Federal probe sought of alleged 'dumping' of mental patient in Sacramento

[Left Coast2020]

9. I remember that story

That happened in Los Angeles a few years ago. And apparently it has happened more than once.
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Los Angeles city prosecutors are investigating a Costa Mesa hospital for allegedly taking a mentally ill man 42 miles to downtown's skid row and leaving him near the Union Rescue Mission, officials said.

A van reportedly dropped the man outside the mission, one of the larger downtown facilities providing services to the homeless, after he was discharged from College Hospital in Costa Mesa last week. The man, described as possibly schizophrenic and bipolar, was taken to an L.A. area hospital after being tended by mission staffers, city officials said.

Prosecutors in City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's office are investigating the incident.

"The bottom line is we are . . . taking it very seriously," said Jeff Isaacs, chief of the city attorney's criminal prosecutions. "It could be another classic case of dumping."

During the last 2 1/2 years, Delgadillo's office has filed criminal charges against a hospital, sued several other medical facilities and extracted an extensive settlement from Kaiser hospitals for dumping homeless patients.


http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/07/local/me-dumping7