Original publication date :

Friday, July 15, 1994

DRUGGIST LEASURE MOVING TO KENTUCKY MENTAL INSTITUTION Little Rock pharmacist Bruce Leasure, acquitted in May by reason of mental defect of charges he tried to burn a competitor's pharmacy, will be transferred from the Arkansas State Hospital to a Kentucky mental institution.
   Morgan E. "Chip" Welch of North Little Rock, Leasure's attorney, said Thursday that Leasure, 40, would soon leave Arkansas under provisions of a Wednesday court ruling by Pulaski Circuit-Chancery Judge Mary Spencer McGowan.
   McGowan's 9th Division court deals often with mental competency issues.
   She heard testimony from Leasure's mother, a family friend and a State Hospital nurse who serves on Leasure's treatment team. Welch said testimony showed Leasure still requires intensive therapy but suggested he could better receive it nearer his family.
   Welch called the new setting "a hybrid" between inpatient and outpatient treatment. Leasure, he added, still must report daily and will be the subject of extensive reports every 90 days.
   "He remains under court supervision five years," Welch said. "He will be on a tight leash."
   A Pulaski Circuit Court jury May 20 found Leasure innocent by reason of mental disease or defect of trying to burn City Pharmacy at 18th and Broadway on July 5, 1993. But Special Judge Bill McArthur, sitting for Pulaski Circuit Judge John B. Plegge, ordered Leasure committed to the State Hospital for observation.
   Leasure earlier was held in the Pulaski County Jail after he jumped bail and was found in October 1993 in Boulder City, Nev., after wandering in the Mojave Desert. Welch later said Leasure had suffered deep depression and possible nervous breakdown after a series of events culminating in the filing of charges against him.
   Leasure has also has been sued by the family of Stephen Cole, 40, whom Leasure fatally shot April 27, 1992, allegedly while Cole was seeking to rob Leasure's pharmacy of drugs. The state did not press charges against Leasure after investigators considered the shooting justified.
   Welch said Thursday that State Hospital personnel had said Leasure, as a patient, had been "pleasant, cooperative and asymptomatic" during his stay. Leasure may fare better, he said, being nearer his mother, brother and other family in Kentucky.
   Dr. Joe Alford, a State Hospital spokesman, said Leasure remained at the Arkansas State Hospital on Thursday.

This story was published Friday, July 15, 1994