So Who Knows Right From Wrong Here?
Looking for a place to live where they don’t coddle criminals? A place where, if you do the crime, you’ll do the time?
If so, you may want to house-hunt in Riverside County. That is, if you like the ambience of, say, Dodge City, Kan., circa 1870.
Case in point: the ongoing prosecution of 38-year-old Ann Marie DeGree, who graduated from Marina High School in Huntington Beach in what must seem a long, long time ago to her.
It might seem like a long time ago because, shortly after graduation, DeGree, then 19, underwent surgery for ruptured blood vessels in her brain. The procedure saved her life but left her brain-damaged.
For the last 19 years, DeGree has lived under a conservatorship and resided in locked psychiatric facilities. Her brain damage manifests itself in cognitive problems and a lack of impulse control and judgment, according to her sister, Becky Yourex, a registered nurse at a Long Beach hospital.
Last month, DeGree was taken from her Riverside care facility to Riverside General Hospital to treat a condition that occasionally causes the sodium in her blood to rise to dangerous levels, Yourex says.
Someone from the care facility stayed with her until she was admitted, but DeGree was then left unattended and unrestrained in her room--for one of the few, if not only times in the last 20 years, according to her brother, Mike DeGree.
She made her way to the hospital gift shop, where she eventually left, without paying, with a Pepsi and some candy. When a sheriff’s deputy later arrived in her room to confront her about the theft, she allegedly grabbed for his gun, wrestled with him a bit and scratched him on the face.
DeGree was charged with theft and assault on an officer, a felony. DeGree spent 2 1/2 weeks in jail, where she lost 16 pounds before she was transferred to UCI Medical Center and, ultimately, the psychiatric ward.
She now faces a preliminary hearing on June 6.
No Mercy From D.A.
Her family is disbelieving and angry. Yourex says the theft from the gift shop is precisely why her sister always needs some kind of supervision. She knows on some level that theft is wrong, but her brain damage prevents her from controlling the impulse to take it, Yourex says of her sister.
As for the scuffle with the officer, Yourex theorizes that “she felt threatened and it was kind of a ‘flight or fight’ kind of response. She felt threatened and cornered.”
“When I first heard about it, I thought everything was a miscommunication,” Mike DeGree of Costa Mesa says. “I thought as soon as they found out her history and medical condition, everything would get dropped, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. They act like they want to put another notch in their belt or something. It’s bizarre.
“She’s brain-injured. She’s been in a locked hospital her whole life. That’s a cruel existence. . . . This isn’t anything she needs or the family needs. My parents have gone through God knows what with her.”
Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Bentley wonders what all the fuss is about. He said he read the family’s dossier on Ms. DeGree and sympathizes with her brain injury. “But the only claim is that she has poor social skills and impulse control problems,” he says. “I didn’t see a traditional diagnosis that she’s schizophrenic or has an anti-social personality disorder.”
State law requires that anyone claiming insanity show such diagnoses, Bentley says. “Number two, she has to lack the ability to know right from wrong,” Bentley says. “The fact that she tried to conceal the stuff and tried to struggle--she knew it was wrong.”
Bentley says his current offer is that DeGree plead to misdemeanor assault and petty theft. No more jail time. “This is not the kind of case where you throw away the key,” he says.
What a guy.
Deputy public defender John Isaacs, who’s representing DeGree, confirms the plea bargain offer and says he might take it. If he doesn’t, his client goes to trial on felony charges and risks prison.
To the district attorney, misdemeanor assault and petty theft to someone institutionalized for the last 20 years apparently is a magnanimous offer.
Conversely, the thought of dropping the charges apparently is laughable.
So what, the D.A. seems to be saying, if Ann Marie DeGree takes the misdemeanor and has a police record for the rest of her life? Barring a miracle, the family says she’ll be institutionalized forever, anyway.
She better take the plea.
Someday down the road, as she’s sitting in her locked psychiatric unit, Ann Marie can reflect on how lucky she was to run into a big-hearted department like the Riverside D.A.’s office.
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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by e-mail at dana.parsons@latimes.com.