Why the streets of Chico are so mean – there’s no accountability in the courts

In 2017 a man who had been taken in off the streets by a Chico State professor turned on his host and beat him into a coma. Last I heard, the victim, a 59 year old man, is still living in an assisted care center, and will probably never be able to function alone again. I wrote a post about it then.

Enterprise Record practices newspeak

Don’t tell me the transients are “locals” – this man already had a criminal record in Orange County – a felony count of robbery. Robbery, by legal definition, involves force and/or intimidation. Would you have let this man in your house? Apparently, the victim was talked into it by a friend. “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.“

The attacker, Ryan Muscat, was finally sentenced to 18 years – the DA having asked for 28 – but that story didn’t say where, or under what conditions, or if he would receive much needed mental health treatment. It does say that while he was awaiting trial in Butte County jail, he was caught with a concealed knife and assaulted prison guards with his own urine.

In that old post, I talked about efforts made by the Butte County Behavioral Health Department, then under the management of Dorian Kittrell, to get citizens to “take in” mental patients, even supervise their meds for them! He has since left the position to Scott Kennelly. Neither of these people have made real efforts to increase supervision of the mentally ill that are brought here by county transfer, to provide supervised housing, or force these people into a hospital.

In fact, Kennelly is currently resisting the governor’s order to provide housing for these people, he says there’s no money in the budget. Let’s face it – he’s worried about his $150,000+ salary and corresponding benefits. At the time I made that old post, most of the department’s funding came from the transfers – one old figure, $63 million in one year, for taking other counties’ problems. But Kennelly says there’s no money in the budget to take care of the people who bring in the money – has anything ever been more blatant than that?

So, when Ryan Muscat was sentenced for his horrible crime, he ended up in yet another over-crowded, under-staffed institution. Now a judge has reduced his sentence by five years. A guy who went into a sleeping man’s bedroom and beat him into a coma.

I found this story in the Chico State Orion, no mention of this in the ER. I couldn’t get the link, so just cut-and-pasted a few paragraphs. Check the Orion for the full story.

District attorney: Sentence reduced for man convicted of 2017 attack on Chico State professor

Ryan Muscat, originally convicted of felony assault causing serious bodily harm in 2019, has had his sentence reduced by five years

by Ariana Powell, Chico State Orion

The sentence of a man convicted of attacking a Chico State mathematics professor in 2017 has been reduced from 18 to 13 years on Thursday, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Ryan Muscat was sentenced to 18 years in state prison in 2020 after being convicted of felony assault causing serious bodily harm by a Butte County jury in 2019. Muscat attacked the 59-year-old professor, name unreleased, at his home in 2017.

According to the DA’s office, due to “recent legislative changes in the law which are designed to lessen the punishment for violent offenders” Muscat was able to appeal to have his sentence changed. Muscat said under these new laws his bad childhood should mandate a lower term...

Be careful out there Folks!