Here is the text of the letter sent by Deborah Fields Rowan’s family to Clallam County Superior Court Judge George Wood and Western State Hospital Community Program Manager Richard Tomko:
Dear Judge Wood
and Mr. Tomko:
We write this letter on behalf of the entire family of Deborah Fields Rowan (who was killed by Bruce Rowan in March 1998), on the occasion of Mr. Rowan’s 2005 petition for further conditional release into the community.
We appreciate the court’s ongoing attention to the public safety and other issues surrounding Mr. Rowan’s request for additional freedom.
However, as we were in 2002, we are today outraged that Mr. Rowan’s request for additional freedom is being advocated by Western State Hospital so soon after Mr. Rowan’s heinous act.
As set forth below, we have significant concerns about his further conditional release, which we ask the court and the hospital to reconsider.
1. Lack of Notice of Conditional Release Proceedings.
As an initial matter, we bring to the court’s attention the fact that we, as the victim’s family, have repeatedly been promised by the hospital, but have never received, timely notice of Mr. Rowan’s 2003 and 2005 petitions for further conditional release.
We would not have known of either petition, until reading about the result in the newspaper after the fact, had the prosecutor’s office not informed us at the last minute as a courtesy.
As members of Debbie’s family and the adoptive parents of Mr. Rowan’s and Debbie’s former adopted daughter, Anika, it is unsatisfactory that the hospital has twice failed to provide us with the requested notice.
We request to be kept fully informed as to further developments in regard to Mr. Rowan’s status.
2. Mr. Rowan’s Propensity to Kill Again.
Based on our knowledge of the prior and current conditional release proceedings, there has been relatively little analysis and evidence proffered regarding Mr. Rowan’s propensity to kill again.
This is particularly troublesome when the conditional release proceedings are contrasted with the trial itself, in which the defense’s experts represented that Mr. Rowan would doubtless be confined for a very long time (which representations we cannot help but believe gave considerable comfort to the jury to render its verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity).
The prosecutor’s office, while it argued at trial that Mr. Rowan was quite sane and should go to prison for killing Debbie, is now in the paradoxical position of having to argue, to protect the public safety, that Mr. Rowan is too mentally ill to be released into society.
While we realize that Mr. Rowan’s confinement is not punitive, given the jury’s questionable verdict, it certainly was public-safety-driven.
It is a mystery to us how, given that Mr. Rowan initially committed such a heinous act without warning, the hospital can appear so cavalier about Mr. Rowan’s likelihood of re-offending.
We had no indication that he would kill Debbie back in 1998, and we have no confidence that he would not commit such an act again, even possibly against his former daughter or other members of our family.
Because the hospital is inherently self-interested in Mr. Rowan’s release (showing its “success” in treating Mr. Rowan), we request that an independent third-party psychiatric professional evaluate Mr. Rowan to determine whether Mr. Rowan may be released into the community “without substantial danger to other persons, or substantial likelihood of committing criminal acts jeopardizing public safety or security,” as required by RCW section 10.77.150.
This independent psychiatric examination, by a psychiatric professional of the prosecuting attorney’s choosing, could have been (but was not) ordered by the prosecuting attorney at the time of Mr. Rowan’s initial 2002 petition for conditional release, although it was suggested as appropriate by the prosecuting attorney in a letter at that time.
The potential for Mr. Rowan to re-offend is not a peripheral issue; rather, it is the single most important issue in his ongoing conditional release proceedings.
While we have attempted to safeguard ourselves through the court’s no-contact order, if Mr. Rowan contacts us (or worse), in violation of the order, it would create a classic “Pandora’s box” situation that certainly would involve irreparable harm to Anika or others in our family.
We believe that, given all of the events that have occurred, the public safety concern clearly outweighs Mr. Rowan’s desire for freedom.
3. Mr. Rowan’s Disability Benefits vs. Control/Remission of His Disease.
There is a logical disconnect between Mr. Rowan’s being permanently disabled for purposes of collecting Social Security disability benefits and Mr. Rowan’s disease being sufficiently in remission (i.e., arguable controlled through self-administered medication and therapy), to allow him to be freely moving around in the community and beyond.
While the two determinations are not exactly the converse of each other, the end result — that Mr. Rowan committed this grievous act, now is attempting to gain his freedom and collects a federal disability paycheck — is offensive.
The progression of Mr. Rowan’s conditional release status reinforces our belief, which we have held since the events of March 1998, that Mr. Rowan never was insane in the first place.
Obviously, as a former medical doctor with experience working in the area of psychiatry, Mr. Rowan knows better than most killers how to progress quickly through the hospital’s protocol for demonstrating adequate recovery to support release from confinement.
Mr. Rowan and his counsel have shown a great ability to navigate through the minefield of potential consequences for his horrible act, to a conclusion that may be satisfactory from Mr. Rowan’s viewpoint but, in our view, exposes the community and our family to tremendous risk on an ongoing basis.
We, as Debbie’s family, live every day with our loss of Debbie and the other grievous consequences of Mr. Rowan’s act. Now, if Mr. Rowan gains increased freedom, we will have to live with the concern that he will not leave us alone to proceed with our lives.
We urge the court and the hospital to reconsider granting Mr. Rowan’s continuing requests for additional freedom.
Very truly yours,
The Fields/Fisher Family
