{"id":270576,"date":"2025-07-17T23:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270576\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T23:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:40:14","slug":"whistleblower-suit-alleges-multnomah-countys-mental-health-system-turned-into-the-wild-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270576\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistleblower suit alleges Multnomah County\u2019s mental health system turned into \u2018the wild west\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A demoted Multnomah County employee has filed a civil rights suit <\/a>against the county and her former bosses alleging they retaliated against her for complaining about unsafe conditions caused by large caseloads of high-risk clients with mental illness, insufficient staff and inadequate funding. <\/p>\n

Katie Cleone Cecil, 46, contends managers encouraged her and others in the county\u2019s Behavioral Health Division to mislead a judge about some of the criminal defendants who were not able to aid in their defense.<\/p>\n

The employees were advised to say that mental health assessments of the defendants were in progress \u201ceven when no work had been done\u201d and county staff had not made referrals to treatment or housing, Cecil says in her federal suit. <\/p>\n

Cecil \u201crefused to lie\u201d to the Multnomah County judge, the suit says. <\/p>\n

Judges use the county evaluations to determine where to place people who are accused of crimes but unfit to stand trial. The state faces a long-standing separate federal lawsuit over its lack of psychiatric treatment<\/a> for so-called aid-and-assist defendants.<\/p>\n

Cecil\u2019s allegations highlight consequences at the county level from Oregon\u2019s dysfunctional mental health treatment system.<\/p>\n

Cecil filed complaints with a county human resources manager, with the county auditor\u2019s Good Government Hotline and outside the county with the state OSHA and the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. <\/p>\n

In response, her supervisor accused her of being a \u201cwhiner,\u201d <\/b>yelled at her in front of other staff, reduced her job responsibilities, altered her schedule and ultimately demoted her, according to the suit. A county human resource manager also \u201cchastised her\u201d for filing the OSHA complaint, the suit says. <\/p>\n

In April, the Bureau of Labor and Industries found substantial evidence that the county subjected Cecil to different work conditions based on her reporting her concerns, according to the bureau\u2019s report. <\/p>\n

Cecil\u2019s lawsuit, filed June 4 in U.S. District Court in Portland, names the county and two of her former supervisors, Kathy Shumate and Jen Gulzow. Shumate, a county program manager, left the job in spring 2024 and is manager of inpatient care and social work at Unity Center for Behavioral Health. Gulzow, the Behavioral Health Division\u2019s deputy director of operations, left the county in April and now works for the Oregon Health Authority as a quality care analyst in the Medicaid unit.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges the county demoted Cecil from a lead position in the Behavioral Health Division on June 29, 2023. It seeks unspecified lost wages and punitive damages. <\/p>\n

She went on a mental health leave the day of her demotion and returned to work in early August 2023, transferring out of the Behavioral Health Division to a county clinical services role. <\/p>\n

Cecil\u2019s case is about the \u201cbacklash\u201d that followed when she \u201cpushed back\u201d on Multnomah County\u2019s practices involving adults with mental illness \u201cwho find themselves stuck in a broken criminal justice system,\u201d her attorney Matthew C. Ellis said. <\/p>\n

County officials declined comment on the suit, citing pending litigation. <\/p>\n

In a response to Cecil\u2019s complaint to the state labor bureau, the county acknowledged that Shumate \u201cdid retaliate\u201d against Cecil for her complaints about work conditions but that Shumate apologized for hostile communications. <\/p>\n

County officials denied that Cecil was ever directed to lie in court and said she lost her lead position and pay because a supervisor was hired instead. <\/p>\n

In 2002, U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner ruled that the Oregon State Hospital must admit defendants within seven days of a court finding that mental illness prevents them from participating in their defense. Many of them had been waiting in jail without treatment. <\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman later issued his own rulings in 2022 and 2023 to help the state meet the seven-day rule. <\/p>\n

For defendants under aid-and-assist orders who are charged with felonies, Mosman set a maximum time at the state psychiatric hospital for mental health restoration at six months for non-Measure 11 felonies, one year for more serious Measure 11 felonies and up to three years for the most violent felonies based on a district attorney\u2019s petition for the longer time. <\/p>\n

When defendants have reached the maximum stay at the state hospital, their cases go back to the court that sent them there. The court then decides whether to place the defendants in further treatment at a local facility, appoint a guardian to help them, initiate a civil commitment if the defendants poses a risk to themselves or others or dismiss the charges. <\/p>\n

Mosman\u2019s ruling prompted the state hospital to release many defendants to the county, including ones with extreme mental health challenges, according to Cecil\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n

For example in 2021, before Mosman\u2019s order, Cecil and her team did about 168 community consultations of that population — and were \u201coverwhelmed and underfunded\u201d then, according to the suit. That grew to 504 similar community consultations by 2023, Cecil said. <\/p>\n

The county received a $1.7 million grant from the state in fall 2022 to help expand programs and divert more defendants from the state hospital for county-based treatment. <\/p>\n

Cecil\u2019s suit contends the state encouraged counties to use the money to expand existing teams, but that Multnomah County used the money to create a new group called the Bridge Team that never got off the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Bridge Team floundered, the Mosman order and other changes to the law caused the work of Plaintiff\u2019s Diversion team to skyrocket, as severely mentally ill individuals were released from (Oregon State Hospital,) flooding the local communities\u201d and making Cecil\u2019s team work significantly more dangerous, the suit says.<\/p>\n

Despite her complaints to management about hazardous working conditions, Cecil and her team were told to \u201ckeep seeing more clients,\u2019\u2019 according to the suit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Division Court was in a huge hole and was instructed to just keep digging,\u201d the suit says. <\/p>\n

As Cecil said money was misappropriated, the number of \u201cuntreated individuals on the streets increased and existing county staff experienced burn out and left the program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cecil complained to the state labor bureau that the county had no standardized tool to assess the risk of defendants and that the county\u2019s \u201cprograms have grown and outpaced resources.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like it turned into the wild west,\u201d she wrote, according to state records. <\/p>\n

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian<\/a>, on Bluesky @maxbernstein.bsky.social<\/a> or on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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