals' sentences. On March 10, he will have served his time and can do what he wants.
"He recognizes his mental illness, and he understands his need for treatment," Roberts said.
Early next week, Trott will also be evaluated to determine whether the state can legally commit him as someone who is dangerously mentally ill.
Stacie Roberts, whose husband, Nick, never made it home from his patrol shift on Dec. 18, 1984, has accepted Trott's release. She doesn't really know if he's still dangerous - she only knows what can happen when mentally ill offenders return to the streets.
She hopes the state can help him find a place where he poses less of a risk.
"Any help," she said, "would be better than no help."
Detective Chris Wrede, one of Davis' former partners, remembers hoping Trott would get a longer sentence.
"Everyone agreed the guy was a sick person," Wrede, 48, said yesterday, "but the jury was having trouble with the issue of premeditation."
Trott shot and killed Davis, 39, after the officer confronted him for skipping out on a $4.55 restaurant tab.
Trott had gone into the International House of Pancakes near Seattle University for a plate of cheese blintzes and a cup of coffee. He then told his waitress he'd left his wallet in the car.
Trott sauntered outside, then broke into a run. A restaurant worker summoned Davis, who had just walked in for his coffee break. The officer and the worker got into Davis' patrol car and tracked down Trott.
Trott became violent. He shoved Davis to the ground, somehow got the officer's gun. Davis yelled for the restaurant worker to "Get down! Get out!"
Trott fired, hitting Davis twice. Police arrested Trott nearby. He was reportedly babbling incoherently.
A psychiatrist who later evaluated Trott said he made delusional statements about the CIA, corrupt judges and tampered juries. Trott was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia - found competent to stand trial but "highly dangerous."
A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder on July 3, 1985. A judge sent him away. Prison officials say he's been locked away at the Special Offenders Unit in Monroe, a place for mentally ill criminals and has received treatment.
Victoria Roberts of the Department of Corrections said Trott hasn't gotten an infraction for behavior problems since 1990 - a sign that medication and treatment are helping him control his mental illness.
She said her hopes are "very high" that officials will find him an appropriate place to live.
Trott isn't alone - he's one of about 150 people still locked away for crimes committed between 1984 and 1988, a window of time when offenders weren't given post-release supervision as part of their sentence.
If prison officials find him a place, Trott's housing would likely be paid for through a legislative grant aimed at transitional help for dangerously mentally ill offenders, along with federal funding such as Medicaid.
Wrede said he and other officers still think about Davis, who had five children and stepchildren, and so do the firefighters who were there when he died.
"His picture and badge still hang in the East Precinct," Wrede said. "For me, he doesn't go away."
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942
or tracyjohnson§seattlepi.com
GRAPHIC: Photos
(1) P-I/1980: Davis(2) P-I/1985: Trott
+++++++++++
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
February 28, 2003, Friday FINAL
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 736 words
HEADLINE: MENTALLY ILL KILLER'S PRISON TIME ALMOST UP
BYLINE: TRACY JOHNSON AND MIKE BARBER P-I reporters
The widow of a Seattle police officer gunned down in 1984 now faces the
unsettling reality that the man who did it - deemed "dangerously mentally ill" just last year - will walk out of prison in 10 days.
She worries that Michael Trott will quit taking his medications. That he'll leave the walls that have confined him for nearly 20 years for killing Officer Nick Davis and become violent again.
State prison officials are trying to make sure that doesn't happen.
"What we're trying to develop is a transition program for him," said Victoria Roberts, community-protection administrator for the state Department of Corrections. "There's always risks with the mentally ill."
Department officials are trying to find a place where Trott, now 51, can live and continue to get mental-health treatment and medication. They hope to find a group home or maybe even a state mental hospital to take him so he won't simply be plopped down on the street.
Fortunately for them - and perhaps for the public - Trott is willing. He was sent to prison several years before "community supervision" was routinely tacked on to the end of criminals' sentences. On March 10, he will have served his time and can do what he wants.
"He recognizes his mental illness, and he understands his need for treatment," Roberts said.
Early next week, Trott will also be evaluated to determine whether the state can legally commit him as someone who is dangerously mentally ill.
Stacie Roberts, whose husband, Nick, never made it home from his patrol shift on Dec. 18, 1984, has accepted Trott's release. She doesn't really know if he's still dangerous - she only knows what can happen when mentally ill offenders return to the streets.
She hopes the state can help him find a place where he poses less of a risk.
"Any help," she said, "would be better than no help."
Detective Chris Wrede, one of Davis' former partners, remembers hoping Trott would get a longer sentence.
"Everyone agreed the guy was a sick person," Wrede, 48, said yesterday, "but the jury was having trouble with the issue of premeditation."
Trott shot and killed Davis, 39, after the officer confronted him for skipping out on a $4.55 restaurant tab.
Trott had gone into the International House of Pancakes near Seattle University for a plate of cheese blintzes and a cup of coffee. He then told his waitress he'd left his wallet in the car.
Trott sauntered outside, then broke into a run. A restaurant worker summoned Davis, who had just walked in for his coffee break. The officer and the worker got into Davis' patrol car and tracked down Trott.
Trott became violent. He shoved Davis to the ground, somehow got the officer's gun. Davis yelled for the restaurant worker to "Get down! Get out!"
Trott fired, hitting Davis twice. Police arrested Trott nearby. He was reportedly babbling incoherently.
A psychiatrist who later evaluated Trott said he made delusional statements about the CIA, corrupt judges and tampered juries. Trott was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia - found competent to stand trial but "highly dangerous."
A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder on July 3, 1985. A judge sent him away. Prison officials say he's been locked away at the Special Offenders Unit in Monroe, a place for mentally ill criminals and has received treatment.
Victoria Roberts of the Department of Corrections said Trott hasn't gotten an infraction for behavior problems since 1990 - a sign that medication and treatment are helping him control his mental illness.
She said her hopes are "very high" that officials will find him an appropriate place to live.
Trott isn't alone - he's one of about 150 people still locked away for crimes committed between 1984 and 1988, a window of time when offenders weren't given post-release supervision as part of their sentence.
If prison officials find him a place, Trott's housing would likely be paid for through a legislative grant aimed at transitional help for dangerously mentally ill offenders, along with federal funding such as Medicaid.
Wrede said he and other officers still think about Davis, who had five children and stepchildren, and so do the firefighters who were there when he died.
"His picture and badge still hang in the East Precinct," Wrede said. "For me, he doesn't go away."
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942
or tracyjohnson§seattlepi.com
GRAPHIC: Photos
(1) P-I/1980: Davis(2) P-I/1985: Trott
- These Incidents Happen EVERY DAY... —Martin F. Abernathy, Fri Apr 29 20:33
- I Could Post HUNDREDS Of These Cases... —Martin F. Abernathy, Fri Apr 29 20:48
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