Accuracy of reports re: Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos by Norse/Sentinel
All,
Let me preface this by stating that I, personally, appreciate Dan White’s
efforts to document the lives and deaths of Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos, and
feel that the articles, overall, were positive and reasonably balanced. I
do, however, have a concern…
In the series of articles, Dan White included the following statement:
***
Activist Robert Norse widely reported that Jimmy “froze to death” in the
Pogonip, contradicting the county coroner’s report, and that Linda was
expelled against her will from Dominican Hospital, though friends of hers,
including her grieving boyfriend, assert this is not true.
Norse, when contacted last week, said his information was based on “early
reports.”
The deaths, even without embellishment, are a tragedy for many.
[in a separate article]
Her [Linda’s] determination to stop drinking for good led to seizures from
alcohol
withdrawal, Stock [C.J.] added. Though she was briefly under observation at
Dominican Hospital, she checked herself out because she didn’t want to be
alone, he said.
***
This concerns me, because I’ve made public statements based on the
information provided by Robert Norse and Becky Johnson, and I feel my
personal credibility is at stake in this matter (as is that of others).
I based these public statements on:
a) a flyer distributed by Robert Norse containing his statement to the
County Board of Supervisors on November 25th, along with personal
conversations with him, in which he stated that: ‘Because she had a small
quantity of alcohol in her system, C.J. reports bitterly, she was released
in the early hours of the morning into the rain in her wheelchair, though he
begged them not to do so. “I can’t help her if she starts to seize up,” he
explained to them.’
The flyer in question provided fairly extensive (and saddening) details of
the encounter with C.J. that lead to the interview.
b) a poster prepared for a protest by an unknown HUFF member (probably Becky
Johnson), along with personal statements from Robert, that Jimmy Cline
“froze to death”
Jimmy Cline:
When Dan White interviewed me for these articles, and stated that “Jimmy
Cline definitely did not freeze to death, that’s just not true”, I was very
concerned, and immediately contacted Robert, who then put me on the phone
with Becky Johnson, who recounted a conversation she had had with the
coroner (referenced in the email from her included below) that, from my
point of view, provided a substantiated basis for Robert’s statement. The
essence of it was the the coroner had, on a preliminary basis, decided to at
least partially attribute Jimmy Cline’s death to exposure. The final
coronor’s report did not reach this conclusion, but I believe that the facts
of the matter, as reported by Dan White in his article, and the description
of how Jimmy was found relayed to me by Becky Johnson, substantiate a common
sense conclusion that Jimmy “froze to death”. Take a very sick 57 year old
man, leave him outdoors in 32 degree weather with nothing but a blanket, and
to me, the results are predictable. I, personally, do not believe that
Robert’s statement “contradict’s the coroner’s report”, unless you read it
on a purely technical basis without reference to common sense.
Linda Sipos:
Below is an email sent in response to a letter I sent to the editor of the
Sentinel on the deaths of Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos, containing the
following statement from Becky Johnson: ‘I have him [C.J./Stock] on tape
condemning Dominican Hospital when “they kicked her out at 4AM in a
wheelchair in the rain and told her to get a bus. There are no buses at
4AM!!” He told us he had begged them to admit her.’
I have no explanation for the contradictory results of the separate
interviews.
However, to me, this demonstrates that, again, Robert’s reports had a
substantiated and reasonable basis.
Thus, I believe that, in both cases, Dan White’s comment about
“embellishment” is unfounded and unfortunate.
Regards,
Thomas Leavitt
enc: Becky Johnson email, text of Robert Norse flyer
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 15:25:33 -0800 (PST)
> From: Becky A Johnson
> Subject: Re: Letter to the Editor re: Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos
>
> Good letter Tom!
>
> I want to remind you that the hours for the Sleeping ban and the Blanket
Ban are 11PM to 8:30AM or 9 1/2 hours each night.
>
> Also— when I talked to coroner Stephan Plasket, he said the death was
going to be listed “as at least partially due to exposure”. Apparently the
official version dropped the exposure factor—most likely because it would
be too political.
>
> He told me that with Jimmy’s respiratory condition “Being out in the cold
and the damp was not good for him”. He stopped short of saying that had he
been somewhere warm and dry, he’d still be alive.
>
> Back east, when they have pried cold dead bodies off of bus benches, the
coroners will not list the cause of death as exposure. Perhaps this is what
happened here.
>
> Also—- Dan White said that C.J. was denying that Linda had been kicked
out into the cold the night before she died. I have him on tape condemning
Dominican Hospital when “they kicked her out at 4AM in a wheelchair in the
rain and told her to get a bus. There are no buses at 4AM!!” He told us he
had begged them to admit her. White’s version is very different and
condemns Robert for falsely reporting the situation.
>
> — Becky
>
> Thomas Leavitt
> [The Sentinel now limits letters to the editor to 150 words or less - the
> letter below appears to count as 305 words… the culture of soundbites in
> our public life appears to have reached the editorial pages of our local
> newspaper. Very sad. -Thomas]
>
> Editors,
>
> Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos died because they were poor and outside in
> brutally cold weather. Any other conclusion is a technicality.
>
> The coroner’s duty is to determine the exact cause of death, which in
Jimmy
> Cline’s case was “respiratory insufficiency, acute and chronic bronchial
> asthma (and) pulmonary disease.” This is true in much the same way that
> Nathaniel Jones’s obesity, heart disease and drug consumption contributed
to
> his sudden death… but, just like Nathaniel’s death was ruled a homicide,
> because he clearly would not have died if he had been left unconfronted by
> Cincinatti police, Jimmy’s death should be considered homicide by
neglect -
> because he wouldn’t have died if he wasn’t outside in 32 degree weather,
> covered by nothing but a blanket (which it remains illegal to cover up
with
> between the hours of 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. within Santa Cruz city limits).
>
> Linda Sipos may have died of “fatty metamorphosis of the liver” from long
> term alcoholism, but the greater cause is the lack of funding for the
> “assertive” outreach and housing support services mentioned by Karen
> Gruneisen in Dan White’s article… and, as her partner mentioned, a
system
> of shelter that serves only a limited slice of the homeless population.
>
> The City cannot do it all, of course - certainly the misguided priorities
of
> the state and federal government bear a large portion of responsibility
for
> these folk’s death - but it can avoid making a hard life more difficult by
> forcing people to hide in the bushes to sleep; and it can explore
pro-active
> alternatives: a safe and legal place for the unhoused to sleep and camp
> overnight would be a good start. That’s my “crass” and “exploitative”
> political agenda… what’s Scott Kennedy’s?
>
> Regards,
> Thomas Leavitt
Dominican Hospital & Homeless Deaths in Santa Cruz: Hard Questions
Speech to the Santa Cruz Community & Board of Supervisors by Robert Noise
11-25-03
Yesterday I met a man with a guitar case sobbing on the street
yesterday in front of the Pacific Trading Company in downtown Santa Cruz. I
searched for abit for a place to sit down with a bit of privacy. All the
seating spaces on semi-circular planter there on the sidewalk had been
removed by the City–to prevent “undesirables”, youths, street musicians,
from resting there. I finally sat with him on bit of planter area still
accessible to the public without risking a fine–the curbside facing traffic
where Walnut St. intersects with Pacific Avenue.
I then heard the story of how C.J. lost his wife, Linda a week ago
Friday. A well-regarded musician and founding member of the new street
performers guild, C.J. was a frequent player on Pacific Avenue, though he
spoke bitterly of the harassment street musicians and other low-income folks
faced. That harassment, I understand, under Santa Cruz’s new “Move Along
Every Hour” law and increased capricious police enforcement drove him and
his wife Linda to a side street. He could usually be heard playing in front
of the Locust St. garage across from Clouds restaurant. If you go there
today, you may still find the small bouquet of flowers inscribed with the
words “For Linda” on the sidewalk leaning against the entrance of the
two-level lot.
Between sobs, C.J. explained to me how Linda had been hit recently by a
bicyclist and put into a wheelchair. Subsequently, she began to experience
some seizures. She resolved to cut out alcohol entirely. C.J and Linda
are homeless. In a community with space for less than 125 people tonight to
sleep, there are 1500-2000 in the City alone without shelter, and thousand
and thousands more in the county (I estimate 8000-10,000 updating Dept. of
Social Services figures from 1988). The two of them camp out. In the City of
Santa Cruz, such camping with a tent can net a fine of $162 for the first
offense and becomes a misdemeanor on the second offense, subject to up to
$1000 fine and up to a year in jail. The County has also been cracking down
on those outside, even as the weather turns bleaker and colder, and homeless
deaths mount.
When Linda had a seizure, C.J., as I understand it, made his way to a
phone and called 911. Linda was taken to the hospital and admitted. Because
she had a small quantity of alcohol in her system, C.J. reports bitterly,
she was released in the early hours of the morning into the rain in her
wheelchair, though he begged them not to do so. “I can’t help her if she
starts to seize up,” he explained to them.
The next morning he woke and she was dead beside him. Last week he
admitted himself briefly into Dominican to fend off the suicidal grief he
was feeling. “How can I go on without her?” he asked me yesterday.
In September Patches, the woman who cleaned car windows in the New
Leaf parking lot in Downtown Santa Cruz was turned away on three successive
nights from Dominican Hospital. Her partner Chico reported it was because
she was poor and homeless. On the fourth night, with a serious infection
spreading in her right arm, they accepted her and scheduled a surgery three
days later. The day before surgery, she died.
This year’s death toll of homeless people is expected to reach an
all-time high. What is the Board of Supervisors going to do about this?
