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A Valley Springs man convicted in February of involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of a former friend is now receiving treatment for terminal brain cancer in a state prison hospital at the county’s expense. James Alison Livezey, 42, was sentenced March 19 for a June 29, 2011, attack that killed Marvin Brown, 52, at Brown’s home in the Sequoia Rose Mobile Home Park in Valley Springs. Livezey has an inoperable brain tumor that experts testified during his trial he would not likely survive through March. Yet Livezey has outlasted doctors’ expectations despite his condition worsening. A probation report in March documented a Feb. 29 incident in which Livezey began to accuse jail staff of withholding information from him, moving the jail with a diesel truck and lying to him. It stated that he banged his head on his cell door, threw a pitcher repeatedly and swung it at staffers. He also flooded his cell with water and urine, correctional officers discovered, when they entered to remove him to a safety cell. The report concluded that although Livezey’s physical capabilities are “greatly diminished (he) still becomes very angry and physically aggressive.” The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved up to $28,105 for Livezey’s continued care at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where Superior Court Judge John Martin agreed to transfer him on July 18 and he moved two days later. A staff report submitted Tuesday by Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Ed Ballard to the board said Livezey’s tumor “has resulted in hyper aggressive behavior and an inability to feed and clothe himself. Hence he requires full-time hospice care which the county jail cannot provide.” Livezey initially became a county jail inmate, rather than a state prisoner, because his crime fell under the auspices of Assembly Bill 109, which remands those convicted of “nonviolent” offenses to local authorities. An agreement with the state requires the county to pay the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation $77 a day to house Livezey, not including “extraordinary health care expenses, medical transportation and medical guarding,” according to Ballard’s report. “At some point it is expected that Inmate Livezey will expire, due to his medical condition. It is impossible to predict when this will occur,” Ballard wrote. “As a result, a complete financial obligation for the housing of Inmate Livezey with CDCR cannot be determined. Absent extraordinary health care expenses, it is anticipated that $2,310 per month will be expended until such time Inmate Livezey expires.” On Aug. 10, the Executive Steering Committee for the Community Corrections Partnership that administers AB 109 implementation in the county approved up to $30,000 in AB 109 contingency funding to house Livezey in the state prison system. |