Suit filed over shooting death of ill man

BANGOR – The sister of a Monmouth man shot dead two years ago in a confrontation with state police after he wielded a sword and struck a trooper has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

Maria Kaluzynski claims state police, a Monmouth police officer and staff at an area crisis outreach center were negligent and acted with deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of her brother, Jerzy Sidor. He died Dec. 29, 1999, after a state trooper shot him outside the home where Sidor lived with his mother.

Kaluzynski claims the actions of the troopers and medical staff at Crisis and Counseling Center in Augusta caused her to experience negligent and intentional emotional distress. Appointed the personal representative of her deceased brother’s estate, Kaluzynski seeks unspecified monetary damages plus interest and payment of costs and attorney’s fees.

Sidor, 34, was described as a paranoid schizophrenic in the lawsuit.

He was known to area mental health workers and law enforcement agencies.

Before shots were fired, Sidor reportedly walked toward several state police troopers in his yard, drew a sword from its sheath and struck one of them three times in the arm and shoulder. The trooper, Garfield Holmes, later was treated for cuts and welts. State Trooper Don Armstrong shot and killed Sidor.

Two weeks after the shooting, the Attorney General’s Office declared the shooting justified and said Armstrong “could reasonably believe that deadly force was necessary” in the confrontation.

The lawsuit names as defendants Armstrong, Holmes, state police Sgt. Peter Stewart, Monmouth police Officer Lynne Doucette and Barbara Kim and Dr. Neal Colan of the Crisis and Counseling Centers Inc., which is associated with the Kennebec Valley Mental Health Center in Augusta.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin is representing Armstrong, Holmes and Stewart. She filed a response to the lawsuit, which was entered on the court docket Jan. 24, basically denying the allegations.

“We’re sort of puzzled [about] what constitutional rights were violated,” in the matter, Robbin said Thursday.

Portland attorney Edward Benjamin is defending Monmouth police Officer Lynn Doucette. He was not available to take a telephone call on Thursday. Names of insurance company attorneys who will be defending Kim, a caseworker, and Dr. Colan were not available.

Calls over several days to Kaluzynski’s attorney, William Robitzek of Lewiston, were not returned.

The civil lawsuit details a longstanding awareness of Sidor on the part of law enforcement agencies and staff at the Crisis and Counseling Centers Inc.

Sometime in 1997 or 1998, Sidor “stopped taking his medications,” according to the lawsuit. He also ceased seeking care at the Kennebec Valley Mental Health Center “although his condition was clearly serious,” the lawsuit states. The local police communications center listed Sidor as “potentially violent” and “warned against any officer responding to any call there alone,” the lawsuit states.

On Dec. 26, 1998, Kaluzynski contacted the Crisis and Counseling Center and requested a psychiatric evaluation of her brother. She informed a staff member there that her brother had not eaten, slept or taken his medications for more than a week. A caseworker accompanied Kaluzynski to see Sidor but he became “agitated,” yelled in Polish and “chased the caseworker back to her car,” according to the lawsuit.

After Sidor’s sister called again for help, a plan was formed. In addition to the local police department, the Maine State Police were called for assistance.

It was decided the police would go in first and take Sidor into custody. Officials would “transport him to the Augusta General Hospital emergency room” where a caseworker and an interpreter would meet him, the lawsuit states.

Kaluzynski was called shortly after 3 p.m. and was told the police were headed to pick up her brother “and that she should refrain from [tending to] her brother at home or at the emergency room until notified. Mr. Sidor’s mother was not informed of any of these developments,” the lawsuit states.

At Sidor’s Wilson Pond Road residence, Troopers Armstrong and Holmes approached the back door of the house and encountered a dog on a chain. As they backed up, Holmes saw a person believed to be Sidor looking out the back window.

“This person came out the back door, waving a stick or object in his hand,” the lawsuit states.

The man “started yelling in a foreign language and waving a stick at the officers,” according to the lawsuit. The state troopers continued to back up although Armstrong pulled out his gun and “began yelling at the man, in English, to drop the stick,” the lawsuit states.

The man kept yelling and coming toward the state troopers and “pulled the stick apart, revealing the stick to be a sword of some sort in a scabbard,” the lawsuit states. He hit Holmes three times on the arm and shoulder.

“As the man swung his arm, Trooper Armstrong shot the man and continued shooting until the man, later identified as Mr. Sidor, lay dead,” the lawsuit states.

Sidor’s mother then rushed at the police, screaming in Polish. She was restrained.

Kaluzynski, who saw her dead brother lying on the ground, claims police and others “acted with deliberate and intentional disregard” to her brother’s interests and need better training to deal with people like her brother.

The lawsuit could be ready for trial within a year.