Tuffree Witness Explains Call to Police

Kathleen Harthorn said she never set out to send the police to Daniel Allan Tuffree’s house that day last August.

The psychiatric counselor at Simi Valley Hospital twice tried to find a mental-health crisis team to check on Tuffree’s welfare, she told a Ventura County Superior Court jury Thursday.

But the only available east county team had left five minutes earlier to intervene in an unrelated case, Harthorn said. And a team headquartered in Ventura was unable to verify whether the recommended intervention was safe, Harthorn said, so she asked Simi police to perform a welfare check on the man who had been demanding the tranquilizer Valium for more than 24 hours.

Within hours, Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark had been shot to death in Tuffree’s backyard and Tuffree, 49, had been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Nearly a year later, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the former social studies teacher, who has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors used testimony from four mental health professionals Thursday to show the jury that police went to Tuffree’s home to check on his health.

“There was concern on my part and on the [crisis] team’s part that Mr. Tuffree was unconscious,” said Harthorn, who works in the hospital’s Behavioral Health Center. “When he didn’t answer the phone, my concern escalated.”

Harthorn testified that she first heard of Tuffree in a voicemail message from a Los Angeles therapist who works for his insurance company.

On the morning of Aug. 4, 1995, psychiatric technician Karl Floyd asked Harthorn to check on Tuffree, who Floyd said had been abusing a combination of alcohol and Valium for two days.

“The insurance company was requesting that someone check on him,” Harthorn said.

During that initial conversation with Floyd, the insurance company therapist said he would pre-approve a voluntary stay at Simi Valley Hospital to help Tuffree kick prescription drugs, Harthorn said.

Floyd testified earlier that he too was unable to contact Tuffree, despite a series of frantic phone calls Tuffree made the previous day in a vain attempt to get his Valium prescription renewed.

Tuffree apparently exhibited withdrawal symptoms throughout the 24 hours leading up to the fatal shooting, Floyd said. But the therapist was unable to get help for the accused killer.

“It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t able to talk directly to Mr. Tuffree,” Floyd said. “I’ve talked to many clients who had guns to their heads.”

Prosecutors sought Thursday to show jurors that Harthorn had no choice other than to ask police to check on Tuffree’s well-being.

Mary Randall, who supervises the crisis teams at Ventura County Mental Health, said her workers almost never go to the homes of mentally ill clients without permission.

“We need to ascertain before we go out into the field that it is safe to do so,” she said. When unable to do so, “we would call another agency,” Randall said, “whatever police agency is in that jurisdiction.”

Unlike police officers, Randall told the jury, mental health workers are not allowed to enter private residences without permission.

The courtroom will be dark today and throughout next week. Testimony in the trial will resume Aug. 12, Judge Allan L. Steele said.