Veteran Unlawfully Held in State Hospital for More Than Two Decades. Are There More Like Him? San Diego County agencies say they are reviewing records to see if any others were unlawfully held in California state hospitals under the state s Mentally Disordered Offender program. By Tom Jones and Monica Dean
Published January 21, 2021 •
Updated on January 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm By Tom Jones and Monica Dean
Published January 21, 2021 •
Updated on January 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm
When Mark first glimpsed his brother, Alan Alter, being escorted by Sheriff’s deputies out the back door of the San Diego County Jail, he let out a laugh of stunned relief. It was Jan. 7, 2021, and the first time he had seen or even talked to his brother in decades.
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In late December, Clementine Sanders called her son at Coalinga State Hospital to make sure he had received her Christmas card. That’s when his bunkmates informed her that her son, 58-year-old Shannon Starr, had died three weeks earlier. “I was just totally shocked,” she says. “Nobody called me.”
Since then, she says, none of her messages to staff or reception have been returned. “I still wasn’t notified and I still haven’t heard from the [hospital],” she says.
When Sanders and her daughter instead sought out information from the Fresno County Coroner’s Office, they learned that Starr’s body had already been cremated and his ashes disposed of off the coast of San Luis Obispo County. “I’m just numb. I don’t know what to do,” Sanders says. “I’m upset. I don’t know exactly who to be upset with, except for them, and I can’t talk with them.”
Plus: The world s third-richest woman donates $10 million to Goodwill, L.A. schools to remain closed, and an extraordinary encounter with bighorn sheep.
I m Winston Gieseke, philanthropy and special sections editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, happy to welcome you to this wonderful holiday week with some of the latest headlines from this great state of ours.
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Newsom: Stay-at-home orders will likely be extended
Other areas currently under stay-at-home orders include the greater Sacramento area and the Bay Area. Only sparsely populated Northern California has escaped the orders, as its ICU bed capacity has stayed above the 15% threshold.