Psychiatrist testifies in prison suicide lawsuit

BANGOR – A consulting psychiatrist with the Maine State Prison testified Wednesday he was going to try to get psychotic prisoner Ronald Pelletier committed to the Augusta Mental Health Institute in the weeks before the inmate committed suicide. Yet, Dr. Michael Tofani said the behavior Pelletier exhibited in the hours before his death might not necessarily have alarmed guards enough to place him in a high-security mental ward at the prison.

Pelletier, 30, hanged himself with a belt on Oct. 3, 1998. Guards found him dangling from cell bars in the prison’s Mental Health Stabilization Unit.

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Pelletier was serving a five-year prison term after an arson conviction. He was tormented by voices that only he heard, and was considered one of the sickest inmates in the prison’s mental ward, according to Tofani. Yet, Pelletier sometimes “cycled” through an upbeat mood as was the case the third week of September 1998, causing Tofani to “hold off” on the often frustrating, often futile process of getting a prison inmate involuntarily committed to AMHI, he said.

The dead man’s father, Donald Pelletier of Auburn, is suing former guards Alan Bartlett, Jason Stewart and clinical director Paul Lipman, claiming the defendants were “deliberately indifferent” to his son’s safety by failing to make regular cell checks and by failing to prevent him from killing himself, among other allegations.

A second similar lawsuit soon will be filed at Kennebec County Superior Court. A notice of claim was filed Monday by Augusta attorney Walter McKee for the mother of Jason Rozell, 24, who hanged himself April 8 at the Kennebec County Jail.

In the Pelletier suit, eight other defendants have been dismissed from the case on motions by the state.

Donald Pelletier seeks undisclosed punitive damages.

His wife, Judy Pelletier, the dead man’s mother, testified Monday and is sitting by her husband at the trial at U.S. District Court.

Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk is presiding.

The state, represented by Assistant Attorney General Susan Sparaco, denies the allegations.

On Wednesday, Tofani explained the complexity of Pelletier’s illness. The man was constantly frightened and convinced people were out to hurt him or plotting against him, according to Tofani. Nurse Cecelia Blake said he often talked about wanting to die.

The choice between placing him in an acute unit, naked and with nothing to occupy his time, was balanced against the decision to “treat him as humanely as possible” by keeping him clothed and in the stabilization unit. That decision carried a risk, Tofani said.

Defendants Bartlett and Stewart gave graphic testimony on Pelletier’s last hours.

Angered by an early lockdown, which meant prisoners had to be put in their cells earlier than usual, Pelletier had yelled at a guard and banged cell bars. No note was made of his behavior in the prison log. He received a supper meal at 3 p.m. and then was ordered into his cell.

Bartlett said that after 4 p.m. he heard someone rattling the cell bars and went down to check. He talked to Pelletier and, under intense questioning from attorney Tyler Kolle of Lewiston, admitted Pelletier had mentioned the return of voices in his head. Pelletier calmed down, and Bartlett left the area. Within a half-hour, Stewart discovered Pelletier had hanged himself. He yelled for help and tried to support the limp man’s weight. Bartlett ran to the area and climbed the cell bars, trying to free Pelletier from the belt while Stewart got a knife to cut it.

Pelletier was placed in a hallway and CPR was started. Eventually “they took him away,” Bartlett testified.

The trial continues Thursday.