This morning a commenter calling him or herself "Retired Therapist" had this to say...
"Man, this MHMR agency just cannot seem to get quality leadership and to keep its nose clean. I'm retired now but was doing some contracting with Tarrant Co. MHMR Services in the late 1980's and early 1990's when then CEO Kilpatrick was caught in a criminal investigation by the DA's office and the state agency. To borrow from Yogi Berra, this current scandal sounds like deja vu all over again."
The District Attorney referred to by Retired Therapist is since deceased, Tim Curry. In 2006 Tim Curry faced a tough re-election battle with attorney Terri Moore challenging him.
The October 25, 2006 issue of FW Weekly had a very long article about the District Attorney election battle titled "Curry vs. Moore" in which the 1989 MHMR Scandal is mentioned.
Below is an excerpt from the FW Weekly article, which you can read in its entirety by clicking on the "Curry vs. Moore" link....
After the debate, Curry told the Weekly that Williams, a prominent local automobile dealer and long-time financial supporter of President George Bush, was one of the MHMR board members he had investigated. The day after the debate, he answered more questions by e-mail. He recounted how MHMR executive director Lloyd Kilpatrick was indicted for theft by a public servant, pleaded guilty, and received a one-year probated sentence.
A 1989 official audit report from the state MHMR agency, obtained by the Weekly, showed that Kilpatrick had taken illegal payments via a bloated compensation package he’d set up for himself with the board’s approval. The report also described how he’d rigged bids for favored vendors and how he and the board had engaged in what the report called “questionable practices” by giving “preferential treatment” to the board chairman (Williams, although the report does not name him). Specifically, the report said, the board OK’d the purchase of 31 vehicles at a cost of $352,000 from Williams’ car dealership. The report said the board failed to seek bids for the auto purchases, a violation of the agency’s bidding policies and state law and a serious conflict of interest for the board chairman.
County records show that Williams, appointed to the MHMR board by the Tarrant County commissioners in 1981, resigned that position on Dec. 18, 1989 — ll days after the report was placed in commissioners’ hands. The auditors recommended that commissioners “provide the District Attorney of Tarrant County with information contained in the report” for an investigation into possible criminal activities. Kilpatrick was the only person prosecuted, and there is no record that any money was ever repaid.
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It does seem like deja vu all over again.
Except the current Paradise Center/MHMR Scandal is much worse, in that the misbehaving MHMR executive's scandalous behavior in 2011 hurt the very people it is their job to help.
17 comments:
It would be very interesting to see the details in the current CEO 's two year contract that was promulgated just several months ago.
Is this public information?
And how do people get to see it aside from an investigation by professional journalists or legal counsel?
Yea, i wonder if Dr. McDuh'$ contract was increased substantially based on his "fiscal" skills and his creativity in cooking up the scheme for generating profit from Medicaid.
Is there a $50,000 bonus to his severance pay in case he committed, like the one in his buddy's contract CEO Larsener of El Paso MHMR?
Dr.McDermott is too smart for any investigators, from any agency or media. See what's happening now? Nada. ExcePt for this dinky little blog nobody's reading. The othErside said something about the Citadel. Wellllll...what happened to Dr. McDermott then, huh?
The MHMR Board of Trustees are upstanding community leaders and successful business people. They don't have time for this childish blog stuff when they and Dr. McDermott have very impotant things to take care of in running the SECOND LARGEST MHMR CENTER IN TEXAS. You wHiners need to get a life and get behind the FORT WOTTH WAY. Or else, see what happened to that Teresa Davis girl for a cuationarY lesson. The end.!!!?
My, my, more threats.
By the way, you misspelled "impotEnt." You're welcome.
Twenty two years as the top dog at a taxpayer funded agency is A LONG TIME, with lots of opportunities, accomplishments...and temptations to follow the darker side of human nature
Is Jim McDermott supra human? The facts speak for themselves. No?
You know what? I've been following this blog since the beginning. I'm glad the MHMR people have stopped posting. It was embarrassing and uncomfortable. The personal attacks and reports on how great things were after the firing of their staff member were creepy. And the constant "anonymous" was irritating. I hope they all got reprimanded. I don't mind telling you that I sent a personal email to their client rights officer and asked him to look into this blog. I felt like the staffs' use of specific clients' names and actions was a violation of their clients' privacy. I sincerely hope that they learned a valuable lesson: just because you say you're anonymous, it doesn't mean you're invisible. The stuff they were reporting could only have been known by people intimately involved in their program. I won't say they were stupid, but it was thoughtless to post on a public blog during actual work hours and to use actual client names. Makes you wonder about their competence to deliver quality mental health care.
NOT anonymous...thank you for reporting that. i have been a member of paradise center for over ten years. i refuse to even enter that building now though beccause i know that lynne or that new lady will post stuff about me on here. thats not right. i think if members there knew that they were writing about them they would be really upset. like when they werote about ben. thats just wrong. that is his real name and anybody could find out who he is. if somebodoy did that to me i would be so mad. i know its lynne posting it because she worked there. we all thgouht she was a loyal employe of paradise c enter. guess she had us all fooled. god is watching you, lynne.. just remember that. god is watching you.
Lynn is awesome. She's even helping weakly Ellen run the whole clinic. The place is clean and white. No more white trash or ghetto gangsters to dirty up her new place. The two boys she's got doing the cleaning for free know their place. Classical music and healthy TV shows only. Food in smack bar cost more because she knows they're healthier what the consumer-run losers were allowed to offer. Can't afford pricier healthy food, don't eat, period. Ho and boohoo with Teresa and her fat brigade. AWE-some.
Not Mich chance of investigation by the state since this smart criminal managed the Legs. to pass "local control" for MHMR. As for local investigation, not when County Judge Glen Whitley and Commissioners Court are in his pocket. He's a smooth criminal, alright.
The MHMR Trustees are hand picked by mcduffus and are supposed to representat the Commissioners Court.
I wouldn't necessarily count them as upstanding or honorable members of the community though. Some of them have questionable histories. Birds of a feather flock together.
One friend is on the MHMR Visions board and is expressing some serious questions about Jim McDermott's so called 501c3nonprofit, which appears to mostly serve PR and political purposes for the ceo.
It's directly under McDermott's control, has two people working full time to solicit private donations, and is used by McDermott to control the County Judge and Commissioners Court by giving them phony honors and creating conflicting interests to shut them up.
Something smells about that so called public charity of his.
Visions did alot to open Freedom House. But there may be something shady with that deal. Somebody might want to ask some questions about the funding, the repairs that were over-budget, and the number of people being served. Supposed to be a collaboration...
If someone is asking questions about MHMR, then they should start with asking about things like: expense packages for higher ups, traveling to conferences (why to national NAMI convention every year??), unlimited use of blackberry for personal use, just to start. Lots of resentment from the rest of employees who have to complete daily SALS (service activity logs) for every 15 minutes of our time. Do they? Of course not. Do we get cell phones? We use our own. We also use our own vehicles to make house calls. When someone starts asking questions, they should ask why the largest mh clinic in tc has no offices for the rehab case managers. We were all told that OUR VEHICLES would be our offices. We carry confidential client information, as well as clients, in our cars all day long. We can get reimbursed for fuel, but that is such a headache. We already can't get to all of our clients in one week. Some of us have to work Saturdays and evenings. Do the upper managements? Sure, at some conference in Washington, D.C. With their blackberry and per diem for food!!!
Or that multi million dollar Hulen Tower where mcduffus and his gals have been reigning over this taxpayer funded government agency. The Criminal Executive Officer was barely settled in before he and his cronies moved from the humble office on Summit to this poshe high rise office fit for big banks or corporation.
i wanna know how much money in legal bill has been used in issues related to paradise center and this whole scandal. unless the mhmr lawyer works pro bono. if so, say so. if not, how much of our hard earned tax dollars have been spent on this not so sharp lawyer of theirs? that's money that could have been used to help the people that make up and lead the paradise center. damn cowards, hiding like common criminals. use your own damn money if you want to play your damn political games. people oughta storm that damn hulen tower and demand immediate answers. then the damn county judge and those damn commissioners next. damn, i'm tired..and mad as hell at these dang incompetent fools. the wife just walked in, so no colorful words. bye.
good point and pretty dang funny, "damn old fogey". i'd add the costs they incurred in trying to coerce ms. davis to join in their illicit scheme along with the aftermath of the coup/her termination, including fighting to deny her temporary unemployment claim.
our tax dollars at work. sigh!!gotta go back to work so i can pay more taxes for these bullycrats to abuse.
How many of us have noticed that the former MHMR Chairman from 1989 who got his hand caught in the "Cookie Jar" during that Texas State Audit is none other than Roger Williams, the guy running for U.S. Congress, new District 33.
Incredible, now he wants to have even a bigger pot to take from. Will we ever learn as voters?
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