Enterprise Record practices newspeak

Here’s a story I found in the Enterprise Record. I noticed it because I am a Chico State alumnus and I wondered if it was one of my old professors. I think this story was downplayed for some reason at the time it happened, and now the ER just prints what amounts to a news release from the court. No investigation. No follow-up. 

The jury convicted Muscat of felony assault causing serious bodily harm. The jury also found Muscat had previously suffered a previous felony “strike” conviction for robbery in Orange County in 2006.

Ramsey said in the release that the assault victim was a 59-year-old CSUC science professor who had rented a room in his home to Muscat as a favor to a friend who was an employer of Muscat. The professor had begun to evict Muscat for his alcohol and drug use when Muscat attacked him during the early morning hours of Oct. 29, 2017. The professor suffered severe and permanently disabling injuries to his face, shoulder and brain.

Muscat faces up to 24 years 8 months in state prison when he is sentenced. However sentencing has been postponed awaiting the setting of trials next month on two other criminal cases alleged to have been committed by Muscat. Ramsey said Muscat faces felony charges for carrying a concealed knife in September of 2018 and for throwing urine on Butte County Jail correctional officers while in the jail in October of 2018.

According to the Butte County Court Case Index, Muscat has been in and out of court in Butte County since 2015. At the time of the attack, he was living in the professor’s house, but by the time the professor realized he had made a mistake taking in a drug and alcohol addict, it was too late.

At a meeting a few years ago, documented in this blog, I listened to Butte County Behavioral Health Director Dorian Kittrell explain that they were bringing people in from other cities/counties/agencies in California, and they needed “more beds”. He suggested finding people in the community to take strangers with documented mental and behavioral problems into their homes as boarders, even helping them “remember to take their meds.” I  was outraged – these people need professional help, not just good will. Anybody who has had to deal with addiction among their family/friends would know that, and I’d guess most of us have had that experience at one time or another. Telling people to take in transients off the street is irresponsible. I’ll say it – I  told you so Dorian. 

We thought we were helping our friend who was struggling with heroin addiction by employing him on a remodel, he is a excellent carpenter and really loves wood working.  But his wife called one day and told us he was just using the money for heroin, blowing off his morphine sessions. She asked us not to “help” him anymore. Helping a drug addict when you don’t really know what you’re doing is called “enabling,” and that’s the problem with groups like CHAT, Safe Space, and the Northern Valley Harm Reduction Coalition. 

What I also see here is a sinister attempt on the part of the local media to play down stories like this. Mike, if you have a story about this incident from 2017, you can show it to me and I’ll be glad to eat my hat on this one. But after the conversation you had with my husband over his recent letter to the editor, I believe you are more of a censor than a journalist. You say you just want everybody to “get along.” Well, Romeo, a pox on your yellow newspaper. 

Tags: Chico Housing Action Team, Mike Wolcott muckrakeroverer, Northern Valley Harm Reduction Coalition, Safe Space Winter Shelter