‘CNMI still not treating mentally-ill persons’

It’s been almost a decade since a mentally ill man attacked and killed an alien worker on Saipan yet the CNMI government has yet to accomplish anything to treat mentally-ill persons in the Commonwealth, according to former attorney general Robert Tenorio Torres.

Torres said nothing much has changed since the 2000 case of Dwayne M. Sibetang, who is serving a 15-year prison term for the murder of an alien worker. As the chief public defender then, Torres represented Sibetang in the murder case.

“What forensic treatment facility has been established? None. Almost a decade later, what has been accomplished in treating our mentally-ill persons under the Patient’s Rights Act? Nothing,” the lawyer told Saipan Tribune when asked for comments about the situation of Eria Elliot.

The 28-year-old Elliot has been in and out in jail due to several criminal charges, mostly from assaulting people and disturbing the peace. Judges also issued numerous bench warrants for his arrest for not appearing at court hearings.

In a June 2006 medical report, a psychiatrist, Dr. Willie Gutowski, disclosed that Elliot has been a patient at the Commonwealth Health Center for acute psychosis related to alcohol and marijuana abuse. Gutowski said Elliot suffers from schizophrenia and has auditory hallucinations. He, however, determined that Elliot was competent to stand trial.

Court papers showed that Sibetang, armed with a knife, broke into a semi-concrete structure house near the Coco Garden on Capital Hill on March 16, 2000, and killed Dong Che Ma and wounded Xing Fan Li.

In 2005, Sibetang entered an Alford plea, which is basically the same as a guilty plea. Under such plea, he maintained he was not cognizant of what transpired at the time of the incident.

The court ordered Sibetang to spend 15 years in prison.

Torres maintained that being detained at the Department of Corrections is not in the best interest of Sibetang since he needs adequate treatment in a well-equipped facility.

Torres, however, also recognizes that the general public is at risk if Sibetang is placed at CHC since it is an unsecured place.

In July 2000, then Superior Court associate judge Timothy H. Bellas ordered the CNMI government to certify on or before July 12, 2000, that the corrections facility where Sibetang was being detained conforms with the requirements of the Patient’s Rights Act and the Criminal Commitment Act.

Both the PRA and CCA require that Sibetang receive prompt and adequate treatment by qualified mental health professionals.

At the same time, Bellas said, the CNMI government should certify that the CHC’s treatment facility where Sibetang is receiving treatment is sufficiently staffed with qualified mental health professionals.

In 2006, the Public Defender’s Office under then chief public defender Elisa A. Long was still pushing for an independent psychiatric evaluation of Sibetang.

Long noted that throughout the proceedings, the court repeatedly found that the government came up short in its care and treatment of Sibetang.

With respect to Elliot’s situation, Torres inquired about the cost to society when a person with mental illness is left to his own without treatment because the government has no money.

“Imagine being a parent or sibling of that person—where persons are ‘rejected’ or barred from CHC for lack of a psychiatrist. Imagine the court’s frustration that case after case is left unresolved and there is no choice except to ‘warehouse’ the mentally ill,” Torres said.

“Someone said that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over.’ Perhaps it is not Mr. Elliot who suffers from mental illness,” the lawyer added.

Elliot used to be a bright, smart student of William S. Reyes Elementary School. In the early 1990s, WSR was a dominant school in table tennis competition in the Public School System and Elliot was one of the WSR top players.

Retired teacher Val Welch earlier disclosed to Saipan Tribune that Elliot’s step mother is a Palauan, but actually his real mother is from Kiribati.

Welch said Elliot didn’t know his mother because he left Kiribati when he was very young with his father.

Apparently, Elliot’s parents separated ways. His father took the then young boy to Saipan.

Saipan Tribune learned that Elliot’s father is a Caucasian who previously worked at the Superior Court.

Welch said Elliot became particularly excited when he talked with his mother for the first time on the phone.

“He couldn’t speak directly to her because she doesn’t understand English and he doesn’t speak Kiribati,” Welch said.

He said an opportunity to really help Elliot was lost when he was not sent to Kiribati after talking with his mother because at the time “that was all he could think about.”