County Ordered to Keep Wilmington Mental Clinic Open

In the latest twist in a tangled legal battle, a Superior Court judge Friday ordered Los Angeles County officials to keep the Wilmington Mental Health Center open, only hours before clinic workers were to permanently vacate the psychiatric center.

“We have our boxes here, but we can now stop packing,” said a joyful Mary Ewing, a psychiatric nurse at the Wilmington clinic, which last saw patients a week ago.

“We’re going to start making patient appointments again. That’s good news,” Ewing said after the court decision.

Patients Notified

More than 120 patients at the Wilmington center had been notified last week that they would be transferred to a nearby clinic after county mental health officials claimed that safety reasons had forced them to close the facility.

But Superior Court Judge Barnet M. Cooperman declared Friday that the move violates a preliminary injunction barring such closures and admonished the county for going ahead with a shutdown plan without court approval.

The preliminary injunction, which Cooperman issued last September, prohibits the county from closing any clinic until the state Supreme Court can rule on a class-action lawsuit filed last summer. Legal Aid attorneys, representing indigent mentally ill patients, had filed suit challenging the county’s original plan to close eight mental health clinics and curtail services at five others for budgetary reasons.

After paring the original cut list to three clinics, county officials singled out the Wilmington facility--the county’s smallest--for closure and claimed that the action did not violate the court order because it was not being done for financial reasons.

Cooperman, however, ruled Friday that the county should have sought court permission before closing the facility and throwing patients and staff members into turmoil.

“Only in this way can misunderstandings be avoided . . . and persons who are patients at this clinic will be protected from these misunderstandings,” the judge said.

Cooperman added that he would consider a request by county officials to modify his preliminary injunction and still close the Wilmington clinic. But Mental Health Director Roberto Quiroz said late Friday that no decision has been made on whether the county would file such a request but that the clinic will reopen Monday.

‘Bunch of Rulings’

“We are being subjected to a whole bunch of rulings and findings totally irresponsible in terms of stabilizing our situation in L.A. County,” Quiroz said, adding that his department would try to comply with the court ruling, which includes an order that the county increase security and hire two more psychiatric social workers at the Wilmington clinic.

Cooperman’s ruling came two days after the state Supreme Court refused to block the Wilmington closing, concluding that the high court lacked the jurisdiction to enforce the preliminary injunction.

But after Legal Aid attorneys turned to Cooperman, the judge ruled that the clinic could not be closed without a specific court order or until the state Supreme Court had decided the clinics’ case.

County lawyers were clearly stunned by the judge’s decision. Immediately after the decision, Roberta Fesler, assistant county counsel, was asked if she had a comment. “Not a printable one,” she replied.

Later, Fesler said the judge’s decision was “not warranted” but said the county would try to comply with it. However, she raised questions about whether the department could find the additional psychiatric social workers ordered by Cooperman.

“If it’s not possible to comply with court order, the ball comes back to our court to determine what is the best way to protect the county,” Fesler said, adding that the county might appeal the decision.

Paul Schettler, executive director of the Wilmington facility, took a different view, although he said any celebration would be tempered. “It’s a relief, but it’s still momentary. This thing is not yet over,” he said. “We can’t allow ourselves to feel too good about it because don’t know what’s happening around the next turn.”

The court hearing came on the same day that a state Senate subcommittee held hearings on the proposed closings of the mental health clinics. Testifying before members of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Quiroz called the court decision a “hollow victory” for its supporters and warned that the county faces even deeper cuts in local programs during the next fiscal year because of a bleak state funding picture.

Other speakers, including mental health patients and their advocates, pressed for additional state funding for the mentally ill. But state Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), the subcommittee chairman, cautioned that any additional funding for the mentally ill would be difficult to obtain.