Brain-Injured Woman’s Prosecution Stuns Family

Brain-damaged Ann Marie Degree, 38, has spent half her life in locked psychiatric facilities because she has virtually no control over her impulses, and her family says she will probably spend the rest of her life in such places.

But first the Riverside County district attorney’s office wants her to spend a year behind bars.

The office is prosecuting the Orange County woman for allegedly stealing candy and a soda from a hospital gift shop and assaulting a peace officer because she reportedly resisted his attempts to retrieve a roll of Life Savers from her hospital room.

Degree’s attorney and family say it is absurd to prosecute a woman who has the cognitive skills of a 6-year-old.

Prosecutors say they filed felony charges because of the seriousness of the accusations. They contend that they are properly enforcing the law and that being impulsive--even for documented neurological reasons--is no excuse for criminal acts.

The two stances represent a common rift between mental health advocates and law enforcement. The Degree case, especially, illustrates the debate within the legal system over how to handle brain-injured defendants who are not legally insane.

On one side are defense attorneys who complain that aggressive prosecution in cases like Degree’s keeps the mentally disabled from getting appropriate care.

On the other are prosecutors who worry that if they don’t pursue cases against brain-injured suspects, their decision “could backfire if that person does something awful in the future,” said Jim Preis, executive director of Mental Health Advocacy Services, a Los Angeles-based public-interest law firm.

While California civil courts routinely factor in the impact of brain injuries, there are no specific provisions in criminal law that take into account survivors of brain trauma, according to San Jose lawyer Richard Alexander, who is publisher of Consumerlawpage.com and specializes in litigation involving severe injuries. “Brain injury is considered in sentencing criminal offenders,” he said. “But that’s really not much solace when many survivors of brain injury should be diverted from the criminal justice system from the outset.”

Prosecutors say, however, that a brain-damaged person may still be able to form the intent to commit a crime, a prerequisite for conviction in many cases.

“These prosecutions require a lot of discretion,” said George Williamson, a Solano County deputy district attorney who previously headed the criminal division of the state attorney general’s office. “Just because you’re brain-injured doesn’t mean you can’t commit a crime and shouldn’t be punished.”

Degree’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 6.

Riverside County Deputy Public Defender John Isaacs said he will argue that she cannot form criminal intentions because she is too childlike and lacks impulse control.

“I have a number of doctors who are willing to testify that, in many ways, Annie has as much ability as a 6-year-old to commit a crime,” he said. The district attorney’s office “should drop the charges and save the taxpayers a lot of money.”

But the prosecutor is playing hardball.

“This was clearly felony conduct,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Bentley. “We hold people accountable for what they do. The fact that someone has bad social skills or impulsivity, that’s a far cry from being legally insane, or having a legal excuse.”

The charges have racked Degree’s family.

“Annie already is being deprived of a free life,” said her sister and family spokesman, Becky Yourex, who lives in Costa Mesa. “She doesn’t deserve to be in prison with criminals. It will serve no benefit to anybody.”

Degree’s life underwent an upheaval when, while she was 18 and living in Anaheim, blood vessels in her brain ruptured and she collapsed. The former drill team member at Marina High School in Huntington Beach could no longer think rationally or function socially, her sister said.

Among other things, Degree became an impulsive eater, uses profanity and reacts like an ill-mannered and demanding child, Yourex said.

Her family committed her to Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, where she spent 16 years behind locked doors, according to Yourex. Because of confidentiality laws involving mental health patients, the institutions where Yourex said Degree has been committed or treated could not discuss issues involving her.

Eventually her parents transferred her to the care of the Orange County public guardian’s office, her sister said.

Vicki Landrus, the assistant Orange County public guardian, confirmed that Degree is a conservatee and that the office would “be advocating on behalf of her interests” in connection with her arrest, but could not discuss details.

At Degree’s most recent placement, her diabetes flared up and she was transferred to the Riverside County Regional Medical Center on March 4.

Three days later, Degree--thirsty because of a sodium buildup--wandered into a gift shop in the hospital, Yourex said.

According to the sheriff’s crime report, she stole some candy, cookies and a soft drink before returning to her room and stowing the items away. A nurse noticed, and deputies who serve as hospital security guards were called to the room.

Degree became agitated, went after the deputy’s holstered handgun and scratched his face, according to the incident report cited by the prosecutor.

The family hoped that when authorities learned of Degree’s medical history, the matter would be dropped.

Instead, the district attorney’s office pursued the charges and Degree was arraigned in a Riverside courtroom, where she pleaded not guilty. She spent two weeks in the Riverside County Jail before her family posted $5,000 bail and arranged for her transfer to the neuropsychiatric unit at UC Irvine Medical Center, where she is receiving treatment, Yourex said.

Yourex said the family is preparing for trial--and hoping the case doesn’t get to that point.

To aid in the defense, the family is collecting letters from doctors and other professionals who have treated Degree.

Clinical neuropsychologist Terrance Dushenko wrote that Degree’s vein rupture in 1981 had “catastrophic consequences . . . that affected virtually all aspects of her capacity for physical, cognitive and emotional self-control.”

Said Bentley: “I’ve read hundreds of these kinds of reports, and this one isn’t that bad. There’s no major personality disorder.

“If she pleads guilty to a felony she’ll get some short sentence and go back to her caretakers,” he said.

Isaacs said that if the case ends up before a jury, “she’ll be found not guilty. But she’ll probably still remain locked up for the rest of her life, barring some medical miracle restoring her brain.”