Adithya Sambamurthy, The Bay Citizen

Napa State Hospital is plagued by violent assaults on staff

Lawyers for a Napa State Hospital patient accused of assaulting a therapist at the government-run mental institution told a superior court judge Tuesday that their client is mentally incompetent to stand trial.

In response, Napa County Superior Court Judge Rodney G. Stone ordered the alleged assailant, Sean Michael Bouchie, to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael O’Reilley said. 

Bouchie, 24, is charged with assaulting therapist George Anderson, 60 at the hospital on Dec. 11. He has pleaded not guilty.

Anderson sustained four skull fractures. Bouchie is also suspected of knocking a custodian unconscious the week before his alleged attack on Anderson.

The psychiatrist's report is due back Jan. 11.

If the court-appointed psychiatrist finds Bouchie mentally incompetent to stand trial, the judge will likely order Bouchie to stay in a state-run mental hospital until he gets better, O’Reilley said.

That could mean remanding him to Napa State Hospital, or sending him to one of the state's four other mental hospitals.

Such an action would be deeply ironic, observers say, because Napa State Hospital has witnessed an epidemic of violence in recent months.

"The California system is not equipped to deal with people like Mr. Bouchie," said Sue Wilson, spokeswoman for the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, which represents psychiatrists in the Napa hospital.

Earlier this month, The Bay Citizen reported that the hospital's secured treatment area, which is surrounded by a fence topped by razor wire, is rife with gang activity, methamphetamine use, pimping and extortion.

In October, Donna Gross, a psychiatric technician, was slain on the hospital grounds. She was allegedly strangled by a patient, Jess Willard Massey, who is now facing charges in connection with the death.

"It's not clear where he belongs, but it's clear that Napa State Hospital is not the right place for someone like Mr. Bouchie to be," Wilson said.

But Jennifer Turner, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Mental Health, said such an outcome is entirely possible.

"Once an individual is determined by the court to need competency restoration based on court assessments and the individual is ordered to receive competency restoration treatment at a state hospital, the individual is assessed and a determiniation is made as to which hospital is most appropriate for that individual to be admitted to," she said.

Even if the court-appointed psychiatrist rules Bouchie mentally incompetent to stand trial, the DA's office could contest the finding, Chief Deputy DA O’Reilley said.

"If we disagreed, we could ask the court to hold a trial on that issue. The court would then set a trial date and it would either be a court trial or a jury trial," he said.

Bouchie is currently incarcerated in Napa County Jail. Bail was set at $100,000.