Phone calls to Jacques LeSueur’s family stopped a year ago, when Clark County transferred him to Western State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital 130 miles away. Now he is a missing person.
The 62-year-old man, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder, is likely a civil offender, meaning he was likely ordered by the court to undergo inpatient treatment for his mental illness. But it’s almost impossible for his family to know that.
LeSueur faced criminal charges, but they were dropped after a judge ruled he was incompetent to stand trial and ordered his civil commitments evaluated.
Civil commitment cases are sealed, and some of the records in Washington are some of the most difficult to uncover. Even the police searching for LeSueur do not have access to court records that could show how long he was in the facility and for how long.
Washington state laws sealing civil commitment records are not unusual. This is intended to protect people’s privacy and sensitive information such as medical diagnoses or details of unusual behavior that could be evidence of a crime. But this means that unless the defendant explicitly allows someone to know his whereabouts, people like Le Sueur can get lost within the mental health system, just as that doesn’t happen inside prison. It also means that there is a possibility that
This is a part of the law where an individual’s right to privacy conflicts with the public’s right to access public information.
Mr. LeSueur’s family believes that access to his civil commitment records is a matter of transparency and that sealing the records limits liability and creates opportunities for wrongdoing during the civil commitment process.
“I would have preferred Jack to be in prison,” said his mother, Betty LeSueur, who lived with Jack in Vancouver.
It’s been 15 months since 85-year-old Betty LeSueur heard her son’s voice. If he is released somewhere as a civil offender without the support of her family, she worries that he will die. But if he’s not, and if he’s a civil offender and is still in civil service, then what she wants is to know that he’s alive and while he’s gone. She said all she wanted to do was send a message that her brother had died.
“I can’t stop stressing,” she says. “I lost a young child. And this? I don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”
“It’s like a different person.”
Jacques LeSueur’s family knew how serious his mental illness was. He was in and out of psychiatric hospitals throughout his life and was in frequent trouble with the law, particularly in Portland, where he faced more than 30 trespassing charges. But when he was with his mother in Vancouver and taking drugs, he was like a different person, his friends and family said. So he often lived with her.
Betty LeSueur took classes on how to care for people with schizophrenia, gave him medication every night and watched him swallow it. But one night in September 2022, he did not return home. Cops arrested Jacques LeSueur a few days after he returned to his mother.
Media soon reported that Jacques LeSueur had offered candy to children at a bus stop near Vancouver’s Hearthwood Elementary School to come to the house he shared with his mother down the street.
One child told police that Jacques LeSueur put his mouth over her ear and said something to her that would “eat me up.” Later, a neighbor reported seeing Jacques LeSueur “playing by himself” while dropping off his children at Hearthwood. Police noted that he has been convicted of indecent assault and third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The mother admits her son’s behavior that day was inappropriate, but believes his mental illness was a contributing factor. Jacques LeSueur, known as “Jimmy” by his family, said he frequently called his mother while in prison. In her last phone call, she told him she wanted him to be home for Christmas.
“One day he said to me, ‘Mom, come here and pick me up,'” Betty LeSueur said. “I said, ‘I can’t do that, Jimmy.’ … I don’t think he understood anything.”
Jacques LeSueur was charged with sexually motivated enticement, stalking and fourth-degree assault. However, the judge determined that he lacked the necessary mental capacity to participate in his defense based on an evaluation he underwent at the Western State Hospital campus. (Judges often send mentally ill defendants to competency restoration programs before the case continues.) The court ordered Jacques LeSueur to undergo a 72-hour civil liability evaluation at Western State Hospital. I ordered. That’s the last evidence his family has of his whereabouts.
No disclosure signature
Three women surrounded Betty LeSueur at the dining room table. She looked through Jacques LeSueur’s available court documents as she wiped her tears with a tissue. Their conversation was occasionally interrupted by a loud clock reading Bible verses.
Joyce Smith is Jacques LeSueur’s pastor. Betty LeSueur’s church friend, Balinda Olive-Bertrand, spent nine months at Western State Hospital in 1987. Cindy Fisher lost sight of her son when she went to Western State Hospital. The three continue to help Betty LeSueur try to find her son. But this is the first time they’ve seen his competency evaluation, which is public record, even though it contains sensitive information similar to civil commitment evaluations.
Jacques LeSueur’s report detailed the medications doctors prescribed him and how those medications did not improve his symptoms. The report said he was likely experiencing cognitive decline and was at risk for future risky behavior and recidivism if he stopped taking his medication or lived in an unsupervised environment where illicit drugs were available. There is a risk of causing
Jacques LeSueur, a trained defense attorney who sells and designs Volvo and Dodge cars, told doctors he “suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) while on the job,” according to the documents. He said that he is famous for producing Michael. Jackson’s album “Thriller”. He said he paid his mother $1 million to be his public defender.
If he had been a civil offender, Betty LeSueur said she wonders if his mental state would be even worse. Perhaps that’s why he doesn’t call as often as before. Patients must sign a form with the state psychiatric facility to disclose their location, according to a spokesperson for the state Department of Social Health and Behavioral Health.
Olive Beltran said her heart breaks for Betty LeSueur and her son. Her family helped her during her time at Western State Hospital for her schizophrenia, but she doesn’t remember whether she signed any forms to let people know her whereabouts. She does not believe that she had such ability.
“I believe it should be more transparent. Why not at least let the next of kin know where the family is?” she said. “When people are sick, they have to see their families. It was important to me to be able to see my loved ones when I’m locked up.”
Smith said she was angry that a system existed that could separate someone from a supportive network and cause them to disappear.
“They might just waste time there. They die there without anyone knowing,” Smith said.
not there anymore
In December, Jacques LeSueur’s brother sent him a card that was returned. His family called Western State Hospital several times and learned he was no longer a patient. They feared the worst.
Betty LeSueur remained in contact with Jack in 2013, when he was hospitalized at Western State Hospital for a year on a civil case. One day, she received a call from a staff member to drop him off in downtown Vancouver, but she insisted he be dropped off at her home. Jacques LeSueur arrived on her doorstep with a long beard and shoulder-length hair.
She fears that had staff not insisted on taking him home, he might have been dropped off elsewhere without assistance.
In 2023, Western State Hospital dropped off a man with schizoaffective disorder in downtown Seattle outside a homeless shelter after a year of treatment, according to a Seattle Times investigation. Despite her mother’s persuasion, the hospital discouraged her from doing so. He died less than a month later.
Tyler Hemstreet, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Behavioral Health, said hospital staff works with patients to plan where they will go after they are discharged, whether it’s an apartment, the home of an adult family member, another facility or a family member’s home. He said he was standing up. . (Consent from the patient’s family is required.)
Like Fisher’s son, Jacques LeSueur may have been transferred elsewhere.
Fisher said she was not informed when her son, who worked in civil service, was transferred from Western State Hospital to an adult home many years ago.
Patients could be transferred to psychiatric facilities in other states, Hemstreet said, so even if Jacques LeSueur was charged with a civil crime, he would not be released, he would just be transferred. It is said that there is a possibility.
Fisher said he understands the importance of medical privacy, but that a civil commitment system has additional implications because patients are often referred from the criminal justice system and treatment can be involuntary. He said he believes transparency is necessary.
“The state hospital is a hidden prison system,” Fisher said.
She also points to news articles such as: runaway patient, patient-on-patient assault, lack of trained or qualified staff; In 2018, Western State Hospital lost its federal accreditation and $53 million in federal funding after unannounced inspections found health and safety violations, according to the Associated Press.
“Communities that allow this to happen should be able to track what happens to members of their community,” Fisher said. “There should be no legal means that can hide him, that can make him disappear.”
missing person
Betty LeSueur eventually admitted she couldn’t find her son on her own and reported him missing to the Vancouver Police Department a month ago. A ministry spokeswoman said Jack was now included in the national missing persons database.
The police may not be able to help you.of lawwhich not all states have, is strict about who has access to court records for civil commitments, specifically allowing access only to the Washington State Patrol for background checks related to handling and purchasing firearms. I am.
Until Mr. Jacques Rousseur is freed or found, he is likely to remain missing. But his family hasn’t given up hope.
“If he were free, he would have stayed home,” Betty LeSueur said. “I just…want to hear his voice.”
