VENTURA : More Security at Hospital Requested
About a dozen Ventura residents who live near Ventura County Medical Center asked the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for more security in the wake of the Jan. 17 stabbing death of 90-year-old Velasta Johnson.
Kevin Kolodziej, who broke from restraints and walked out of the medical center the same day, has been arrested in connection with the slaying.
The victim’s daughter, Jackie Thetford, told the board at its meeting that although a security guard has been hired to watch the hospital’s mental patient ward, security is still lax. She showed supervisors what she said was a picture taken Monday of a mental patient in his hospital garb at a parking lot near the hospital.
In response, the board asked staff to investigate whether the county should dip into its contingency fund to pay for added security measures at the hospital.
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