 |
Narconon
Ordered To Move Patients, End Treatments
By Michael McNutt, Enid Bureau
Feb. 6, 1992
Narconon Chilocco New Life Center was ordered Friday (Jan. 31) to move its patients out and stop providing drug and alcohol abuse treatment in 10 days.
Oklahoma County District
Judge John Amick set the Feb. 10 deadline after he denied another request
from the unlicensed facility to remain open and admit new patients.
Narconon Chilocco lost a request earlier this (last) week for a court
stay to continue operating while it appeals a decision by the Oklahoma
Board of Mental health and Substance Abuse Services that denied certification
for its treatment program.
Amick also dismissed a temporary restraining order he issued last year to allow Narconon Chilocco to treat up to 40 patients while its certification application was pending.
With the mental health board denying certification and the denial of Narconon Chilocco's request for a stay, the temporary restraining order no longer was applicable, lawyers for the state said.
The center could
appeal to the state Supreme Court for another district court hearing.
Harry Woods Jr., a lawyer for Narconon Chilocco, said he is discussing
options with officials at the facility, at the old Chilocco Indian school
about six miles north of Newkirk.
Three pending legal matters concerning Narconon Chilocco are two appeals
seeking to overturn the mental health board's decision and a hearing later
this month on a state petition for a permanent injunction to close Narconon
Chilocco.
An appeal decision could take two years.
Guy Hurst, a lawyer with the attorney general's office, said the mental health department will offer Narconon Chilocco help in relocating its 15 patients.
Narconon Chilocco began accepting patients in February 1990 and did not seek state certification until state officials filed papers in Kay County District Court to close it.
(The above was reprinted from the Saturday Oklahoman & Times, Feb. 1, 1992 with permission)
In an Oklahoman story
of Tuesday, Feb. 4, Narconon spokesmen are quoted as saying that they
intend to stay at the facility and continue legal attempts to keep the
facility open.
Attorney General's
lawyer Guy Hurst said Tuesday afternoon that there will be another hearing
in Oklahoma District Court Judge Leamon Freeman's court today, but that
he had not yet seen the pleadings.