Houlton doctor gets jail time, community service

BANGOR – A Houlton physician was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 15 days in jail for assaulting a customs officer last year with a rock pick.

Dr. Henry John Fisk, 62, of Littleton also was sentenced to serve one year on supervised release after his release from jail. U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk ordered the surgeon to pay a $2,000 fine and to perform 600 hours of community service at a Washington County health clinic.

He will not begin serving his sentence until May 1 so he can cover for a staff member on medical leave at the East Grand Health Clinic in Danforth.

Kravchuk rejected a joint recommendation from federal prosecutors and defense attorney Richard Hartley of Bangor that Fisk serve no jail time.

“I’m really concerned that the court not minimize the seriousness of this offense,” Kravchuk told Fisk in sentencing him to jail time. “I too am a person who crosses the border regularly, and I understand the frustration.

“I have to impose some time of imprisonment,” she continued. “If I fail to impose any, I’m sending the wrong message to others crossing the border.”

Under the federal sentencing guidelines, Fisk faced between eight and 12 months in prison, a year of supervised release and a fine of between $2,000 and $20,000.

Fisk was arrested Sept. 16 after he threatened a border patrol agent with a rock pick when the agent directed him to a secondary inspection area. He was referred for a secondary inspection after he gave “evasive responses” to agents, according to court documents.

When the agent opened the driver’s door of the truck, Fisk reached down near his right foot, grabbed the pick and attempted to swing it at the officer. Officers drew their weapons on Fisk after he allegedly told the agent, “I’m going to take you out.”

In court Thursday, Fisk denied making that statement but apologized for his actions.

“I’m embarrassed to be here,” he said. “I apologize to the people at the border. I apologize for taking up your time. It was stupid what I did.”

Hartley said Thursday that the surgeon last year was working full time at both Houlton Regional Hospital and at Carlton Memorial Hospital in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada. His heavy work schedule may have contributed to but did not excuse his behavior at the border.

Fisk no longer works at the Houlton hospital, Hartley told the judge, but did return to working full time at the Canadian hospital after his bail conditions were revised last month to allow him to cross the border.

One of the bail conditions, set in September, did not allow Fisk to leave the state. That created a hardship for the Woodstock hospital, Dean Cummings, a spokesman for the River Valley Health Authority, told Kravchuk on Thursday. Between September and January, only one surgeon was available for on-call coverage at the hospital’s emergency room.

Because of the staffing shortage, Cummings has said, some emergency patients, including women in labor, had to travel to other hospitals.

Fisk will be allowed to serve his sentence at the Aroostook County Jail, Kravchuk ruled, rather than be sent out of state to a federal facility.

Although the physician’s attorney said Fisk was disappointed he would have to serve jail time, he felt the sentence was fair.

“We had obviously hoped the judge would accept our agreement with the government,” Hartley said after the sentencing hearing. “Dr. Fisk is disappointed the judge didn’t adopt that recommendation. On the other hand, he appreciates the fact that the court said a sentence within the guideline range was inappropriate.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Moore said after the sentencing that his office agreed with the judge that “this is a very unique case” that did not fit in the sentencing guideline range of eight to 12 months in federal prison.

“In light of the defendant’s conduct,” Moore said, “we thought a sentence as proposed was more appropriate and that it would be of benefit to the community and the public to order the doctor to provide his services to patients in an underserved area like Washington County.”