Inmate With AIDS Dies as Judge Weighs Release

A convict with AIDS has died in prison as a judge belatedly considered an official state recommendation made last month to release the inmate so he could die at home with his family.

Stanley Young Jr., 28, died Wednesday afternoon at the state prison hospice at Vacaville as Monterey County Superior Court Judge Harkjoon Paik tried to decide whether the convicted burglar and robber should be released.

James Gomez, director of the state Department of Corrections, signed and faxed a recommendation for compassionate release to Paik on June 25. But Paik said he was not sure the faxed recommendation was authentic and delayed holding a hearing on the issue until Wednesday morning.

Prison officials say Paik should have phoned the Department of Corrections immediately if he doubted the authenticity of the recommendation. In the meantime, Young’s physical condition rapidly deteriorated.

Earlier this year, Gomez had rejected a request by prison doctors to release Young. He cited Young’s use of a gun during a crime and his fears that the inmate might become well enough to commit another offense.

But Gomez reconsidered the request as Young’s physical condition worsened and after the inmate’s mother, Freda Kubas, held a vigil on the steps of the state Capitol and pleaded to be allowed to take her son home to die.

Kubas, who lives in the remote town of Glennville in the mountains north of Bakersfield, is bitter over her son’s death in prison.

“They dragged their feet,” she said of criminal justice officials. “They robbed him and they robbed me. He got sent to prison for robbing. What’s going to happen to them for robbing me and my son? I only wanted a little time to be with him, that’s all.”

Monterey County Deputy Public Defender Jonathan Siegel, who represented Young, reacted with equal bitterness in issuing a broadside at Paik. He termed the judge irresponsible and contended that Paik had shown “a high degree of callousness and cruelty.”

Siegel’s prepared statement was unusually strong considering that the attorney must continue to plead cases before Paik.

“The action of the court was irresponsible,” said Siegel. “There was no reason the relief sought could not have been granted on or about June 25. Judge Paik never intended to grant the compassionate relief.

“Judge Paik did not have to release Mr. Young,” he continued, “but the least he should have done was simply tell Mr. Young’s mother he was not going to do so rather than stringing her along. . . . The manner in which he evaded action . . . and his treatment of Mr. Young’s mother discloses a high degree of callousness and cruelty.”

Paik responded by saying: “I don’t want to get into this controversy with an attorney.”

The judge said that he had received conflicting evidence regarding the advisability of releasing Young and that he had intended to reach a decision by Thursday.

After Young’s death, he said: “My heart goes out to Stan Young and to all those who are touched by this terrible disease.”

Siegel represented Young in 1989 when Young was sentenced to 14 years in prison by Paik after he committed two house burglaries and a robbery in Monterey County. During one of the burglaries, Young found a gun and used it to rob an elderly couple who had been in bed asleep. Young, who had been in trouble since he was a juvenile, was on parole for burglary at the time and was addicted to drugs.

Young told The Times last month that he was not sure how he had contracted AIDS, but his mother said she believed that her son became infected in prison.