Some Camarillo Patient Transfers Temporarily Halted

A Superior Court judge Tuesday temporarily ordered a halt to a handful of patient transfers at Camarillo State Hospital, boosting the hopes of hospital advocates waging a legal battle to spare the facility from closure.

Saying that those patients could suffer irreparable harm if moved, Judge Diane Wayne ordered them to stay put until a May 14 hearing on a request to suspend the closure of the state hospital until the legal battle is settled.

Tuesday’s temporary restraining order only extends to a small number of patients with the state Department of Developmental Services who had requested their transfers be delayed until the May hearing.

And it excludes a number of patients with the state Department of Mental Health--which shares space at the state facility--who had made similar requests.

The mentally ill patients were excluded, officials said, because that state agency was not named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed on behalf of family members seeking to keep the hospital open.

Nevertheless, family members and representatives of state hospital patients--who filed the lawsuit last month--said the court ruling represents a significant victory.

“To us it’s significant that Judge Wayne is open to a hearing on May 14 and to granting a temporary restraining order at all,” said Ron Gold, a Calabasas attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of family members. “In the broader picture, I think that’s an encouraging sign.”

Gold also had sought the return of some patients already transferred to other facilities, but that request was denied.

Officials with the Department of Developmental Services said they estimate that the court order extends to only 13 patients, some of whom may have already left Camarillo.

The officials said they are assessing what effect, if any, Tuesday’s ruling will have on future transfers, especially as units start emptying out this week.

“We’re surprised by the ruling,” said Michael Mount, chief counsel for the state agency. “Now we’re evaluating the list [of patients] to see what impact it would have on the department.”

The legal action stems from a lawsuit filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that the planned closure of Camarillo State Hospital would violate state and federal law, and would cause irreparable harm to the facility’s 650 developmentally disabled and mentally ill clients.

The state hospital is set to shut down June 30, but the suit seeks a temporary court order blocking the closure and all patient transfers until a hearing can be held on those larger issues.

With that injunction request scheduled for a May 14 hearing, state officials earlier this month agreed to consider delaying the transfer of any patient who wanted to remain until that matter was resolved.

But last week, with only a handful of such requests in hand, officials said they decided that delaying the transfer of such a small number of clients would actually do more harm than good.

That prompted Gold to return to court Tuesday and ask the judge to block those transfers.

While the court order could temporarily keep a small number of patients in place, the reprieve came too late for Marci Flannery.

Her son, Page, was sent Tuesday morning to Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. By the time Flannery got word of the court ruling, it was too late to do anything about it.

“I can’t go through this again,” said Flannery, after an emotional day of waiting at the Orange County facility for her son to arrive and settle into his new home.

Page Flannery, 58, had been at Camarillo for 27 years, and his mother fought hard to keep him there as long as possible. If he had not been transferred Tuesday morning, he would have been allowed to stay at least until the May 14 hearing.

“I was waiting for word, I was waiting to hear something,” she said. “But they put him on the van and made him come.”

Ultimately, Flannery and others say the lawsuit is not intended to halt the closure of the hospital altogether, but to ensure that at least a portion of the property is set aside to house and treat patients with families in the immediate area.

For months, mental health advocates have pitched a plan to establish such a treatment center on a remote, 23-acre corner of the hospital property.

“If we could just have that 23 acres, we wouldn’t even be in court,” said Reva Shpiner, whose mentally ill daughter was transferred Monday to a facility in Sylmar. “We wouldn’t be fighting to keep the hospital open. We just want something so that our children don’t suffer.”

Times staff writer Carlos V. Lozano contributed to this story.