Ex-Lake Co. health official to undergo mental health evaluation
The former Lake County Health Department official sentenced to a jail term last week was ordered Wednesday to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Associate Judge George Bridges’ order in the Thomas Job case came after Job’s reported suicide attempt last weekend.
Job, 67, of Spring Grove, was sentenced June 29 to spend a year in jail when he is not working or undergoing physical and mental health treatment.
At the end of the sentencing hearing, Job was taken to the jail’s community-based corrections center where he was processed and told to go home until a bed for him became available.
Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Demartini said sheriff’s police were called July 3 on a report Job was trying to overdose on some pills of an unknown kind, had a gun and was threatening to kill himself.
Deputies went to Job’s house and took him into custody, Demartini said. That incident remains under investigation.
The matter was brought before Bridges on Wednesday because officials were looking for guidance on the issue of allowing Job to leave the jail under the terms of his sentence if he had suicidal inclinations.
Defense attorney Michael Solock told Bridges the July 3 incident was “a panic and anxiety issue” on the part of his client that Job had resolved himself.
But Bridges said he wanted a full psychological evaluation done of Job before his release from the jail for any reason.
The former rehabilitation coordinator of the department’s addiction treatment program pleaded guilty to collecting $39,875 in pay for hours he did not work.
In addition to the jail term, Bridges ordered Job pay back the money and fined him an additional $25,000.
Richard Morelli, the former detoxification coordinator for the same health department program, has pleaded not guilty to theft and official misconduct charges in the case.
Morelli is accused of collecting $46,619 in pay for hours he did not work and is due back in court Aug. 1.