A comprehensive review of operations at the mental hospital in Pueblo will be conducted by the state following news of an escape and of an alleged tax-fraud scheme by inmates and staffers, the chairwoman of the Legislative Audit Committee said.
State Sen. Stephanie Takis, D-Aurora, said she has talked to State Auditor Sally Symanski about the matter.
Takis said the only issues to work out are when the audit will occur and its scope.
Takis said the audit probably will include the operations of the companion state mental hospital in Fort Logan. Both institutes provide treatment for the chronically mentally ill, but the one in Pueblo also is charged with rehabilitating and diagnosing the criminally insane.
State Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, said she also plans to bring up the issue of an audit when the Legislative Audit Committee meets on Monday. Butcher, a member of that committee, said she’ll come to the meeting armed with a stack of written complaints from employees of the Pueblo facility.
“I have heard of people working two jobs there,” Butcher said. “And of people who haven’t had any training being promoted, and people who weren’t qualified being promoted, and people who were qualified getting terminated.”
She said she’ll also meet in Pueblo on Friday with Rich Gonzales, executive director of the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration, to go over the stack of signed statements, which she declined to release.
“I want him to investigate these complaints,” Butcher said. “I want to have them looked at, and I want a response to them all.”
Escape, indictments
The last state audit of the institutes occurred in 1993.
“We’re happy to have the audit performed,” said Eunice Wolther, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Mental Health Institute. “And we welcome them coming to the hospital and doing the audit.”
Pressure for a state audit developed following news of mishaps at the facility in Pueblo, where the state houses the criminally insane.
First, a dangerous inmate escaped in March. The inmate, Tyrone Jones, 44, was committed in 1988 after he stabbed a fellow inmate. He had been written up more than 20 times for allegedly physically and sexually assaulting patients and staff. He ran away while being escorted on hospital grounds and remains at large.
That same month, a Pueblo grand jury issued indictments alleging two staffers at the institute helped at least five inmates there in a tax-fraud scheme that netted up to $25,000 a month.
Then, on May 23, the institute also placed Mark Cordova, a nursing supervisor on the maximum-security ward, on paid administrative leave for an undisclosed reason pending an investigation into his activities. Cordova was paid $76,584 annually.
Telephone messages left at a phone number listed for a Mark Cordova were not returned, and a person who answered that phone hung up when asked about the reasons for the administrative leave.
Process starts rolling
Earlier this month, Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut, a former Democratic state senator, called for a state audit. In a letter he sent to Symanski and Takis, Thiebaut wrote: “In light of recent events at the Pueblo institute, a performance audit makes sense from the point of view of community safety.”
He called for a comprehensive review into the proper balance between rehabilitation and public protection, including a review of personnel needs.
Deborah Trout, director of behavioral health and housing for the Colorado Department of Human Services, followed up on Thiebaut’s letter with an e-mail to Symanski and Takis asking them to make sure any audit would also include the institute in Fort Logan.
“I think the internal audit process can be tremendously helpful,” Trout said in a later interview. “It’s helpful to take an objective look at things, and doing so will highlight some of the excellent work our staff is doing under extreme, chronic resource limitations.”
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
