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Media Articles - 1990s

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3 December 2002
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Close Narconon Pending Appeal, Board Requests

By Michael McNutt

Daily Oklahoman
January 16, 1992


A request for a court order to allow Narconon Chilocco New Life Center to remain open and continue treating patients should be rejected, according to papers filed Wednesday in Oklahoma County.

Narconon Chilocco should be closed to comply with a Dec. 13 ruling by the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services instead of being allowed to stay open while lawyers for the facility appeal the board's action, the papers said.

Board lawyer Georg S. Corbyn Jr. filed the papers in Oklahoma County District Court in response to Narconon Chilocco's motion seeking a stay.

District Judge Leamon Freeman is scheduled to rule on the matter Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, lawyers with the state attorney general's office have filed court papers seeking to dismiss Narconon Chilocco's appeal in Oklahoma County District Court.

Guy Hurst, an assistant state attorney general, said Narconon Chilocco filed its appeal in the wrong county. The appeal should be filed in Kay County, site of the 75-bed facility.

Lawyers for Narconon Chilocco last week filed an appeal in Kay County District Court.

Narconon Chilocco lawyers have kept the facility open by going to court and filing requests for a stay and asking a judge to overrule the mental health board's decision.

The center, which had 27 patients when the board denied its application for certification, now has 16.

Corbyn said Narconon Chilocco's request for a stay should be denied because the facility, which has been accepting patients since February 1990, never was licensed.

The mental health board hired Corbyn after Narconon Chilocco last year won a court ruling prohibiting the attorney general's office from participating in the case.

In its request for a stay, lawyers for Narconon Chilocco said mental health board members did not use substantial evidence in denying the facility's request.