2-time State Hospital escapee to be released

Associated Press

A Hawai'i State Hospital patient who twice escaped from the Kane'ohe facility has been granted a temporary conditional release.

Circuit Judge Marcia Waldorf accepted a plan allowing Leonard Moore to live in a secured care cottage on the grounds of the Kane'ohe hospital. He will be under 24 hour supervision.

Moore must appear before the court in a month to see if he can be placed at the care cottage permanently. The plan still needs to be approved by Adult Client Services, formerly Adult Probation Services, which supervises defendants on conditional release.

Doctors at the state hospital recommended conditional release because Moore had received all needed services and treatment and now needs the next level of care, said defense attorney Keith Shigetomi.

The hospital also reported that as long as Moore takes his medication and continues treatment, he is not dangerous, Shigetomi said.

City prosecutors opposed Moore's release, citing public safety.

Moore, 36, was acquitted by reason of insanity earlier this month for a car theft in 2000 and two escapes after a judge found him fit to go to trial.

He originally was ordered to the hospital to undergo evaluation for fitness to stand trial for allegedly stealing a car. He escaped twice within a two-week period in March and April 2001 by throwing objects through a window.

Moore was captured more than a month after the second escape after police sent a SWAT team into a Kahala neighborhood and blocked off several streets searching for him.