Posted: Monday, 15 June 2009 11:13AM
Make Time For Justice
Steve Corbett Reporting
Monday, June 15, 2009
When I called for Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola at 8:45 this morning, he still hadn’t announced when, where or how he planned to release information contained in the Pennsylvania State Police report about the circumstances surrounding the death of Brenda Williams at the hands of the Scranton police.
PSP finished their investigation last week and Jarbola met Friday with members of Williams’ family. A Saturday report in the Times-Tribune quoted a family member as saying he still didn’t know why the 52-year-old mentally ill Air Force veteran died.
Jarbola was quoted saying something about waiting for a ballistics report.
The only matter that needs to come in loud and clear is an explanation that Jarbola promised for this morning – the 18th day since Williams died from gunshot wounds.
By 10:30 a.m. I still didn’t know when, where or how Jarbola planned to release the information.
The woman who answered the telephone at 8:45 a.m. told me she didn’t know if Jarbola was available and that I would have to speak with his secretary. The secretary wasn’t in so I left a detailed voicemail that asked her to call with details as soon as possible.
When nobody returned my call by 9:45 a.m., I called again and left Jarbola’s secretary yet another detailed voicemail.
Then I called the main number and asked to talk with anybody in the office who might have knowledge he or she was willing to share. I wanted to know whether Jarbola would have a press conference, would take questions from the press, would come on the air this afternoon, or would release the entire PSP report.
The woman who answered the phone finally connected me to an assistant district attorney who said he was 99.9 percent sure that Jarbola would hold a press conference at 2:30 or 3:00 p.m.
He said he’d call me back before 11 a.m.
At 10:50 the assistant district attorney called and said the press conference is on for 3:00 p.m.
Let’s hope the press conference gets underway on time and that Jarbola takes questions as well as releases the full report.
But I don’t expect this to go smoothly at all.
I expect a report that spins the story that is already spinning out of Scranton police headquarters.
A high-ranking officer told me last week that police cannot take anybody into custody unless that person is a danger to herself or himself or to others. The insinuation here is that Williams was no danger to anybody until she was. Then police had no time to do anything but shoot her.
Case closed?
I think not.
The case will remain open no matter what Jarbola does or doesn’t do or say.
The Scranton officer with whom I spoke said that city police receive little training in how to handle the mentally ill and that a new policy was being prepared. He didn’t say if a written policy actually exists, but I won’t be surprised if no written policy exists.
I also won’t be surprised if Lackawanna County Commissioners continue hiding and shirking responsibility for their role in this tragedy.
Even with training, police officers are not professional mental health workers.
Progressive county officials across the nation have established formal arrangements with police agencies that utilize mental health professionals at times when police are simply not equipped to handle a mentally ill person.
Lackawanna County has no such program.
Still, county officials claim they contract out with a counseling service whose workers could train police but don’t.
Why does the county need a costly mental health bureaucracy if they pay somebody else to provide the life and death services that all cities now require? County officials maintain the agency because in Lackawanna County politics still rules all aspects of government.
Proposed state budget cuts might further reduce government mental health services. That means that quality treatment is all the more important. We’re running out of time to make a difference in the lives of people who truly need help.
Brenda Williams needed help and has no time left at all.
Politics sometimes kills.
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Corbett
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