Kaiser Employee Charged With Manslaughter In Transient's Stabbing
VAN NUYS (CBS) — An employee at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center was charged Wednesday with voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of a transient outside the facility.
Solomon Lee Washington, a 58-year-old janitor/orderly, pleaded not guilty to the felony charge Wednesday afternoon in Van Nuys Superior Court.
The charge stems from the stabbing death of Michael Joseph Vizkelety about 3 a.m. Monday on the hospital grounds in the 5600 block of De Soto Avenue.
Authorities said Washington went inside the hospital to summon security after an altercation with the 48-year-old transient. He went back outside before security officers arrived and was confronted by Vizkelety, who was stabbed with a small folding knife during a scuffle between the two, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Washington said Vizkelety struck him.
Security officers took Vizkelety to the hospital's emergency room after discovering that he was bleeding, and he died shortly afterward.
Washington was arrested at 3:05 a.m. Monday.
If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Related Link: Kaiser Employee Fatally Stabs Transient After Telling Him To Leave Hospital
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