ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512030023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
The daughter of a Roanoke woman beaten to death with a baseball bat two years ago is suing a psychiatric center that released the killer four days before the murder.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court by lawyers for Angela Herron, whose mother, Judith Cook, was stabbed in the back and beaten to death in her Windsor Avenue apartment two years ago this month.
Michael S. Hairston, Cook's boyfriend, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence in prison.
The lawsuit, which names Roanoke Memorial Hospital and three doctors, seeks $1 million in damages.
In the weeks before the killing, Hairston was admitted to the Roanoke Memorial Psychiatric Center after he attempted to kill himself, according to the lawsuit.
On Dec. 9, doctors at the hospital "prematurely" released Hairston after failing to diagnose his psychiatric problems, which included "suicidal and homicidal ideation," the suit claims.
The hospital failed to recognize that Hairston "was a threat and harm to both himself and the greater public on the day he was released," according to the lawsuit, filed by Roanoke lawyer Richard Lawrence.
Cook, 40, was killed on Dec. 13, 1993. Hairston has admitted that he stabbed her nine times in the back and struck as many times in the head with a baseball bat. Prosecutors said at the time that Hairston killed Cook in a jealous rage after she tried to end their relationship.
A hospital spokeswoman declined Friday to comment on the lawsuit.
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