New Year's Eve Murder At Morris County Psych Facility

MORRIS PLAINS, NJ - A 28-year-old patient at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital was found wandering the halls on New Year's Eve with blood on his hand and was subsequently arrested and charged with murdering someone in his room at the facility, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.

Hospital staff found the victim in the room of Rashid Davis lying on the floor in a pool of blood, authorities said. The cause of death was determined to be multiple stab wounds to the neck area and manner of death is homicide, authorities said.

The investigation remains ongoing and the identity of the deceased individual, and whether they were a patient or a staff member, will not be released at this time, authorities said.

Davis has been charged by warrant-complaint with first degree Murder, third degree Possession of a Weapon for Unlawful Purposes, and fourth degree Unlawful Possession of a Weapon in connection to the incident, authorities said.

He remains in custody pending a first appearance before a judge of the superior court, authorities said.

History Of Violence

This is not the first incident of violence reported at the institution. A lawsuit filed last year said an "atmosphere of terror and retaliation" has led to serious assaults and several deaths at Greystone Psychiatric Park in recent years.

Almost every single doctor at the facility has been assaulted, including several who required ambulance rides, hospitalizations, surgeries, or extended time off of work, the suit alleges. That constant threat of violence has led to a "mass exodus" and a critical shortage of doctors that has prevented patients from getting the psychiatric and medical care they require — the crux of the civil rights lawsuit.

The lawsuit named Gov. Phil Murphy, Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal, Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, as well as past and present Greystone leaders and members of former Gov. Chris Christie's administration.

The original Greystone first opened on the site in 1876 and by the 1950s housed over 6,500 patients. The hospital was plagued by problems and scandals and in the mid-1970s, a grand jury investigation into Greystone led to a large class-action lawsuit, the indictment of five people and the creation of a court-appointed oversight committee.

The oversight committee issued several critical reports about conditions in the hospital, including one in 2000 that caused then-Gov. Christine Whitman to call for the closure of the old hospital. A brand-new hospital on the site opened in 2008, and the oversight committee disbanded shortly after.

Despite these efforts, serious and violent problems persisted, the lawsuit alleged.

The new hospital was designed to house 510 patients, a number that was quickly surpassed, the lawsuit says. Overcrowding was only made worse by the closure of Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital, which was home to geriatric patients, and two homes for those with developmental disabilities, North Jersey Developmental Center and Woodbridge Developmental Center.

Overcrowding, paired with a lack of medical professionals, created a dangerous staff shortage that put patients at risk and led to several deaths, the lawsuit says. Just six psychiatrists are employed full-time at the hospital, but the lawsuit says 29 are required to adequately care for patients.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four patients, only one of whom has been discharged from the hospital. They are seeking class action status to include former and current patients of the hospital.

The violent assaults were a daily occurrence, with about five reported every day, according to the lawsuit. In 2016 alone, 1,816 assaults — 654 of them resulting in injuries — were reported. The data for 2017 was on track to become the most violent year on record, the lawsuit alleges, but multiple sets of records were maintained to lower the number of assaults in public reports.

The 60-page lawsuit outlines some of the assaults, many in graphic detail.

Most patients at the hospital have been committed there by a judge.

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