The head of the troubled state mental hospital in Goldsboro will leave his post at the end of the year.

Cherry Hospital director Jack St. Clair will leave that job Dec. 31 and has been offered a transfer to the Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, Lynn Bonner reports.

Cherry Hospital has been the site of patient beatings and other alleged crimes committed by hospital employees. A few months ago, the federal government decided it would no longer pay for Medicaid patients' treatment at Cherry because it considered the hospital dangerous.

In April, hospital staff paid little attention to a 50-year-old patient for nearly a day as he sat dying in a chair.

The state hired an outside hospital management group in October to oversee Cherry operations.

An initial report from the management company faulted St.Clair and other top managers, but suggested they stay on the job.