Thread: OR--Inmate's care tab breaks jail budget

Inmate's care tab breaks jail budget

Published: April 17, 2008

Mercado: Needs dialysis

Editor's Note: See the following article for developments in this story that transpired since the News-Register went to press.


By DAVID BATES
Of the News-Register



Until late last week, Gustavo Rogelio Mercado-Murillo's health insurance paid for his weekly kidney dialysis treatments. Now the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office pays for it.

Mercado was in Yamhill County Circuit Court on Wednesday, accompanied by an entourage of officials grappling with an unusual and expensive problem.

The 31-year-old McMinnville resident is charged with four counts of first-degree sodomy and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse in a case allegedly involving three boys under the age of 10. He lacks legal residency.
Given the severity of the charges against him, then, officials don't want to let him go.

"If we release this guy," said Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree, "he's going to split."

But they also don't want him to stay.

Three times a week, Mercado needs to be hooked up to a dialysis machine. That runs about $6,000 a week, not counting the cost of secure transportation to and from the Salem clinic.

The Yamhill County Jail provides medical service to inmates, but it's nothing fancy. In addition to keeping a doctor and several nurses on staff, the county budgets about $60,000 a year for dental care, psychiatric care, prescription drugs and hospital visits.

Mercado's care figures to run several times that all by itself.

Crabtree said he's not had a case like this since he was elected.

"I've never even imagined this," he said. "I'm geared up for a $50,000 heart attack, and that's about it. This guy goes through that in a month."

As the mothers of the victims choked back tears in the third row of Judge Ronald Stone's courtroom Wednesday, prosecutors said they were working with corrections officials and Mercado's attorney, Janmarie Dielschneider of McMinnville, on a way to get the defendant close to the clinic while still keeping him secure. That would cut the expense some.

Officials are talking with the Salem-based Stepping Out Ministries, which houses offenders working their way back into the community following incarceration. No juveniles are allowed on the site.

Spokesman Steve Silver said the facility controls 12,500 square feet of space in a former nursing home. Staff is on site 24 hours a day, although the doors are not locked.

Yamhill County Community Corrections Director Richard Sly said officials were considering "rigorous guidelines" under which Mercado could live there, which would include wearing a security bracelet and GPS monitoring.

That wouldn't solve the medical issue, but it would go a long way toward solving the transportation issue.

Crabtree said officials are considering a number of options, but they don't include any outright release.

Today, Crabtree said, Mercado is scheduled to undergo his fourth treatment on the county tab. He's due back Saturday, then Tuesday.

"Any time somebody goes to jail, they lose their insurance, and I'm on the hook for their medical bills," Crabtree said.

Stone said he'd give officials a couple more days to negotiate an agreement and hold another meeting on the issue Friday.

"Whatever we decide, we will decide Friday," he said. "I am inclined to do this if we can do it safely."

http://www.newsregister.com/news/story. ... _no=233770

Wow... I wish I could say what I am thinking and feeling right now

how bout giving him a coffee strainer and a bicycle pump to strain his own blood for toxins and wishing him the best of luck

This guys facing charges that could result in life imprisonment and they are considering letting this guy live in a nursing home type setting?

Not sure that's such a good idea.

Does this fall under "emergency care"? Does he have assets or family in the area? Why can't the employer be sued to pay his medical costs?

Only other thing I can say is move his trail date up fast and hope he gets the death penalty. He certainly should for the heinous crimes he's committed! There is no way an animal like this could be rehabilitated. He destroyed 3 little boys lives!

I wonder if he is on a kidney donor list--the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office could end up paying for his transplant if a matching kidney becomes available and then for anti-rejection drugs after the surgery.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Does this fall under "emergency care"? Does he have assets or family in the area? Why can't the employer be sued to pay his medical costs?

This is not a bad idea - If the employer is sued it also helps keep more employers from hiring and 'inviting' into our country illegals...

Is there a possibility anyone can help the Prison/jail etc. to sue the employer as they were responsible for giving an illeal a job that incentivized him to be there in the first place..?!

County off the hook for inmate's medical bill

Published: April 17, 2008

The News-Register staff

Inmate Gustavo Rogelio Mercado-Murillo's health insurance company today reinstated his policy. It agreed to cover costly kidney dialysis treatments threatening to break the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office's jail budget.

The issue was resolved this afternoon shortly after the News-Register broke a story in print and online reporting the county was facing $6,000 a week in bills for kidney dialysis treatments for Mercado, a felony sex crimes suspect who is in the country illegally.

Sheriff Jack Crabtree said today that the insurer had misinterpreted state law. It allows the company to cut off a person entering state penal custody, but not county penal custody, he said.

The error was discovered by Assistant County Counsel Rick Sanai and brought it to the company's attention. It agreed with his analysis and agreed to immediately reinstate Mercado's coverage.

http://www.newsregister.com/news/story. ... _no=233810

So the insurance company will pay the costs if he is in county custody but once he enters a state prison, the benefits cease--that probably is dependant on the preminums being paid. Wonder if the health benefits stop if a person enters federal custody.

Man given 75 years for sex abuse of children
Likely life sentence - Prosecutors say there may have been as many as 10 victims
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Associated Press

McMINNVILLE -- A judge in Yamhill County has sentenced a man to what's likely to be a life term in prison for the sexual abuse of preteen children.

Gustavo Mercado-Murillo pleaded no contest to eight felony charges involving three boys and two girls younger than 10. The charges included sodomy, rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object. Prosecutors believe there were at least twice that many victims from four different families.

Prosecutor Erin Greenawald said Mercado tortured his victims in unspeakable ways.
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"On the spectrum of horrible, this case is on the outer edge," she said.

"The sentence does not scrape the surface of what he deserves. The incidents were numerous and habitual. He had a captive group," she added.

"He's greatly sorry for the grief, sadness and agony he has brought upon his family," countered defense attorney Janmarie Dielschneider. "But he does not believe what he did rises to the level of criminal conduct."

Mercado is 31. Judge Cal Tichenor sentenced him Friday to 75 years without the possibility of early release.

Mercado, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, has kidney disease and undergoes dialysis that costs taxpayers about $300,000 a year. He does not have a long life expectancy.

Before his April 10 arrest, his treatments were being covered by the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, which insures children and adults who have been denied coverage elsewhere because of a pre-existing condition.

As the pool's contract insurer, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon handles eligibility, enrollment and claims issues. When Mercado was arrested, the pool cut him off.

That put Yamhill County in a difficult position.

It feared he would flee to Mexico if released, and thus escape punishment for his crimes. But it also feared his costly care would break the jail's precariously balanced budget.

Then county officials discovered pool regulations allow a cutoff in coverage only when a patient "becomes an in-patient or inmate at an Oregon correctional or mental institution," which they construed to exclude a county jail. And they eventually prevailed.
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In prison, responsibility for his care will simply pass from one arm of state government to another.

Mercado's wife, pregnant with the couple's fourth child, sobbed when defense attorney Dielschneider explained the sentence.

Through an interpreter, Mercado denied he had actually committed the crimes he pleaded no contest to and said the people who support him know that.

Dielschneider said Mercado understood that pleading no contest was the same as pleading guilty and that there would have been enough evidence for a jury to convict him of more counts.

She said she had advised him, "Say your prayers and ask God to have mercy on your soul."

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... xml&coll=7

See ya' pal. DLTDHYOTWO.