Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration has backed away from a $2.2 million bill it submitted to a mentally ill man who plucked out his own eyes and has agreed under pressure to pay the man $685,000 for the city’s negligence.
Frank Harris, a schizophrenic who had been committed to St. Elizabeths in the 1970s, blinded himself in a delusional fit in early 2003. He had told staff that he was hearing voices that told him his eyes were misleading him and making him see evil things.
An overworked orderly loosened Harris’ bonds, and he pushed the man away. With one hand, he gouged out his eyes.
After his guardian and lifelong friend, Janice Mottley, threatened to sue the city for negligence, D.C. sent her a $2.2 million bill, claiming that Harris owed that amount for room and board at the hospital.
The case created the first political crisis in Fenty’s young regime. A majority of the D.C. Council joined member Phil Mendelson, D-at large, in blasting what they called an “offensive” litigation strategy. They also accused the mayor of hypocrisy: As a council member, Fenty had led investigations into deaths in city group homes and condemned the city for putting liens against the estate of people whose families were suing over the deaths.
In the Harris case, the Fenty administration claimed it was bound by law to submit the lien, but George Valentine, the deputy attorney general, told The Examiner Wednesday that charging Harris for his stay at St. Elizabeth’s was necessary to get Mottley to negotiate a settlement.
“In strategy, you don’t give up everything to your opponent,” Valentine said. “I think they knew, in the end, what our position would be.”
Mendelson has introduced legislation that would forbid the city from repeating the lien tactic in the future.
“I think it’s outrageous to bill for negligent care,” he told The Examiner.
Mendelson said the settlement wouldn’t affect his bill. “I’m bringing it forward,” he said.
