Ruth Daarud is out of the hospital and healing from a near fatal knife attack.
Updated at 5:46 p.m. on Wednesday May 30, 2012
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
ROCHESTER – Five days before Amanda Lee Bassell was arrested for allegedly plunging a kitchen knife into her sleeping mother’s throat, her mother asked the state Department of Corrections to get the 23-year-old out of their Rochester home, because she was afraid for her own life.
Bassell was released from prison in mid-May, after being locked up for almost three years for assaulting her uncle with a knife and for assaulting a guard shortly after being incarcerated.
She was under the supervision of a community corrections officer. The former Centralia resident was approved to live with her parents.
Amanda Lee Bassell
Ruth Daarud, 42, said she told the community corrections office that she repeatedly had to take a knife away from her grown daughter and feared something would happen.
“She kept hiding a knife,” Dallas Daarud, Bassell’s father, said. “She sneaked it and would hide it in her purse or in her room, for protection she said.”
The Daaruds contend community corrections officers missed three home visits during the nine days their daughter was out, and failed to follow through after saying they would take her away and find alternative housing.
The near fatal attack could have been prevented, they say
“She was out of control, they neglected to make a home visit,” Dallas Daarud said. “I hold them fully responsible for my wife almost dying.”
A spokesperson for DOC said their after-release monitoring of convicts can only minimize the risk they will reoffend.
“There’s nothing anybody can do to guarantee somebody’s not going to commit a new crime,” spokesperson Chad Lewis said. “Even incarceration doesn’t prevent it.”
Lewis said last Thursday he’d been promoted to director of communications for DOC, and couldn’t address if any field visits were missed, but he would have a spokesperson call the following day to respond to more detailed questions.
He noted that community corrections officers don’t find places for released inmates to reside; they only approve addresses.
The former Salzer Valley couple said they moved into a house in south Thurston County this spring, specifically so their daughter might have a chance for success when she got of prison. Bassell was prohibited from going to Lewis County. The Daaruds thought that would help keep her from her old friends and temptations.
DOC approved the plan, they said.
“A couple of days before, they came to visit to make sure the house was finished, go through and lay out the rules for us,” Dallas Daarud said. “To tell us she’s dangerous, and how closely they’re going to watch her.”
Then they never came back, he said.
Bassell, who also goes by her given name of Daarud, went from an honor roll student to outrageous and out of control almost overnight, according to her parents. She told a psychologist she began smoking methamphetamine in high school.
She was diagnosed as bipolar years ago, her father said.
By age 20, she’d tallied up six felony convictions.
The Daaruds said they thought their daughter would get her mental health problems treated while incarcerated, but instead, she spent most of her time in solitary confinement while at the Washington Corrections Center for Women near Purdy.
“Sometimes she’d be in there, just her,” Ruth Daarud said. “No books, no magazines. If she behaved, she could get a radio and TV.”
After awhile, she decided she didn’t want out of “the hole” anymore, her mother said.
Bassell was released on May 11, just before Mothers Day.
She was under the highest of four levels of supervision by the community corrections division of DOC, meaning they would make more home visits than usual, according to Lewis.
He said she was supervised out of the Olympia office.
“We thought that we would give her a chance because we’re her parents,” Ruth Daarud said. “But then we knew within a couple of days it wasn’t going to work.”
It was the Tuesday after her daughter came home that Ruth Daarud accompanied her to the community corrections satellite office in Rochester, she said.
While her daughter was out of the room, she told the community corrections officer about the knife, and told her her daughter had tried to hurt them before, she said.
“They said they would come by that evening when they were done with their visits,” she said. “But they never came.”
Ruth Daarud said she was told also the community corrections officer would come over the following day and remove her daughter. They waited, and nobody showed up, she said.
Early in the morning on May 20, Ruth Daarud awoke in her bed when she felt a hand over her mouth, was stabbed in the neck and fought her daughter to get the knife away, she and prosecutors say.
“That night, it was survival, I just did what I had to do to live,” she said.
Ruth Daarud said she made her way to the kitchen where she dialed 911. She thought her daughter had killed her husband because she didn’t know where he was, she said.
Dallas Daarud said he had fallen asleep downstairs, and didn’t know what woke him, but he found the back door open and his wife outside by their hot tub.
They began walking south on Elderberry Street Southwest toward his brother’s home, and that’s when deputies arrived, they said.
She was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia where she underwent surgery and stayed four days.
“All the surgeon could say is there’s no explanation for why it didn’t kill her,” her husband said.
The knife went nearly through, stopping short of her spinal cord, scraping her carotid artery and damaging her esophagus and trachea, her family said.
Ruth Daarud said she thinks her daughter tried to kill her because she blames her parents for everything that is wrong in her life.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office said Bassell fled after the incident, and was found that night, barefoot and wet, hiding in an abandoned house a few blocks away.
The 23-year-old is being held on $500,000 bail in the Thurston County Jail. She was charged last week with attempted first-degree murder.
The state Department of Corrections is conducting what it calls a critical incident review.
Spokesperson Selena Davis said couldn’t answer many questions, as she didn’t know the details.
“We recommend anytime someone feels in imminent danger to call 911,” Davis said.
Davis said it’s important to remember the job of a community corrections officer is not to provide emergency response, but is a long term process to help transition offenders back into society.
How often a person on monitoring should be seen is up to the individual community corrections officer, she said.
It can be as few as two in person contacts in a month to as much as a daily phone call, she said.
“Typically for the majority in a caseload, an offender would be seen once a week,” she said. “At their home or in the office.”
The review of how Bassell’s case was handled could be finished in as little as two months, according to Davis.
The Daaruds say their daughter needs help they can’t give her.
She is smart, manipulative and – her father thinks – suffering from mental problems from previous drug use, and exacerbated by spending almost three years alone in a 9-foot by 9-foot cell.
Ruth Daarud didn’t raise her voice or emphasize any particular word when she said what she hoped the outcome would be in court.
“I want her to pay for what she did and I don’t ever want to see her again,” she said.
Dallas Daarud is “through the roof” angry, he says.
Her mother was her last chance for support, he says about their daughter.
“And if they could have just done their job, and she’d still have that,” he said.
Ruth Daarud is healing. Her voice will improve, she said quietly.
“I really would like to see my daughter find some peace,” she said. “But I don’t think she ever will.”
•••
For background, read:
• “Rochester woman accused of stabbing mother, convicted previously of knife assault” from Tuesday May 22, 2012 at 10:48 p.m., here
• “Breaking news: Rochester stabbing suspect found hiding in abandoned house” from Sunday May 20, 2012 at 7:55 p.m., here
• “Breaking news: Woman sought after early morning stabbing in Rochester” from Sunday May 20, 2012 at 10:28 a.m., here
Ruth Daarud is back at the Rochester home she shares with her husband following a knife attack nine days ago.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
If it’s true that she was diagnosed as bi-polar years ago–as a teen, I’m guessing since she’s now 23–she would have been under her parents care. I’d *guess* that her parents would have gotten her the appropriate meds at that time. However, it also said that she admitted to self medicating with meth….so, is someone who is bi-polar capable–and still held responsible–for making the choice of using drugs?? I honestly don’t know. Is it different for each person that is bi-polar, the ability to make good decisions?
Tell you what – let’s keep reducing the amount of money available to treat mental illness, let’s keep reducing the amount of money to treat drug addiction, let’s keep building bigger prisons and see what happens!!
We can just put the mentally ill in jail and prison and keep them in solitary confinement and then re-release them without treatment and in worse condition than when they got into jail.
We can make the medicine to manage psychosis cost $1,000 per month and not cover it with insurance.
We can tell the families of those who develop mental illness – too bad, so sad, maybe you should lock them in the shed like we did fifty years ago.
Wait… what? We are doing exactly that? Oh. Guess this is what happens.
With all of the arguments about “It is the responsibility of _____ to take care of her” or “It is the fault of ______ for letting this happen”, is anyone going to actually hold the girl herself responsible for what she has done? Or is everyone just going to pass the buck, blaming the family, the state, DSHS, DOC, whoever….?
Well heres the thing Disgusted; her mother didnt ask DOC to babysit…what she asked for was for the girl to be removed. She wanted to believe she could help her, realized she couldnt, realized she was in danger and just wanted the girl out of her house, and wanted to do it without calling 911 Im sure. I dont imagine any parent wants to do anything like that to their child. Im sure she wishes now that she would have. We can all sit here and argue our points and while we all make good ones, none of it helps. D.O.C. is doing less and less because they cant afford to anything anymore. Prisons are doing less and less because they cant afford to do anything anymore. Inmates are shuffled in and out like cattle and if their sentance is under 3-4 years theyre not even offered any programs, self help or rehabilitation or otherwise. Its a shitty system and it doesnt help anyone. 75% of the time inmates are homeless upon release, so they go back to what they know: crime and getting high. Bottom line?…this girl had every oppertunity handed to her, her whole life, and then oppertunities most prison releasees only dream of and she blew it all. Her mom thought she could help her and clearly made a grave mistake. Really though if u think about it, D.O.C. spokes people can release all the “cover their ass” statements that they want, but, if its not their “responsibility”, then why did they tell this girls mom that they were going to come and take her somewhere else? The answer is: IT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY! Thats the whole point of D.O.C: to babysit recently relesed felons until the state feels like they can function in society on their own, without someone looking over their shoulder. Thats what a probation officer is; a glorified baby sitter.
I certainly hope these people aren’t going to try filing a lawsuit. They took her in and they paid for it. DOC didn’t force them to allow her in their house. They made the decision to do so on their own, without any obligation whatsoever to do so. I’d repeat my comments about how I feel about these kinds of lawsuits but instead, you can read them in my post on another story if you care.
Quite frankly people, it is not the responsibility of the DOC to babysit your fucked up, drug-addicted, mentally ill, criminal relatives. Nor is it yours.
With the economy today and the budget cuts in state government people are overworked and understaffed. They do the best they can in a failing system. And in a world where more and more of these kinds of people are being born. What are the root causes and why are those not being addressed? Broken homes, or worse, 90% of today’s population that thinks it okay to go out and birth multiple kids by different fathers and lie back while the state supports you? Lack of spirituality and religion? Poor nutrition during pregnancy? Poor parenting? Drug abuse? All of this contributes, for sure.
I realize it can also happen in the best of situations. However, the world, the government and the taxpayers don’t owe it to you or anyone else to take care of anyone. If you love someone, do the best you can to help them, but don’t expect everyone else to take the problem on just because it is too much for you.
If you don’t want to deal with their bullshit, don’t keep taking them back in your house. And if you do, don’t cry to people or try to sue because they acted within their nature and tried to kill or harm you.
I know the girl + the fam. She belongs locked away + they hardly need the $ from a lawsuit. The system is BS + she shoulda been removed. D.O.C claims to help offenders + to protect the community..in this case they did NEITHER. Everyone save ur sympathy for her victims + don’t dare try to blame her parents. They have done everything to try + help her turn her life around + they moved solely to try to give her a new start in a new county. Oly D.O.C. is just as fund lacking as every other county + thats really what all this is about. They dont, wont or cant care when theres no funds for it. So, remember when u bitch about tax increases that a good portion of those go to keep sociopaths like this locked up.
The problem with giving DSHS more funding is that all the money in the world won’t make government bureaucrats start caring. It’s a JOB to them…a paycheck. Be it DSHS, DOC, DOT, whatever the agency (state or federal), we too often end up dealing with government employees whose concern about our situation begins and ends with whether we help keep their caseloads up so they can make more money.
Sorry to be so cynical, but you’re more likely to receive salvation by sending money to Mike Murdock or some other televangelist than you are to receive anything more than cursory attention to your problem from most government employees…they just don’t CARE.
Mrs. Daarud’s experience with jail and prison almost exactly mirrors ours. After our daughter developed bi-polar and schizophrenia and was self-medicating with meth, she became paranoid and delusional. We had her arrested on a failure to appear warrant, hoping she could be incarcerated, calmed and perhaps medicated… how naive we were!
Our daughter was strapped into a four-point restraint chair for DAYS until she stopped ‘fighting’ and was put into population. She assaulted a guard several times and due to those assaults (none on the outside) she went to prison. We hoped she might get mental health help… treatment… something, but no. She got 23 hour a day lockdown – just like the Daarud girl. She came out years later worse than when she went in.
I told her about this incident and she laughed – she said she and the Daarud girl knew each other from being delusional together in jail. How sad is that?
Our mental health system is seriously broken. These incidents do not have to happen and vilifying those with mental illness does nothing to FIX the problem. How about we reinstate some of the cuts to for mental health treatment through DSHS? Doesn’t that make more sense than a revolving door of prison? Isn’t is cheaper to treat them?
I admit, this is a flippant observation…
Why is it when these type of things happen, it’s almost always the case some one in the family is named “Dallas” ?
Well said, “concerned”, and I’m sorry that you and your family had to deal with a situation like that. Let us hope that the D.O.C. will one day step up and actually do the job they are being paid to do, instead of sloughing it off on whoever they can (gee, sounds a lot like D.S.H.S.).
After reading the various columns written regarding this tragedy. I am very concerned about the way our states correction system operates. Several years ago my family and I were in a similar situation. This family member was diagnosed years ago with mental issues and in their teen years began self medicating with street drugs. As a much older individual they eventually became addicted to crack cocaine. This was the drug that finally sent them over the edge. My family and I tried to help through all of those years, but in the end this person could no longer decifer reality and halucinations. They became violent towards us, others and even themself.
The police would make the arrest (felonies, not petty crime) only after they had sufficient cause based on the law. The individual would be released within a matter of hours/days and we would get the call from the D.O.C. that we needed to come help. The D.O.C. would tell us we were the only people who could make a difference. However every time we did as they counseled we were abandoned by the department. We would call for help only to be told that there was nothing the D.O.C. could do. Once we agreed to take on the problem they would even go so far as to not return our phone calls. Bear in mind this was not Thurston or Lewis County that we dealt with. So our thoughts now are that this problem seems too wide spread for the D.O.C. and quite possibly a trained practice.
We spent the better part of a year attempting to deal with this family members crack addiction. Finally we were contacted during one of the many arrests that Law Enforcement had enough cause to place this person in custody, a very honest officer had a heart to heart with us. After listening to our ordeal this officer did not mince words. The officer simply stated that the D.O.C. would not help us and would continually search for a way to make the problem someone elses. The officer also told us that the person we knew no longer existed, that the drugs had permanently damaged the mind. The only safe thing for our family was to break all communication and move if possible.
We did as advised and can not thank the officer enough. We could have easily become victims of not just a family member but the D.O.C. as well.
Our hearts go out to all families that have ever been in this situation. Wanting to do the right thing and help save a life only to be abonded by the corrections system. We also take our hats off to the police force as they repeated do their duties and are also short changed by the D.O.C. ie; early release, plea bargains, and rediculous sentencing.
Sounds like the Daaruds are setting up for a lawsuit. Its not DOC’s job to babysit this psychotic tweaked out gal. The Daaruds vouched for her and gave an address when she was released. She is a grown ass woman with parents who didn’t disconnect her from the tit. Moving 5 miles north of Centralia is hardly an act of love.
I agree with George, Chad Lewis says even incarceration is no guarantee an offender won’t offend again. Really?? Was she stabbing family members during her incarceration ? I think not. Chad Lewis is either a dim bulb, was misquoted or needs a new vocation, vacation or some sensitivity training. If he said that to me after I was stabbed ten times he would need more then a vacation he would need a lawyer. Somebody sure dropped the ball on this one.
Time to check the records to see if those “community corrections officers” logged visits to the residence. If they said they went there, then they need to be fired and imprisoned… they helped cause this.
As for this monster, it sounds like the only thing that will do it any good is to be put back in the 9×9 cage.