2 Legislators Charge Dr. Robey Made 'Scapegoat'

LANSING - Two House committee chairmen charged Thursday that Dr. Ames Robey, director of the Forensic Center at Ypsilanti State Hospital, is being made a "scapegoat" in the release of accused slayer Gary Addison Taylor. House Judiciary Chairman Paul Rosenbaum, D-Battle Creek, and House Mental Health Chairman Joyce Symons, D-Allen Park, aimed their "scapegoat" charge at acting Mental Health Director Donald Smith. An aide said Dr. Smith did not wish to make an immediate reply. Smith, like Robey an Ann Arbor resident, suspended the Forensic Center director pending an investigation of Taylor's reléase in 1972. Taylor now is held in Houston, Tex. Reps. Rosenbaum and Symons expressed "deep concern and extreme disappointment" in the suspension of Robey. The two legislators have been working together on deficiencies in the state's new mental health code in hopes of preventing premature release of dangerous mental health patients. "Dr. Robey is one of the finest public servants we have ever had the pleasure of knowing," Rosenbaum and Mrs. Symons said.' If Robey ultimately is fired, it would be "a tragic loss to the state of I igan," they stated. Dr. Robey has maintained he does not believe the case of Taylor, suspected of slaying women in Michigan, Texas and Washington, could have been handled any differently as it could not be established that Taylor was mentally ill. Rosenbaum and Mrs. Symons agreed "wïth this assessment and said that is why they have been pushing for enactment of a bilí that would créate a new category in the' state criminal code providing for a' plea of "guilty, but mentally ill." The legislators charged that Dr. Lynn W. Blunt, who will be acting director at the center while the probe is under way, also was "directly involved" in Taylor's release. Blunt was the center's clinical director. - "In our opinión," they said, "Dr. Smith is looking for a scapegoat, especially since it is our understanding that Dr. Smith is not questioning his competency or the high esteem in which Dr. Robey is held by many members of the Michigan Legislature, as well as the professional community in which he deals." Dr. Smith "does not want to make a statement at this time" in rebuttal to the charges by the two legisla tors, a spokesman in his Lansing office said. He said, however, "this is not a plinary suspension,, only a suspension under Civil Service Act procedure to effectively expedite an on-site visit by an investigator. "Dr. Smith has not made any charges against Mr. Robey," the spokesman added. Dr. Smith holds appointments as professor of maternal and child health in the Ü-M School of Public Health and as professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases in the U-M; Medical School, in addition to his appointment as acting state mental health director.