Posted on: Friday, February 1,2002

Care-home slaying spurs House bill

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The state Department of Health would have to disclose to care-home operators a prospective client's violent criminal history under a bill approved by two House committees.

The bill, which advances to the House Judiciary Committee, would require the health department to inform adult residential care-home operators whether potential clients were convicted of a violent offense or were committed to the state hospital as a result of an acquittal.

The House Health and Human Services committees approved the measure Wednesday.

The bill follows a September incident in which care-home resident Emelie Rauschenburg allegedly stabbed care-home operator Agapita Alcaraz to death.

Rauschenburg had been acquitted in 1984 of murder and attempted murder by reason of insanity for setting fire to a Makiki rooming house. One man was killed in the fire. Rauschenburg was committed to the state hospital but was later placed on conditional release.

Alcaraz's relatives said the care- home operator was not aware of the acquittal for the 1984 incident. Dianne Okumura, section supervisor of the Health Department's Office of Health Care Assurance, said Rauschenburg was transferred to Alcaraz's care home from another care home, so Alcaraz may not have been given the resident's background information.

Health department officials opposed the bill, saying the care-home operator already has the right to ask a potential client to sign a consent form authorizing the release of medical information.

Malina Kaulukukui, forensic coordinator with the department, also said that while the department often does not have the full criminal history on patients released from the hospital, it does share information about whether someone has been acquitted and committed to the hospital.

"We will always give the information that we know to the community providers who are considering receiving and treating our folks," she said.

Criminal records are available at the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, according to the state Office of Information Practices.

But Ron Gallegos, president of the Alliance of Residential Care Administrators, said finding out such information that way would be a burden on care-home operators.