RALEIGH - The son of embattled mental hospital director Patsy Christian was hired twice last year to work at a facility she supervises, a possible violation of a state policy forbidding nepotism.

Christian, the director of the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner, is under investigation by the SBI about a portrait of herself that she commissioned and paid for with vending machine profits that were to be used to benefit patients.

Her son, Stephen G. Christian, 21, worked as a paid intern in the human resources office at John Umstead Hospital in Butner in summer 2007, state records show.

A college student, Christian was then hired Dec. 13 as a processing clerk in the hospital's medical records office and worked there until Jan. 10. The job paid $10.61 an hour.

The jobs were not advertised and no other candidates were interviewed, according to the state.

The elder Christian was the director at Umstead from 1993 to 2005, when she was named director of the new hospital under construction less than a mile away.

In her new position, Christian's duties were amended in August 2007 to include the supervision of Umstead and Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, which are to be closed when Central Regional opens.

The state manual mandating hiring procedures reads:

"Members of an immediate family shall not be employed within the same agency if such employment will result in one member supervising another member of the employee's immediate family, or if one member will occupy a position which has influence over another member's employment, promotion, salary administration or other related management or personnel considerations."

Patsy Christian declined requests for an interview.

Mark Van Sciver, spokesman for the the state Department of Health and Human Services, said no violation of hiring procedures occurred because Christian did not directly supervise her son. He was hired by Umstead's human resources office, which Van Sciver said reports to the central human resources office at departmental headquarters, not hospital administration.

Van Sciver said he did not know whether Patsy Christian spoke to those doing the hiring before they chose her son.

"He was a part-time employee," Van Sciver said. "He was not hired by Dr. Christian. At the time of the hire, she was not the director of John Umstead Hospital. Dr. Christian had no influence over the hiring of Stephen Christian."

Patsy Christian, who has a Ph.D. in education administration, exerts influence over Umstead even though she no longer holds the title of hospital director. The account she used to pay the $572 invoice for her portrait in November held money collected from the vending machines at Umstead.

DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton announced last week that the state money spent on the portrait would be recovered and that the painting would never hang at the new hospital.

Benton also requested that the SBI investigate whether Christian's hiring of an Umstead Hospital nurse to paint the portrait violated state laws forbidding state employees from receiving state contracts.

When an SBI investigation involving the actions of state employees is set in motion, those workers are often placed on involuntary leave until the inquiry is complete.

Margaret Jordan, spokeswoman for the Office of State Personnel, said the employee's supervisor has discretion about whether to place the employee on leave.

In an interview Friday, Benton said that he saw no reason to send Christian home and that she will continue to work as the investigation proceeds.

The hospitals Christian supervises have experienced a string of problems. Umstead has been under scrutiny from federal regulators since December, when investigators determined that administrators were failing to prevent violence involving patients and staff.

On Monday, the secretary announced that the opening of Central Regional would be delayed for a fourth time, citing concerns about insufficient staff training and efforts to address design flaws in the $120 million facility.

In public displays of discontent once unheard of, doctors, nurses and other Dix employees are protesting the move to the new hospital, raising concerns about poor planning by Christian and her management team.

Barbara Gardner, who retired as assistant director at Dix after 30 years at the hospital, said Christian should have known better than to let her son take the jobs.

"Patsy has always done whatever Patsy wants," Gardner said. "There are things that may not technically be against policy, but just don't feel right. This is probably one of those things. You would raise eyebrows as to favoritism and nepotism."

(News researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this story.)