Thursday, August 26, 2004
Mary Moore's lawyer said the woman 'still has dark thoughts.'
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Boardman woman who drowned her daughter six years ago will remain in a psychiatric hospital.
Doctors and lawyers agreed that Mary E. Moore is not yet ready to be released into the community.
"For the sake of herself and of others in the community, it's best that she stay where she is," said Moore's attorney, John Dixon. "She's not getting worse, but they are not ready to move her along farther up in the system, either."
Moore, 41, was committed to psychiatric care in 1999 after being found innocent by reason of insanity in the murder of her daughter, Stephanie.
Moore drowned the girl in the bathtub of the family's former home on Baymar Drive on the night before her seventh birthday in December 1998.
During her trial in 1999, doctors testified that Moore suffered from schizo-active disorder, which includes depression, delusions and hallucinations.
Condition improved some
In August 2002, the court ruled that Moore's condition had improved enough that could take short, unsupervised trips away from the hospital with her family. By law, her status must be reviewed every two years.
The next step for Moore, if she continues to improve, would be conditional release from the hospital. That means she could live at home but would still be subject to treatment and under the court's authority.
At a hearing Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to review Moore's case, Dixon and Assistant Prosecutor Robert Andrews said the court should not loosen the restrictions.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney agreed with them, and declined to change Moore's status. Andrews said unless there is a drastic change in Moore's condition, her case will not be reviewed again for two years.
Dixon said Moore "still has dark thoughts," and that she will probably always remain under care for her psychiatric problems, even if she ever is released from the hospital.
"She's going to be under somebody's care for as long as she lives," Dixon said. "I don't think that's ever going to change."
bjackson@vindy.com