Jail inmate's tumor costs $62,000-plus

Sheriff can't release him - charges are too serious

By DANI DODGE

A walnut-sized tumor is costing Jackson County taxpayers $62,000 and counting.

That's because the cancer was embedded in the brain of Stephen Henry Smith, a man jailed for allegedly breaking into his neighbor's house and then slipping into her bed.

Between his arrest and his trial, doctors discovered the tumor.

"As long as he's in our custody we're stuck for paying for everything for this guy," said Sheriff Bob Kennedy. "It doesn't make any difference what I think, he has such serious charges, we can't release him - he lives close to our victim."

Smith, 57, of Eagle Point was arrested the morning of April 6 at his home on Dry Creek Road in Eagle Point.

The problem started when his neighbor complained to sheriff's deputies on Feb. 24 that Smith was stalking her. He seemed to be watching the house and would show up at her doorstep whenever her husband was out.

On April 6, the woman's husband left for work before dawn, according to police reports. Minutes later, she heard someone come in the house, according to court records. She assumed it was her husband. He came into the bedroom. She heard keys jangle as his pants dropped. Then he got in bed.

She asked the man she thought was her husband what he was doing back home.

But she heard another man's voice answer: "I want you."

She jumped up, turned on the light and saw her neighbor, police reports say. Then she ran and called police. The man forced open a glued-shut back door and fled. Police found Smith at his home with his car packed and a note on the door of his travel trailer saying he'd be gone for a few weeks.

He was arrested without a fight and lodged in jail. On April 12, Smith was charged by a grand jury with first-degree burglary, second-degree attempted sexual abuse and stalking.

Before 2000, the only problem Smith had with the law in Jackson County was a 1992 drunken driving conviction. But since 2000, he'd not only gotten another drunken driving arrest but also had one woman file for a restraining order against him. Another woman filed for an anti-stalking order. One complained of fits of violence, the other of explicit sexual notes left on her car.

Public Defender Lorenzo Mejia was appointed to defend Smith on the burglary and sex abuse charges, but noticed problems when he visited Smith in jail, according to court documents filed April 20.

"When I first met defendant he seemed very calm and unconcerned," Mejia wrote in an affidavit. "In my last meeting with defendant he told me he had CIA clearance and that I should either get his bail dropped or get the government to pay his bail."

In his affidavit, Mejia said that Smith's family had reported that Smith had recently started to act strange and complain of hearing voices.

"Defendant is resistant to the proposition that he may be mentally ill," Mejia wrote in the affidavit. "... I do believe defendant is mentally ill and may not understand his present situation."

Mejia then asked the court for money to hire a psychiatrist to check Smith out.

But before Dr. Michael Sasser could interview the inmate, Smith began complaining of headaches and dizziness.

Smith's daughter, Stephanie Smith, said her father - a former Marine - called her collect from jail. He told her he had gotten dizzy in the bathroom and fallen against the concrete.

"He kept saying 'I think I'm going to die, these headaches are hurting so bad,' " Stephanie Smith recalled. "It was really emotional, because I couldn't be there for him."

She called the jail and asked the deputies to get her father medical care. A year or so ago, he'd been diagnosed with lung cancer and had undergone chemotherapy, Stephanie Smith said. After that, he was weak and gave up working odd jobs and construction, she said.

On May 11, the jail staff took Smith to the hospital.

"For two or three days he complained he was dizzy and sick to his stomach," said Jeanne Burrows, deputy in charge of transport and records. "When we couldn't figure out what it was, he was sent to emergency for precautions. They did numerous tests and found out he had a brain tumor on a Friday and on Monday or Tuesday they did the surgery - all at taxpayers' expense."

Usually when an inmate is diagnosed with an expensive disease, the county will release him or her from custody so the state, or the inmate, will pick up the tab.

"But (District Attorney) Mark Huddleston didn't want that to happen. He wanted him in custody and under guard," Burrows said.

So instead, county officials are paying Smith's bills as they come in: that's $54,000 in medical costs and another $720 a day for the round-the-clock guards who stayed at his hospital bedside for 12 days.

Burrows, a 29-year-veteran of the jail, called the move "very unusual."

But Huddleston said this isn't your normal case.

"I just consider him to be dangerous," Huddleston said.

Sheriff Kennedy said the cost to provide medical care continues to rise at the jail. In 1999, the county paid $287,000 for jail medications and medical care. That doesn't include the three nurses employed inside the jail, mental health staff or doctors bills. In 2000, it paid just shy of $400,000. Only $332,000 is budgeted for this year, but Kennedy said he has no doubt they'll go over that.

"We beat our heads together to be more cautious, but I don't know how we could have beat this one," Kennedy said. "Even if we'd known, because of the charges we still would have taken him in and paid for it."

At the end of last week, Smith was transferred from the hospital to foster care. He was returned to the jail Wednesday.

Mejia is still working on getting a psychiatrist to see Smith. But he's also hoping to get a doctor to look at Smith's medical reports. Depending on the size and location of the tumor, Smith may have a medical defense for his alleged actions on April 6.

"I need a release regarding what happened in surgery and where the tumor was and hopefully the psychiatrist can tell us whether it had any effect on what he was doing," Mejia said. "He was not right."

Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail ddodge@mailtribune.com 

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