WESTON, W.Va. — A statewide organization with a lawsuit pending against the state Department of Health Facilities is responding to the recent armed standoff at the William R. Sharpe Jr. Psychiatric Hospital.
“I’ve personally seen the video of this incident,” Disability Rights of West Virginia Legal Director Michael Folio said. “What I can tell you is this is an example of a complete failure by leadership to oversee, monitor, and if necessary discipline staff.”
The July 22 incident at Sharpe unfolded in the facility’s courtyard, in clear view of video surveillance cameras. At the time, three or four patients and two to three staff members were present. Surveillance footage shows the suspect, Brandon McGoye, lingering near a drainage inlet in a common area before retrieving a 10-inch carriage bolt.
As staff and patients remained in the common area, surveillance video shows McGoye entering the hospital with the carriage bolt in hand. What followed was an hours-long standoff that ended with McGoye’s arrest by state police.
“The staff member allows him to walk into the hospital with that 10-inch carriage bolt and they do nothing about it,” Folio said. “Then the same individual makes seven different phone calls making terrorist threats allegedly.”
“The past few years the William R. Sharpe Jr. Psychiatric Hospital has had 73 separate regulatory violations,” Folio said. “These involve patient abuse, unsafe environment, mismanagement, improper governance- you name it.”
Michael Caruso
The ongoing issues at the hospital include staff facing criminal charges, incidents of patient abuse, and the failure to maintain a safe environment. According to Folio, the CEO of Sharpe was one of only four hospital CEOs nationwide cited by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for substantial deficiencies between August 2022 and January 2023.
“He testified under oath about a year-and-a-half ago that he had a plan he was going to provide to legislators about the William R. Sharpe Jr. Psychiatric Hospital and the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital,” Folio said. “That plan was supposed to be disclosed about 13 or 14 months ago.”
Following the investigation into the scalding death of a 61-year-old non-verbal patient at Hopemont Hospital in Preston County, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), under then-Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, swiftly filed charges against two hospital employees. Folio now hopes Gov. Morrisey will pursue accountability and reform before another serious incident occurs at Sharpe Hospital.
“In light of how aggressive and transparent as he was as attorney general with the Hopemont Hospital issue he would be equally as aggressive with the William R. Sharpe Jr. Psychiatric Hospital,” Folio said. “So, perhaps this recent incident will be fuel for him to take action if necessary.”
Story by Mike Nolting, WAJR