Lawsuit: Western State patient's race-related request was granted

Nine employees are alleging Western State Hospital discriminated against them by assigning only white or light-skinned people of color to work in a ward housing an extremely violent patient who asked not to be treated by non-whites.

Patricia Blackburn, David Carpenter, Jacob Dau, Dennis Fant, Bonifacio Fornillos, Akanele Imo, Jose Lopez, Ralph Peterson and Matthew Staley made the allegations in a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court.

The plaintiffs – four whites, three blacks and two Filipinos – contend the policy discriminates against both whites and people of color because whites must work more often with a violent patient, exposing them to more danger, and people of color are not allowed to do the job they were hired to do.

The suit names the state Department of Social and Health Services; Western State Hospital; Dale Thompson, the hospital’s chief operating officer; and Mary Louise Jones, director for the Center of Forensic Studies, as defendants.

The plaintiffs ask for undisclosed monetary damages and an immediate injunction halting the alleged practice.

DSHS spokesman Thomas Shapley said Friday that state lawyers are reviewing the lawsuit and that he could not comment on its specific claims.

“The safety of patients and staff is our number one priority – it always is,” he said.

The employees contend the hospital instituted a policy of assigning only white or light-skinned psychiatric security attendants of color to Ward F-8 after a violent patient assigned there said he wanted only white attendants to help him.

The attendants assist in the daily care of hospital patients.

To protect his privacy, the patient is referred to only by his initials, M.P., in the lawsuit.

He allegedly became fearful of black people after a white attendant told him, in the presence of another attendant who was born in Africa, that, “They eat white people in Africa,” the lawsuit states.

“To help the point sink in for M.P., (the white attendant) then chomped his teeth together,” according to the suit.

The attendant who allegedly made the remark is not party to the lawsuit.

According to the suit, last month a nurse left a shift note declaring “No Blacks No Joey to F8” — meaning that neither blacks nor Asian Filipino plaintiff Lopez should be assigned to the patient’s ward.

Another nurse, Blackburn, who is white, said she was appalled by the directive and refused to comply.

The three security attendants due to be assigned to patients next were minorities – a black African, an African American and an Asian Filipino – and Blackburn told a managing nurse she would not skip over them because of their skin color.

Relenting slightly, the nurse asked, “Who is the lightest skinned of the three?” and ordered Blackburn to send the Asian Filipino to the patient’s ward.

Blackburn said that when she filed an administrative complaint about the incident, a supervisor said the policy was part of the patient’s care plan, devised by Jones, the director of the forensic studies center.

The decision to grant the patient’s request apparently was made in March, said Jesse Wing, a Seattle attorney who represents the workers, though it’s not clear why the policy was instituted then.

Some of the plaintiffs had worked with the patient for years without racially motivated problems, he said.

Blackburn, whose job duties include assigning psychiatric security attendants to work with patients, alleges hospital officials retaliated against her when she complained about the practice.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644 adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/crime

The Associated Press contributed to this report.