“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Run! Now!

This story from the great state of Washington is a perfect example of just how awful government can be. It is not a tale of incompetence, nor ignorance, nor even misplaced benevolence. Rather, it is a tale of a government that knowingly chooses to allow evil to occur, to help it continue, and to subject the most vulnerable in our society to the depredations of cruel men.

🧵If you need evidence of how truly insane government can be, look no further than this story from @seanrobinson1e4 of the @thenewstribune. Allow me to vent for a moment about some of the details … https://t.co/Gz2EVXZu66

— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) November 30, 2022

Reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune Sean Robinson tells the tale of Mark James, who was hired by the government-run Western State Hospital to take care of and counsel severely mentally disabled patients who had been civilly committed. James is a 27-time felon.

James, 62, worked for the state’s largest mental hospital for four years, starting in 2017. He was hired 13 days after he was booked into the Pierce County Jail on a fugitive warrant from Oregon, six days after he was booked into an Oregon jail on two charges of dealing heroin and other drug-related offenses. A week after the Oregon booking, on April 24, 2017, James received his official letter from the State of Washington, congratulating him on his hiring as an institutional counselor.

“Mark — Welcome to our team!” a handwritten note said, above official verbiage and a proxy signature from Cheryl Strange, then the CEO of the hospital.

His state salary started at $41,800. Over the next three years, it nearly tripled.

James was hired despite a lengthy criminal record that stretched back to the 1990s. At the time of his hiring, it included 22 felony convictions for theft, forgery, identity theft and drug possession. James didn’t hide it. The state knew it. “Yes,” James said. “I did background checks several times.” He was hired anyway and given direct access to some of the state hospital’s most vulnerable patients, as well as money tied to their names, kept on their ward in a petty cash drawer.

There is nothing shocking about an employer, even the state itself, giving ex-cons a second chance. It is probably a good idea, even, assuming that there is a fit between the job and the former criminal.

James, though, was hardly a former criminal. He was known to be an active criminal who was charged with crimes at the time he was hired. He was a heroin dealer, and the records uncovered by the reporter clearly demonstrate that at the time of his hiring his supervisors knew it.

And yet they hired him to be a counselor for a ward of severely disabled mental patients, and paid him close to $120,000/year to do it.

We can rest assured, the hospital administrator tells us, that proper procedures weren’t followed and this would never happen now.

Leaders of the state’s largest mental hospital now say that was a mistake. “We’re not saying one bit that this was a good hire,” said Dan Davis, deputy CEO of Western State, in a Nov. 10 interview. “We can all agree that the process was not followed correctly.” Davis was promoted to his position a year ago. He’s worked at the hospital for 12 years. He said the decision to hire James in 2017 was made by David Holt, the hospital’s former chief operating officer, who was later promoted to CEO, and retired in 2021.

So, mistakes were made. They happen. Perhaps the hospital staff believed that after all his felony convictions in the past and present James was reformed, never to sin again.

Yeah, no. Not at all. James was convicted of 5 more felonies while working at the hospital and getting his salary increased by nearly 300% in four years. The State of Washington is a good employer!

After the state hired James, five more felony convictions followed, stemming from the charges in Oregon: two for dealing heroin, three more for possession of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. The state knew it, records show. He kept his job. James pleaded guilty to the charges. In 2018, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail in Oregon on the convictions, and 36 months of probation. The sentence was light, in part because of the plea, in part because James cooperated with the investigation, and in part because, “Defendant has taken significant steps towards his own reform,” according to a memo in the Oregon court file.

Well perhaps James’ employers were ignorant, since the charges and convictions too place across the state line in Oregon? How can we blame them for things of which they were ignorant?

Yeah, no. In fact, Mark James’ supervisor vouched for his character and helped him get lenience from the judge.

If I move to Washington I know where I am applying for work! Few of us could be convicted of dealing heroin and other felonies and see our employment continue, no less continue getting enormous raises.

Following his conviction, James continued to receive his state-funded salary, which rose to $88,100 after he was promoted. By 2020, it had risen to $118,000, according to state personnel records.

That was the year he allegedly started stealing money from patients by withdrawing small sums of cash tied to their names, kept in a drawer on P5, the ward where they resided. He did it 117 times over nine months, state records say. James resigned in October 2021, seven months after hospital officials confronted him with evidence of the thefts. He wasn’t fired — union rules prevented that while an internal investigation was pending. James said he was offered a transfer to the hospital kitchen. “I was put in the kitchen as a dishwasher, and I was told it wasn’t retaliation,” he said. “I believe I was made one of the scapegoats. I believe the problems existed long before I got there.”

The guy was making beaucoup bucks and still engaging in minor thefts from mental patients. He didn’t even get fired. He resigned because he didn’t like washing dishes after having such a cushy job stealing from patients. Poor dude. He does still have his licenses to practice though. Perhaps he could still lose those, but perhaps not.

James wasn’t arrested. He wasn’t charged. After receiving the Lakewood report, Pierce County prosecutors decided against it, in part because the victims – some reluctant, some incoherent – couldn’t provide reliable testimony, according to public records. Prosecutors also noted that the hospital’s system for tracking patients’ money was so weak that the criminal case would be hard to prove. The state Department of Health is still investigating his actions, which could cost James his state licenses as an institutional counselor and nursing assistant.

You would think that with James’ resignation that he would at least be retired from health care, right? A multiple time felon with a record going back decades, heroin dealing convictions, and a sketchy exit from the state hospital with accusations of theft from vulnerable people would be enough to get him out of the business, at least? Right?

Right?!

Uh, nope. He just moved across the border to Oregon. You know, the state that recently convicted him of 5 felonies? That Oregon?

James is back in Oregon, working in local mental health services, he said in his November interview. “They didn’t charge me. I moved on. It is what it is,” he said. “I’m not a bad guy. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I moved on. I hope everything is better with them, with the facility, with Western State Hospital. I hope everything’s better. I wish them the best.”

Well, at least he wishes everybody the best.

That, my friends, is government at work.

You can watch a videocast interview with the author of the article on Mark James below. It is harrowing.