Judge Denies Woman’s Return to Halfway Unit : Killer Captured in Fountain Valley After Leaving Outpatient Program Is Ordered to State Hospital

A woman who killed her mother and slashed her daughter’s throat nine years ago was denied a bid Friday to return to a halfway house program similar to one from which she disappeared last March.

Arlyne Louise Genger, 46, who was arrested last month in Fountain Valley, was ordered by Superior Court Judge James M. Coleman in Van Nuys to return to Patton State Hospital, the San Bernardino psychiatric facility from which she won her freedom in June, 1988, after a court determined that she had been rehabilitated.

Genger had been living in Gateway Hospital, an outpatient community treatment program in Los Angeles. She disappeared from the facility in March after getting permission to go to the bank.

Authorities said she went to Las Vegas and lost most of her money gambling, then found work in Orange County as a telephone saleswoman. She was arrested last month as she went to pick up her paycheck after quitting her job. Genger was traced when she applied for a driver’s license under her real name, authorities said.

Sought Release

At the time of her disappearance, Genger had unsuccessfully petitioned the court several times to be released from the facility and allowed to live in the community.

Genger was declared not guilty by reason of insanity after she admitted stabbing her mother more than 20 times and cutting her daughter’s throat and wrist with a razor in the family’s North Hollywood apartment on New Year’s Day, 1980. Genger’s daughter, Selena, then 13, survived the attack. Her mother did not.

Harry Goldberg, Gateway’s program director, advocated Genger’s return to Patton, saying Genger is hostile to authority figures and to anyone with whom she has a close relationship.

But Deputy Public Defender Dennis G. Cohen, who represented Genger, asked that she be allowed to enter a different halfway house so that she could continue treatment with a different therapist.

He said Genger proved by leaving the halfway house that she has been rehabilitated. “There is no indication that she involved herself in any violations of the law, committed any crimes or hurt any person,” Cohen said. Instead, Genger proved that she was able to work and function in society.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. James A. Baker said Genger should absolutely not be allowed to remain in a halfway facility.

Genger’s cousin, Richard Cookston, said after the hearing that Genger’s daughter and other family members would be relieved by the ruling.

“We as a family do not want to see her out. We want her in there forever,” Cookston said. He said relatives are hiding from Genger and had feared that she might try to find them before her arrest.