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A 23-year-old female patient walked away from an unlocked ward at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex on Sept. 30 and attacked a woman in a nearby Wauwatosa home, according to a police report released Friday.

The homeowner, Heather Snyder-Stueber, wasn't seriously injured, and the patient was returned by police to the complex, which has launched its own investigation. The case is under review by the district attorney's office, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern.

Snyder-Stueber and her husband, Arnie Stueber, agreed to have their names published, saying the incident was deeply upsetting and raised questions about safety measures at the Mental Health Complex.

"It's important that we speak out and not be victims in this," Arnie Stueber said. "It's lucky we are all safe, but we are all just traumatized."

Snyder-Stueber said she was punched in the head and face by the patient and pushed to the concrete floor of her porch.

"The entire thing was terrifying for me and my children," Snyder-Stueber wrote in statement on the attack. The incident "destroyed my sense of safety and security for our children, myself, our home and our neighborhood."

The county has added more staff to monitor outside doors at the complex following the patient attack, said Geri Lyday, the county's interim administrator for health and human services. One employee at the complex has been suspended and recommended for firing, Lyday said. More employees may be disciplined, if warranted, she said in an e-mail response to questions.

Snyder-Stueber was home with her two young children, 18 months and 5, and a friend of her 5-year-old's when the patient attacked her.

Snyder-Stueber, 34, suffered bruises and had her glasses broken during an altercation, which occurred as she was trying to get the patient out of the house.

The patient was the same woman featured in an Aug. 21 Journal Sentinel article on bungled care at the Mental Health Complex. The article, part of the paper's "Patients in Peril" series, found the patient became pregnant while at the complex last summer, presumably by another patient. In April, she gave birth to a son, who is now in foster care.

The patient was supposed to be on birth control injections while at the complex, but was not, the newspaper found. The pregnancy was cited in a report by federal inspectors, released in March.

The newspaper is not naming the woman because she hasn't been charged with a crime and is considered a sexual assault victim.

According to police reports:

The patient left her ward in the Hilltop long-term care wing of the Mental Health Complex without permission and jumped a fence to leave the hospital grounds Sept. 30. She rang the doorbell at the home of the Wauwatosa family about 5 p.m. and asked to use a telephone. Snyder-Stueber handed the patient a cordless phone while on the front porch.

The patient called her aunt and handed the phone back to Snyder-Stueber, asking her to speak with the aunt. The patient sought to use a bathroom, walked inside and began to move toward a stairway where the children were gathered.

The patient began "flailing her arms" and striking Snyder-Stueber, who managed to push her out the front door, the reports said. Snyder-Stueber said the patient seemed to be trying to knock the phone away to keep her from calling the police.

The patient's aunt said Friday that her niece became upset because she didn't want to be returned to the complex. She described her as someone with mental illness for many years and the intellect of a 12-year-old.

The patient told police she wanted to be taken to jail because other patients at the Mental Health Complex harassed her. She was taken to the complex and remains there.