(10-4-17) The Pennsylvania Republican released the following statement today following a series of embarrassing revelations published in the Pittsburgh Gazette about his personal life.
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(10-4-17) The Pennsylvania Republican released the following statement today following a series of embarrassing revelations published in the Pittsburgh Gazette about his personal life.
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(10-3-17) I didn’t post anything when news broke recently about Rep. Tim Murphy’s admission of having an extra-marital affair because I didn’t think it was anyone’s business. But the Pittsburgh Gazette has posted another scandalous story today that will certainly harm the Pennsylvania Republican’s re-election chances. Only days ago his name was being floated around as the next possible Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because he has been a determined and dogged advocate for individuals with mental illnesses and addictions. His Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act was landmark legislation.
Now, it appears he will be fighting to remain in office.
A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account.
“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.
UNITED STATES – DECEMBER 05: Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., right, and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., attend a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to call on the Senate to pass mental health reform legislation, December 05, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
(10-2-17) Senator Bill Cassidy (La.) and Representative Tim Murphy (Pa.) are among the names of candidates being floated around for replacing Health and Human Secretary Thomas Price, who resigned Friday amid criticism that he used private jets at taxpayers’ expense when less expensive public transportation was available.
Both Republicans played key roles in getting the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act signed into law last year during the waning days of the Obama administration.
Dr. Cassidy, a LSU medical school graduate who specialized in liver diseases, partnered with Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) in an unsuccessfully attempt to push through the Republicans most recent effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He gained national recognition after he told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that any replacement to Obamacare would have to pass the “Kimmel test.” The talk show host later criticized Cassidy for supporting the Graham-Cassidy health care bill that was strongly opposed by the medical community, especially mental health groups, but was backed by President Donald Trump and the White House, admittedly tepidly.
(9-26-17) Saying “there’s never been a more dangerous time for people with mental illness,” the National Alliance on Mental Illness urged its members to tell their U.S. Senators to vote against the Graham-Cassidy health reform bill.
If it passes, NAMI CEO Mary Giliberti warned, the legislation “could take away your mental health care.”
NAMI joined dozens of other organizations urging members to contact their senators and vote against the Republican legislation hurried together by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), in an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The National Council on Behavioral Health stated the bill would “mean restricted access to Medicaid, restricted access to affordable coverage and restricted access to lifesaving mental health and addictions treatment” for millions of Americans.
The Corporation for Supportive Housing asked its supporters to “deliver a strong message to Members of Congress that they should oppose any and all efforts that could harm Medicaid beneficiaries residing in supportive housing and also block attempts to roll back expanded coverage.” How to contact your Senators. It added: “When repeal and replace deliberations began over 120 organizations joined CSH’s sign-on letter urging Congress to recognize the proven role supportive housing plays in reducing health care/ Medicaid costs.”
Ironically, it was Sen. Cassidy who championed major mental health legislation last year. Teaming with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Dr. Cassidy helped shepherd the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act through the Senate. It was signed into law during the final days of the Obama administration.
In a blast email with the title : THIS IS NOT A FIRE DRILL, Giliberti wrote: “Health reform impacts the lives of every American, so it needs to be done right. But the Graham-Cassidy bill gets it wrong for people with mental illness and the vote is going to be close.
She warned:
(9-25-17) I posted a blog yesterday describing the plight of Christopher Sharikas who has spent nearly twenty years in prison for a violent carjacking committed after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Washington Post Reporter Rachel Weiner tells his story in today’s edition. What frustrates me is Judge Paul F. Sheridan’s claim that a sixteen year old can’t be redeemed and the implication by Arlington commonwealth’s attorney, Theo Stamos, that someone with a mental disorder deserves a life sentence (for a crime that normally carries 11 years in prison) because “Individuals who have mental illness can also . . . make a deliberate and rational choice to hurt other people.” The last time I checked, individuals without mental illness also hurt people but don’t get condemned to life in prison. What did Judge Sheridan and Prosector Stamos expect would happen when they threw a deeply troubled “child” into prison where he reportedly has been raped and beaten? Sharikas needs to be in a mental hospital, not in prison for life.
“Our jails and prisons have become shadow mental-health facilities,” said Dominic Sisti, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who has advocated expanding hospitalization for the mentally ill. While mental-health treatment has been focused for several decades on community-based services, he said, “There’s going to be a population of folks who just can’t do it.”
[A shocking number of mentally ill Americans end up in prison instead of treatment]
Sana and James Campbell with a family photo of Christopher Sharikas
(9-24-17) Sana Campbell is crying.
She takes a moment to compose herself as she sits across from me at the kitchen table of her Virginia suburban home with her husband James comforting her, but the tears keep flowing.
Sana has reason to cry. Her son, Christopher Sharikas, has spent close to twenty years – that’s right twenty years – in prison for a crime that the state’s own voluntary guidelines called for a seven to a maximum eleven years term.
Instead, Christopher Sharikas was sentenced to two life sentences, plus five years, plus twenty more years.
What did Christopher Sharikas do to deserve such a harsh sentence?
He hijacked a car and stabbed its driver once. I’m not minimizing the crime. It was awful. But let’s dig deeper. Christopher was seventeen. That’s right, he was a teenager.
He also had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was taking a car because voices were telling him to get to New York City.
“He is the kind of person who makes us feel unsafe,” the assistant commonwealth prosecutor in Arlington was quoted in The Washington Post in a 1998 news account about Christopher’s sentencing.
National studies have found that individuals with mental disorders spend four to seven times longer in jails and prisons than others charged with exactly the same crimes.
But I have never heard of a case as extreme as this one. Two life sentences, plus additional time, for an offense that ordinarily carries an eleven year maximum sentence!
Wait, there’s more.
According to the 1998 newspaper account, then-Arlington Circuit Court Judge Paul F. Sheridan decided to “throw the book” at Christopher Sharikas because Judge Sheridan had become angry at the young defendant.
In November 1997, Christopher had agreed to plead guilty to the carjacking and stabbing but when he appeared before Judge Sheridan for sentencing the following April, Sharikas denied committing the crime.
Remember, Christopher had paranoid schizophrenia, a delusional disorder. He also smirked.
“That is so insulting to the victim!” Judge Sheridan snapped angrily, rejecting a defense attorney’s plea that Sharikas be sent to a mental health facility rather than jail.
Wait, there’s still more. At the time, the carjacking victim worked as an intern in the prosecutor’s office and she was dating an Arlington Police Detective.
Could it be that those two factors also played a role in the harsh sentence?
"Pete Earley is a fair-minded reporter who apparently decided that his own feelings were irrelevant to the story. There is a purity to this kind of journalism..."
- Washington Post"A former reporter, Mr. Earley writes with authenticity and style — a wonderful blend of fact and fiction in the best tradition of journalists-turned-novelists."
- Nelson DeMille, bestselling author"A terrific eye for action and character. Earley sure knows how to tell a story. Gripping and intelligent."
- Douglas Preston, bestselling co-author of The RelicPete Earley is the bestselling author of such books as The Hot House and Crazy. When he is not spending time with his family, he tours the globe advocating for mental health reform.
As a former reporter for The Washington Post, Pete uses his journalistic background to take a fair-minded approach to the story all while weaving an interesting tale for the reader.
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