Press enter after choosing selection

FBI Denies 'Confession' Knowledge

FBI Denies 'Confession' Knowledge image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
March
Year
1977
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

FBI Denies 'Confession’ Knowledge

DETROIT — Federal prosecutors say they were unaware that a mentally ill nursing supervisor told psychiatrists she was responsible for patient deaths and breathing failures in the Ann Arbor VA Hospital.

U.S. Atty. Philip Van Dam issued the disclaimer Monday following reports that Betty Jakim “confessed” to hospital murders and attempted murders while undergoing treatment for depression, guilt feelings and hallucinations at the U-M Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) in 1976.

Mrs. Jakim, 51, committed suicide in Sebring, Fla., on Feb. 3, by taking an overdose of medication. She also suffered from terminal cancer.

Two Filipina nurses, both of whom worked for Mrs. Jakim on the hospital’s 4 p.m.-midnight shift, have been accused of murdering two men and poisoning seven others during a series of strange breathing failures and deaths which occurred in the hospital in June, July and August, 1975.

The accused women, Leonora Perez, 32, and Filipina Narciso, allegedly injected Pavulon, a powerful drug that affects skeletal and breathing muscles, into the hospitalized veteran's intravenous feeding tubes.

Today begins the third week of jury selection in the complicated and bizarre case.

Van Dam's disavowal of FBI knowledge about Mrs. Jakim’s confessions, is a key element in the overall scheme of the government's investigation and the upcoming trial.

If defense attorneys were able to show the FBI and the prosecutors knew about Mrs. Jakim’s admissions, but deliberately withheld them, there would be an excellent chance U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pratt could dismiss the case.

Pratt already has been rankled by the prosecution’s failure to comply with one of his orders to turn over other important data to the women’s lawyers. Disclosures that more information had not been surrendered, could cause him to take the drastic step of dismissing the case.

Van Dam also said he has ordered the FBI to reopen its investigation into Mrs. Jakim’s possible link to patient murders.

Jakim, according to sources familiar with the VA investigation, was once considered a suspect in the case. She was dropped, however, when investigators pieced together her whereabouts and determined she was not working or was not present when many of the highly suspicious breathing failures occurred.

According to sources, NPI psychiatrists say they never mentioned the "confessions” to authorities because they believed the statements stemmed from hallucinations and Mrs. Jakim’s deteriorating mental condition.

Defense attorneys have subpoenaed Mrs. Jakim’s medical records from NPI.

A meeting was scheduled in court this morning to discuss the Jakim disclosure and what impact, if any, they may have on the future of the government's case.