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Greeno v. State11/28/2000
Appeal From: Circuit Court of Buchanan County, Hon. James W. Roberts
Opinion Vote: REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Smith, P.J., and Ulrich, J., concur.
Opinion:
Carl H. Greeno appeals the trial court's denial of a conditional release from the Department of Mental Health (DMH). He was committed to the DMH in May 1991 but was conditionally released in September 1993. While on release, Mr. Greeno was charged with second degree assault and his conditional release was revoked. Ultimately, the new charges against him were dismissed, but he remained in the custody of the DMH. Mr. Greeno contends his conditional release should be reinstated because the assault charge was dismissed. Because there was no indication in the record whether Mr. Greeno continues to suffer from a mental disease or defect, we reverse and remand the cause to the trial court to make a finding on this issue.
The offense for which Mr. Greeno was committed to the DMH occurred in 1990. Mr. Greeno drove his car into a police car while fleeing the scene of an alleged uncharged crime, and he was charged with assault in the second degree and armed criminal action. A trial was held on May 6, 1991, and Mr. Greeno was found "not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect." As a result, he was committed to the DMH at Fulton. Mr. Greeno was conditionally released from the DMH on September 28, 1993, by the probate division of the Circuit Court of Callaway County and he was allowed to return to his home in Kansas City.
While on conditional release, from late 1993 until late 1995, Mr. Greeno was arrested several times and he sought help on occasion by checking himself into hospitals. In April 1994, he was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI), reckless driving, and driving without a license. After this incident, he checked himself into the Veterans Administration (V.A.) hospital for several weeks, to avoid revocation of his conditional release, but he left the hospital against medical advice. In March-April 1995, he admitted himself into the V.A. hospital after a stress attack during which he drove down the highway in the wrong lane, in an attempt to commit suicide.
Mr. Greeno resumed his conditional release in April 1995. In December 1995, he was charged with assault and armed criminal action. While waiting trial on the assault and armed criminal action charges, an administrative revocation hearing was held and Mr. Greeno's conditional release was revoked. The hearing officer revoked his release based on the fact that Mr. Greeno violated a condition of his release by violating the laws of the State of Missouri and that he posed a danger to the public while in the community. Moreover, the Director found that Mr. Greeno required inpatient hospitalization to protect the public safety.
While the record before us is not clear, it appears that Mr. Greeno was diagnosed as early as 1980 or perhaps earlier, with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) caused by his experiences in the Vietnam War. The record does establish, however, that this diagnosis was confirmed in 1996 while Mr. Greeno was in the DMH in Fulton.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder which, in Mr. Greeno, manifests itself in battle flashbacks and attacks of anxiety, tearfulness, depression or memory blackouts. Dr. Parwatiker, his treating physician, linked Mr. Greeno's difficulties to as early as 1971. His attacks can be triggered by outside news events, war movies, stressful personal experiences, sudden noises, or any other events that remind him of his battle experiences or survival.
In March 1997, Dr. Bruce Harry, a physician at the DMH, also diagnosed Mr. Green
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