Original publication date : |
Friday, July 15, 1994 |
DRUGGIST LEASURE MOVING TO KENTUCKY
MENTAL INSTITUTION JERRY DEAN,
Democrat-Gazette Staff Writer
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 |