Convicted killer Greist gets more privileges

GREIST » PAGE 4

The freedoms that killer Richard Greist has in his continued involuntary commitment to Norristown State Hospital were expanded, however slightly, in an order signed recently by the Chester County Court judge overseeing his case.

Greist will now be allowed unsupervised offgrounds 24-hour passes three times every three months of the year, up from two such passes under the terms of his last commitment, which came in 2015. He is also allowed one 12hour pass every month. In all, Greist will be able to leave the grounds of the hospital where he has been confined since 1980 without hospital supervision 24 times a year, up from 20.

Greist, who in May 1978 killed his wife and their unborn son, mutilating the child’s body, and attacked other family members at his East Coventry home, will also continue to have permission to attend church services in West Norristown every Sunday; be able to travel back and forth to his personal psychiatrist in Bala Cynwyd; and have unlimited, but restricted, court permission to travel off the grounds while supervised by hospital personnel, Common Pleas Court Judge Edward Griffith said in his four-page order, signed March 27.

The annual review of Greist’s current mental health and the terms under which he is committed to Norristown had been delayed for several months in order to accommodate the various psychiatrists involved in the case. The request for an additional day of unsupervised off-grounds travel, made by the staff at Norristown, was opposed by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

The prosecution was led