{"id":21643,"date":"2014-04-17T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T18:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21643"},"modified":"2014-04-17T14:41:09","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T18:41:09","slug":"threatening-letter-dooms-bid-for-more-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21643","title":{"rendered":"Threatening letter dooms bid for more freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chester County judge rules that killer\u2019s language \u2018raises concerns\u2019<\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1233\"<\/a>A threatening letter written recently by a former county resident acquitted of heinous crimes in 1980 by reason of insanity doomed his request for increased privileges at his annual commitment hearing.<\/p>\n

After reviewing testimony in the hearing for Richard Greist, Chester County Court Judge Edward Griffith has declined to expand Greist\u2019s freedoms, which had been the recommendation of doctors at Norristown State Hospital, where Greist has spent most of the past 35 years. The judge cited the letter, which was written to a psychiatrist who has been evaluating Greist for the past decade.<\/p>\n

In 1978, during an apparent psychotic rampage, Greist fatally stabbed his pregnant wife at their East Coventry home, ripping his unborn son from her womb with a screwdriver and mutilating the fetus. He also gouged his 6-year-old daughter\u2019s eye, slashed his grandmother\u2019s throat, and butchered the family cat. Because a judge ruled that Greist could not be held responsible for his crimes, he can never be incarcerated for them; however, the court holds an annual commitment hearing to review his record and hear recommendations for his future treatment.<\/p>\n

This year, the hospital sought to increase Greist\u2019s 12-hour off-grounds unsupervised passes from quarterly to monthly, add a 24-hour unsupervised pass each quarter, and offer additional off-grounds privileges with supervision at the discretion of his treatment team, according to testimony.<\/p>\n

Dr. Barbara Ziv, who has been interviewing Greist annually for the District Attorney\u2019s Office, testified that earlier this month she received a letter from Greist at the beginning of their interview, which had been rescheduled after Greist refused to participate the first time.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Greist told Ziv that it is \u201cyour obligation as a reviewer to recommend to the court, my discharge.\u201d He also quoted a passage from Deuteronomy 19:15-21, which warns of false testimony and includes \u201cLife will be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his order, the judge wrote that he agreed with Ziv\u2019s assessment that the letter was threatening and reflected poorly on Greist\u2019s judgment. \u201cWhereas last year we were encouraged by Mr. Greist\u2019s progress, this letter once again raises concerns,\u201d Griffith wrote.<\/p>\n

The judge concluded that Greist \u201cremains severely mentally disabled and in need of treatment.\u201d He said Greist, who \u201cis still in need of the therapeutic structure that hospitalization provides,\u201d would continue his treatment at Norristown State Hospital until his 2015 review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chester County judge rules that killer\u2019s language \u2018raises concerns\u2019 By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times A threatening letter written recently by a former county resident acquitted of heinous crimes in 1980 by reason of insanity doomed his request for increased privileges at his annual commitment hearing. After reviewing testimony in the hearing for Richard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[29,5333,5334,5337,5338],"class_list":["post-21643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chester-county","tag-chester-county-court-judge-edward-griffith","tag-dr-barbara-ziv","tag-norristown-state-hospital","tag-richard-greist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}