Mental evaluation follows MH woman’s threatening actions

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A Mountain Home woman, apparently under the delusion a group of 17-year-old students at the ASUMH Technical Center were members of a drug cartel and it was her duty to “take them out,” was ordered to undergo a seven-day mental evaluation at a hospital in Springdale. The woman is accused by police of making threats to various people and taking other hostile actions.

The petition to commit 55-year-old Ellen Marie Griesi to the Northwest Arkansas hospital was approved by Judge Gordon Webb at the conclusion of a hearing held Tuesday in Baxter County Circuit Court.

According to court records, Griesi attempted at one point to obtain a gun in order to carry out her plans to “take care” of the supposed drug cartel. She was also alleged to have put a sympathy card on a car belonging to one of the students saying it was “tough to lose a child,” and, late last month, investigators say Griesi left threatening voice mails on the phone of a mother and son.

Griesi was employed at one time as an instructor at ASU-Mountain Home, but was let go by the school, according to the petition filed seeking the mental evaluation. Griesi claimed at one point unnamed people had thrown paint thinner on her and tried to set her on fire.

Both Griesi and her husband, Joseph, took the stand during Tuesday’s hearing and basically denied each and every charge made against her. Joseph Griesi said the couple had been married for 18 years, and he was certain his wife would not be capable of the crimes for which she is charged. Fourteenth Judicial District Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism asked Joseph Griesi if he had read the affidavits filed against his wife. He said he was so certain she would not commit the acts for which she was charged that he had no interest in reading the information which he said was fabricated.

Tammy Burke, a psychologist with Ozark Guidance Center in Mountain Home, said she had met and interviewed Ellen Griesi on Nov. 7th and 13th. She said Griesi did not take responsibility for the various acts for which she is charged. Burke said the Mountain Home woman had “zero insight” into the seriousness of her alleged actions.

Burke testified Griesi was more of a threat to other people than to herself. The psychologist told the court she recommended the woman be transported to the facility to undergo her evaluation as soon as possible. She said during both of her interviews with Griesi, the woman could not provide details of the incident in which she is alleged to have been involved and did not appear to even know exactly why she was jailed.

Mountain Home lawyer John Crain, who represented Griesi, told the court the main reason his client had not been responsive stemmed from his advise to her not to provide information unless he was present in order to protect her rights.

During her testimony, Ellen Griesi told the court paying for her mental evaluation “is a total waste of the state’s tax dollars.”

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