Ex-Marine released from $1,000-a-day mental hospital to seek less expensive treatment

By John Barry, Times Staff Writer John BarryTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, September 15, 2012

TAMPA A brain-damaged Marine captain who was promised treatment rather than prison after he killed another motorist while driving drunk in 2010 wept Friday when he learned that a knot of red tape in two states stands between him and his medical care.

After an hour of brainstorming, even a judge, his defense attorney and a prosecutor could only partly untangle the knot.

"Imagine what chance the average injured veteran would have without all this help," said John Fitzgibbons, the attorney for Scott Sciple, the Marine who suffers from traumatic brain injury.

"None."

Shortly after his transfer to MacDill Air Force Base in August 2010, Sciple drove the wrong way on Interstate 275, killing a 48-year-old father of five. His blood-alcohol level was three times the level at which the state presumes someone is impaired. Last year, the Marine Corps made an extraordinary admission that it failed to diagnose and treat Sciple for his combat-related brain injuries and never should have sent him to MacDill.

In May, the widow of crash victim Pedro Rivera told a judge she was convinced Sciple needed medical care more than prison. "We can't just keep doing things to people who need help," Carmen Rodriguez said.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Lisa Campbell agreed to send Sciple to Poplar Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Petersburg, Va., a locked facility that specializes in military-related disorders. He could have been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

But Sciple soon exhausted his medical coverage at the $1,000-a-day facility and now owes $85,000.

Fitzgibbons found an alternative: a combat rehabilitation center in Galveston, Texas, sponsored by a nonprofit group called Project Victory.

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Ex-Marine released from $1,000-a-day mental hospital to seek less expensive treatment