a051  0421  24 Oct 85
PM-Subway Push,0401
Suspect in Subway Pushing Was Released From City Psychiatric Ward
By BRYAN BRUMLEY
Associated Press Writer
    NEW YORK (AP) - A 19-year-old woman accused of pushing a woman into
the path of a subway train was released from a psychiatric ward last
month over the objections of the doctors who treated her, officials
say.
    The suspect, Mary Ventura of Brooklyn, was involuntarily committed
to the Kings County Hospital for psychiatric care last July and
released in late September after a court hearing, hospital officials
said Wednesday.
    Miss Ventura, charged with attempted murder and assault, apeared in
criminal court Wednesday and was ordered held without bail for
psychiatric examination, with a report due Nov. 21.
    The victim, Catherine Costello, 22, emerged from 22 hours in surgery
at Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday night and improved from critical to
guarded condition, hospital spokesman Lawrence Dugan said.
    Miss Costello's arms, legs and pelvis were fractured, and her face
badly injured, but ''it appears she'll be pretty much intact
neurologically,'' said Dr. Duncan McBride, a Bellevue surgeon.
    Neurosurgeons rebuilt her right eye socket, and she will require
further cosmetic surgery, physicians said.
    Miss Ventura ''was admitted to Kings County Hospital in July by
police who brought her here because she was emotionally disturbed,''
said Dr. Luis Marcos, a mental health administrator with the city's
Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs the Kings County unit.
    Miss Ventura won her release with the help of lawyers from the
Mental Health Information Service, a patients' rights group, Marcos
said. ''The mental hygiene law says that anyone who wants to be
released and requests it in writing gets a court hearing. The
lawyers' group goes to court and pleads with the judge to have the
person released.
    ''Our doctors go to court and explain why this person should not be
released, and it is up to the judge.''
    Miss Costello, an accountant from Queens who graduated from Boston
College last June, was on her way home from her job with a Fifth
Avenue firm when she was pushed in front of the train, hit by the
lead car and hurled to the tracks, police said.
    Miss Costello and Miss Ventura, both of whom are single, apparently
did not know each other and had no contact before Miss Costello was
pushed, police said.
    Police said it was the fourth time this year that someone was pushed
in front of a train.
    
AP-NY-10-24-85 0721EDT
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