Judge orders probe into California whistleblower’s claims
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge ordered an independent investigation Thursday into whether top California corrections officials deliberately misled court officials into believing that mentally ill inmates generally receive proper care.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller ordered former U.S. Attorney Charles Stevens to investigate allegations contained in a 161-page whistleblower report by Dr. Michael Golding, the prison system’s chief psychiatrist.
Mueller oversees the state prisons’ mental health system as part of a long-running lawsuit. She ordered investigators to help her determine whether prison officials committed “fraud on the court or intentionally misled the court” by presenting rosy statistics about inmates’ care.
Golding says officials systematically misrepresented that nearly every inmate was being seen by psychiatrists within time limits set by the court, when really fewer than half were being seen on time and some visits were delayed by months.
Officials also falsely asserted that inmates were receiving confidential care and that officials at one prison changed their practices to mislead the court’s inspectors, Golding said.
Corrections officials denied what they called “uncorroborated, largely meritless fraud allegations” and objected to being required to pay for an investigation they said could be conducted by existing court-appointed monitors. They also said in recent court filings that Mueller is exceeding her authority by ordering an investigation that is broader than necessary.
“The court has not merely the authority, but also the duty, to protect the integrity of the judicial process,” Mueller wrote in explaining why she wants an outside investigation.
Stevens, of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher firm in San Francisco, was appointed U.S. Attorney for eastern California by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. He notably led the prosecution of the Unabomber, Theodore John Kaczynski, in the 1990s.