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Neighborhood Leaders Want Information On Staskal Placement

Killer To Be Released From Mental Health Facility

UPDATED: 8:31 am CDT May 15, 2008

The placement of a man who killed his sister more than 20 ago in a group home in Madison is raising questions from neighborhood leaders.

VIDEO: Watch The Report

A Rock County judge ruled on Tuesday that Mark Staskal will move from a state mental hospital to an adult group home on Madison's East Side. Staskal has lived at Mendota Mental Health Institute since being found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the stabbing death of his younger sister, Marcy, at their parents' Milton home in 1984.

Leaders of the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association on Wednesday said they want more information about the release of Staskal into their neighborhood. The group said it hopes to hold a meeting sometime next week.

Neighborhood association president Patrick McDonnell said the adult family group home hasn't had any problems in the past, but he questioned whether a client with Staskal's history has lived there in the past.

That seems to be just one of the questions unanswered about the group home and who operates it, WISC-TV reported. A court hearing on Tuesday revealed some discrepancies surrounding the home's operator.

Staskal's parents have warned state and court officials that they believe their son is still a danger, but state health officials said he's ready to move on from the Mendota Mental Health Institute.

In court on Tuesday, Ray Jablonski, of the Rock County District Attorney's Office, asked State Department of Health and Family services official Glenn Larson about the staffing situation at the group home.

"He will be watched 24-7, line-of-sight by people who aren't yet hired and whose qualifications we don't yet know -- is that true?" Jablonski asked.

"I don't know for certain if they have been hired or have yet to be trained," Larson answered.

The state predicted that Staskal will move in within roughly two weeks. But in testimony at a court hearing Tuesday, a manager in charge of the placement wasn't even clear whether staff had been hired, much less trained. And that wasn't all he was unclear about, WISC-TV reported.

Jablonski asked: "Do you know the educational background of the operator of the adult family home?"

"I believe he has a master's degree in social work," Larson answered.

Later, group home operator Jason Standish contradicted that answer himself, testifying, "I don't have any educational background -- formal background in social work."

Standish testified that his live in girlfriend is the one getting a social work master's degree this summer. Standish himself said he has no technical or college degree.

"He advised me before he got into this business, he was in electronics," an investigator for the Rock County District Attorney's Office said in court.

But, Standish said he does have 12 years of group home experience. WISC-TV found that Standish has been licensed by the state to run the group home with Staskal for about two and a half years.

And since 2006, Standish has been licensed to run a larger residential center on the far East Side. The live-in worker there told WISC-TV that Standish is a good boss and that she believes he has the skills to handle the Staskal placement.

She said she has so much confidence in Standish, she'd even move in with Staskal, if her boss needed her to.

Standish didn't return WISC-TV's phone call.

The group home is currently in compliance, but the state found a few violations five months ago, which, along with some license requirements, leave open some questions about operator training and education, WISC-TV reported.

The Bright Life Living's Mifflin Street group home had three violations in January during a state license renewal review. One violation involved initial training, another involved fire drills and the third involved a review of individual service plans.The home has since corrected the problems, WISC-TV reported.

As for getting licensed, the state said in part that a group home operator must have "successfully completed course work or an academic degree program related to the care, maintenance and treatment of the type of individuals served by the adult family home."

It's not clear whether Standish met that rule or another one, requiring 15 hours of training.




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