Martyr v. Mazur-Hart

• Decision Date: 13 April 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 90-1086-FR.
• Citation: 789 F. Supp. 1081
• Parties: Robert MARTYR, Plaintiff, v. Stanley F. MAZUR-HART, Beverly Brylski and Stanley Pachter, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

789 F. Supp. 1081

Robert MARTYR, Plaintiff, v. Stanley F. MAZUR-HART, Beverly Brylski and Stanley Pachter, Defendants.

Civ. No. 90-1086-FR.

United States District Court, D. Oregon.

April 13, 1992.

Spencer M. Neal, Ginsburg, Gomez & Neal, Portland, Or., for plaintiff.

Dave Frohnmayer, Atty. Gen., Kendall M. Barnes, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, Or., for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

FRYE, Judge:

Plaintiff, Robert Martyr, brings this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against three staff members of the Oregon State Hospital. Martyr contends that his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution are violated by the actions of defendants in censoring his outgoing mail. Martyr also brings a pendent state claim. On September 10 and 11, 1991, the claims of Martyr were tried to the court. This opinion constitutes Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law as required by Fed. R.Civ.P. 52(a).

FINDINGS OF FACT

Martyr is a patient of and resides in the Oregon State Hospital, which is located in the City of Salem, State of Oregon. He was committed to the custody of the Oregon State Hospital after he was found not guilty of committing certain murders by reason of insanity. Martyr suffers from a paranoid personality disorder or paranoid schizophrenia, or some combination of these two disorders. Martyr has been under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board of the State of Oregon since 1977. Since he is considered dangerous, he is confined in a high security building and may not leave the grounds of the Oregon State Hospital.

Defendant Stanley F. Mazur-Hart is the superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital. Defendant Dr. Beverly Brylski is a staff psychiatrist at the Oregon State Hospital. Defendant Stanley Pachter is a staff psychologist at the Oregon State Hospital.

Martyr is a prolific letter writer. He refers to his letters as "truth sheets." These "truth sheets" contain written material about people whom Martyr perceives as criminal in nature. The letters of Martyr cover a variety of topics and are ordinarily scathingly critical of someone or something. The majority of the letters that Martyr writes are critical of his treatment and of the staff at the Oregon State Hospital. His letters often contain gross exaggerations or outright lies about his treatment or experiences at the Oregon State Hospital. Martyr calls members of the staff of the Oregon State Hospital such names as sluts, whores, scum, punks and degenerates. In his letters, Martyr does not ordinarily threaten personal violence or advocate violent or illegal activities. His letters are not sent as part of a plan of escape. Martyr sends letters to persons from all parts of the United States. He often writes to people he does not know. Martyr attempts to mail as many as seventy letters each week.

In the spring of 1990, the members of the staff of the Oregon State Hospital began to receive increasing numbers of complaints from the recipients of Martyr's letters. In response to these complaints, and out of concern for the lack of success of Martyr's plan of treatment, the members of the staff of the Oregon State Hospital met to develop a new plan of treatment for Martyr. On April 16, 1990, George Bachik, the former superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital, approved as a part of the new plan of treatment for Martyr a restriction on Martyr's outgoing mail. This restriction was requested by Dr. Alice Shannon, Martyr's former treating physician. Bachik's written approval of the restriction on Martyr's outgoing mail as a part of the new plan of treatment for Martyr provides, in relevant part:

In accordance with OAR 309-102-005(6)(d), all mail prepared by OSH patient no. 46888 Martyr that contains written materials that are detrimental to the treatment of OSH patient no. 46888 are hereby declared a prohibited item. In accordance with OAR 309-102-020, Forensic Psychiatric Program staff are authorized to open all mail of OSH patient no. 46888 in the presence of the patient. All mail shall be inspected daily to determine the presence of a prohibited item. Mail which includes prohibited items shall be confiscated by Forensic Psychiatric Program staff, in accordance with OAR 309-102-015. Once confiscated, these prohibited items shall be handled in accordance with OAR 309-108-015(6). It is imperative that these procedures outlined in the above cited rules be strictly adhered to by all staff.

Mail that does not include prohibited items and legal mail are excluded from confiscation.

The new plan of treatment for Martyr provides, in part, as follows:

Mr M is sending mass mailings into the community that are seen as upsetting and threatening by individuals in the community. This is his method of avoiding treatment to deal with his anger associated with his placement in OSH and his jurisdiction under the PSRB Psychiatric Security Review Board.

Patient will be able to deal with anger in the treatment setting (with CM/MD/RN/PHD) not thru sic the community upset.

Pt will be able to discuss with Cm anger and reduce level of his agitation in the treatment setting rather then ventilating anger thru sic mass mailings daily in one month.

1. inspect outgoing mail for fearful and threatening material each day by RN (48C) Staff RN

....

3. mail that is confiscated OAR 309.102-015 sub 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 date, name, material, signature of authority, one copy to the patient one copy to the chart. Keep in the drawer and then long term storage.

Exhibit B to Plaintiff's Reply Regarding Renewed Motion for Preliminary Injunction, p. 1 (Addendum to IDT Treatment and Care Plan for Martyr).

On August 1, 1991, this court ruled that Martyr was entitled to a declaration that his mail to government officials is privileged and should be mailed without being opened and entered the following preliminary injunction prohibiting defendants from censoring Martyr's mail in any respect as to the following categories of addressees:

1) any elected public official and his or her staff members, including but not limited to the governor of the State of Oregon, state and federal legislators, and district attorneys;

2) any appointed public official and his or her staff members, including but not limited to state and federal police agencies, risk management offices, and the administrators of the state department of human resources or the state hospital;

3) advocacy groups, including but not limited to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Oregon Advocacy Center, and the Oregon Alliance for the Mentally Ill; and

4) attorneys licensed to practice law in any state. Martyr v. Bachik, 770 F.Supp. 1406, 1414 (D.Or.1991).

Stanley Pachter is the staff member designated to review Martyr's outgoing mail. Unless a letter is addressed to persons or entities within one of the categories of mail covered in the preliminary injunction, Pachter opens and reads the letter outside the presence of Martyr to determine whether it should be forwarded to the addressee or confiscated under the provisions of the plan of treatment. When the decision to confiscate a certain piece of mail is made, Martyr is given a receipt for the piece of mail. Martyr is not given a specific reason why a piece of mail is confiscated. However, Pachter is willing to discuss with Martyr why he confiscates any piece of mail. It is Pachter's opinion that Martyr writes letters to reinforce distorted views of what is happening around him and to vindicate his perception of reality. Pachter acknowledges, however, that the confiscation of certain pieces of Martyr's outgoing mail also reinforces his sense of being a victim. Pachter estimates that he confiscates between fifty and sixty percent of Martyr's outgoing mail.

Beverly Brylski believes that Martyr writes letters in order to vent his anger. She hypothesizes that Martyr uses letter writing as a means of ventilating his anger rather than ventilating his anger through discourse and conversation with staff members.

Martyr opposes the confiscation of any piece of his mail. He views the confiscation of any piece of his mail as an act of theft. According to Martyr, the confiscation of his mail increases his anger and distress. His ability to send mail is of great importance to Martyr. Martyr believes that Armageddon will come in 1997, and, at that time, there will be a Judgment Day. Martyr believes that he has an obligation to God to inform the public about the persons he views as criminal. Martyr also believes that he has an obligation to the public to inform them of crimes that are occurring. In some respects, Martyr views his letter writing as the work of God.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

Martyr's confinement in the Oregon State Hospital is analogous to the confinement of a felon in a prison. The Oregon State Hospital, with respect to Martyr, has the same security goals as a prison. The Oregon State Hospital has a rehabilitative goal, just as a prison has a rehabilitative goal. Defendants censor Martyr's outgoing mail in order to further the rehabilitative goal of the Oregon State Hospital. Therefore, the court will borrow from the jurisprudence of prisoner cases in reaching its decision in this case. See King v. Atiyeh, 814 F.2d 565, 568 (9th Cir.1987) (relying on prisoner cases for authority in civil rights claim brought by patients at Oregon State Hospital who were involuntarily committed following criminal trials). But see Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 321-22, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 2461, 73 L.Ed.2d 28 (1982) ("Persons who have been involuntarily committed are entitled to more considerate treatment and conditions of confinement than criminals whose conditions of confinement are designed to punish.").

Claim Under O.R.S. 426.385

Martyr brings a claim for relief under the laws of the State of Oregon alleging that defendants have violated his right to communicate freely under O.R.S. 426.385. O.R.S. 426.385 provides, in part: "(1)...