"Miracle on Ice" hockey star Mark Pavelich was granted court approval Wednesday for transfer from the state's high-security mental health hospital to a less restrictive setting for treatment while facing charges that he assaulted and seriously injured a neighbor last year at his North Shore home.
Pavelich, a 1980 Olympic gold medalist and hockey standout in college and high school in Minnesota, appeared via video hookup before Cook County Judge Michael Cuzzo from the St. Peter Security Hospital to answer a series of questions from his attorney and from the bench.
Late in the 20-minute proceeding, the 62-year-old Pavelich was asked by attorney Stephen Foertsch whether he agrees that he is mentally ill as defined by state law.
"Yes, I do," said the silver-haired Pavelich as he sat dispassionately in a small St. Peter conference room before a camera well above eye level.
Cuzzo's ruling that Pavelich is mentally ill clears the way for the judge to temporarily suspend for six months an earlier determination that Pavelich was "mentally ill and dangerous."
This allows Pavelich to be moved possibly within weeks from the prisonlike setting in St. Peter to a less restrictive treatment facility.
Among the possibilities is Eagle's Healing Nest, a sprawling nonprofit treatment facility in Sauk Centre that offers greater interaction with other clients, and amenities such as horseback riding, barbecues and the like on its sprawling rural property.
"Mr. Pavelich has met this recent challenge with the expected diligence of the gold medal Olympian that he is," his attorneys, Foertsch and co-counsel Carolyn Bruno, said in a joint statement afterward. "We are very pleased that Mr. Pavelich will be given this chance to be transferred to a less restrictive facility where his specific needs can be met."
An earlier court filing said two medical doctors evaluated Pavelich on June 19 and found he "demonstrated many treatment gains (and) could be adequately treated in a setting that is less restrictive than his current placement." Earlier, he had been refusing treatment, according to court records.
The doctors diagnosed Pavelich with "a potential psychotic disorder due to traumatic brain injuries, with delusions, and an unspecified trauma and stressor-related disorder," according to the filing.
Pavelich's friends and family have raised concerns that he exhibits signs of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, from repeated blows to the head while playing in the National Hockey League. They said the quiet, solitary man they knew had in recent years become increasingly paranoid and at times almost threatening _ possible symptoms of the degenerative disease.
The St. Peter hospital holding Pavelich is the only facility of its kind in Minnesota, a prisonlike place where officials can assess and treat individuals with severe mental health disorders who are considered a threat to the public. The state's website describes it as "an inherently difficult place to live and work."
Still pending against the Eveleth High School and University of Minnesota Duluth hockey star are second- and third-degree assault charges for allegedly striking his neighbor after a fishing trip last August near his Lutsen home.
The man suffered two cracked ribs, a bruised kidney and a fractured vertebra. Pavelich accused his friend of "spiking his beer," according to the criminal complaint.
He was charged with additional felonies for possessing a short-barreled shotgun and firearms without serial numbers. Pavelich's defense attorney has moved to dismiss those charges, saying the firearms were found during an illegal search.
