Inmate attempts suicide, remains in Bangor hospital

BANGOR – A Medway man with a criminal history dating back to 1977 remained Sunday in the critical care unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center after attempting suicide at Penobscot County Jail over the weekend.

Charles Leslie Mushero, 47, was found about 12:40 p.m. Saturday hanging from his cell door, his bedsheet tied around his neck, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said Saturday.

Guards who discovered Mushero on their regular 15-minute checks on inmates immediately administered CPR, Ross said. The jail nurse assisted in using a defibrillator to revive Mushero, he said.

Ross said there were no indications the man was considering taking his own life.

Mushero was brought into the jail on Wednesday, according to the sheriff.

The Medway man was indicted by a Penobscot County grand jury earlier this month on charges of burglary, theft, stealing drugs and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He was placed in the maximum-security section of the jail, where inmates are housed without cellmates, Ross said. The two other inmates in that cellblock were locked in their cells for disciplinary reasons and reportedly had no access to Mushero.

“From all I’ve seen and know of the situation,” the sheriff said, “it’s clear to me that the staff were doing their jobs and checks as they are required to do. That’s probably why he’s alive.”

A spokeswoman for EMMC said Sunday that she had no information on Mushero.

Ross, however, described the suicide attempt as “life-threatening.” He also said that Mushero was being guarded by a deputy while at the hospital.

Mushero’s was the first serious suicide attempt at the jail this year, according to Ross.

Jeffrey McKenney died in December four days after he hanged himself with a bedsheet at the Penobscot County Jail.

Earlier this month, Richard Prado, 34, of Brownville hanged himself with his bedsheet in Piscataquis County Jail.

Prado’s death was the first suicide this year in the state at a county jail and the first at the Piscataquis jail in 30 years.

“This underscores the problem we have in the county jails,” Ross said Saturday, “with drug problems and depression arriving on our doorsteps.

“Sometimes, we can see the signs, but in cases like [Mushero’s] where there are no warning signs – these are the ones that plague us all.”