Hospital balks at order to force-feed jail inmate

BANGOR – A Penobscot County Jail inmate who has refused to eat for more than two weeks was sent to a local hospital to be force-fed Friday evening as the result of a last-minute court order. But medical personnel at Eastern Maine Medical Center decided not to carry out the procedure, according to a law enforcement official.

James Emerson, 23, has lost more than 25 pounds – or 20 percent of his body weight – after eating only minimal food and water for at least the past 17 days. He is dehydrated, slowly losing blood pressure and at serious risk, Al Cichon, a physician’s assistant with Allied Resources for Correctional Health who examined Emerson, said Friday.

“He’s getting a little sluggish. When he stands up, he’s dizzy,” Cichon told Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead late Friday afternoon. “He’s right on the edge of the cliff with a strong wind behind.”

After a hearing in his chambers at the Penobscot County Courthouse, Mead issued an emergency temporary restraining order requiring that Emerson be fed, apparently setting a precedent in the state for the force-feeding of an inmate.

Emerson was taken to EMMC, but after being examined for several hours by medical personnel, he was scheduled to be sent back to the jail late Friday night without being force-fed.

“I was told [by an officer who accompanied Emerson to the hospital] that medical staff determined he has not met their criteria for the procedure,” said Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross, who said he would continue to press medical staff to feed the inmate.

“I’m going to have to run him back and forth to the ER every day until I get him some help,” Ross said at 11:20 p.m. Friday, after hearing of the hospital’s decision. “I don’t know all the legal and ethical considerations the medical people are facing, but I do know I have a legal obligation to take care of the inmates.”

Emergency room physician Dr. Niall McGarvey, whom Ross identified as the doctor attending to Emerson, declined to comment on the situation when reached by telephone, citing medical confidentiality.

EMMC spokeswoman Jill McDonald said hospitals, in general, perform procedures only with the permission of the patient.

“We are not parties to court orders; we are under a different set of obligations,” McDonald said late Friday night.

Emerson’s attorney, Dale Thistle of Newport, was not required to be notified of Friday’s emergency hearing and learned of the court order shortly after it was issued, he said Friday afternoon. He later said he was sure his client “is going to object to it.”

Thistle could not be reached for comment late Friday night.

Present for the hearing were Mead, Cichon, Ross and the sheriff’s attorneys, and Leonard Giambalvo, vice president and general counsel for EMMC.

Emerson has taken some water and eaten crackers since declaring the hunger strike, but has said he wants to die, according to Thistle. He has been at the jail since late April on charges of theft, burglary and probation violations.

Emerson was one of five people – including his younger brother, Joshua Emerson – charged with a burglary in Corinth on April 27. The burglary led investigators to a Bangor apartment where a methamphetamine laboratory was under development, authorities have said.

Several weeks ago, James Emerson was isolated in a holding cell after he allegedly threatened to harm corrections officers. The threat was an effort to get him transferred to the Maine State Prison in Warren.

In recent weeks, Emerson’s efforts to seek plea agreements on the charges ended as he realized that he faces eight or more years in prison, his attorney has said. Rather than seeking to expedite his sentencing, he decided he wanted to end his life.

Despite his wish to die, Emerson has been deemed mentally competent, Cichon said.

Emerson was expected to be fed through a nasogastric tube, a feeding tube inserted into the stomach by way of the nose.

“Maybe he’ll get a look at the N-G tube and have a ham sandwich,” Mead said during the hearing.

Before issuing Friday’s order, the judge weighed precedents from other states and the federal government involving the force-feeding of inmates, including background offered by the sheriff’s attorney, Charles Budd of Bangor.

Budd told the judge there was no precedent in Maine for a court to order such force-feedings.

The federal Bureau of Prisons legally can interrupt an inmate’s hunger strike after 72 hours, including ordering involuntary feeding, Budd pointed out.

Bringing a halt to Emerson’s hunger strike would demonstrate to other inmates that such displays will not interfere with the orderly administration of the jail, Budd told the judge.

Corrections officers have checked on Emerson every 15 minutes since he declared the hunger strike, and he has been visited by mental health professionals at least once a day, Ross said from the jail after Friday’s hearing. As a maximum-security inmate, Emerson will be guarded at the hospital by at least two officers at all times, the sheriff said earlier Friday.

Emerson was warned that the sheriff was seeking the court order and fully understands the potential consequences of his actions, Ross said.

“He knows what his options are,” the sheriff told the judge.