Source and hat tip for spreading the awareness of this apparent murder to Patrick Tracey, author of "No Family Madder" blog.
From Patrick Tracey's blog entry, "Exposé Questions Death of Young Man":
Judge for yourself from this video showing the final moments of Joshua Messier’s 23 year-old life in state care.
After being restrained by all these big guards at Bridgewater State Hospital putting all their weight on him, you can see him turning blue and die.
Read for yourself today’s expose in the Boston Sunday Globe.
It begs the question: Was he killed by the state just for exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia?
As the video suggests, the man with diagnosed schizophrenia–the most severe mental illness dealt with in psychiatry–is having a psychotic episode, hearing voices, seeing visions, when state prison guards subdue him, hands and feet, in four-point restraint.
Ten minutes later, turning blue as his guards chat to each other beside him, he’s gone.
The explanation of the prison guards transcends belief. They know nothing about schizophrenia. They’ve had no meaningful training in mental health disorders. This at the state of Massachusetts’ prison for the mentally ill. (Despite its name, Bridgewater State Hospital is a medium-security prison.)
No Arrest, No Reprimand
The newspaper couldn’t get to the bottom of why no one has been arrested, prosecuted or even reprimanded.
Internal Affairs cited two guards for putting pressure on a restrained inmate’s back, but that was it.
Why? Because the state medical examiner called it homicide, then changed her mind.
Why? We don’t know that either. She wouldn’t respond to the Globe investigation either, but it’s highly unusual to have homicide listed as the
cause of death with no additional court action.
The video shows medics were called when Messier’s pulse had stopped, and not before a crowd of guards had been standing idly by, chatting as he lay dying.
In the surveillance video, two guards are also seen pushing down on his back as he sits in handcuffs and leg irons on the bed, crunching his chest toward his knees.
The practice, known as suitcasing, is banned in Massachusetts prisons because it can cause suffocation.
The medical examiner called in for the autopsy found his heart had stopped beating during the guards’ effort to strap him down, but she couldn’t say exactly when.
Her autopsy also found internal bleeding on Messier’s brain, and blunt force injuries to his neck, torso, arms, and legs, suggesting that he was beaten before he was dragged into cell 13.
In the Globe piece, the prosecutor who won’t call a grand jury to consider a manslaughter charge comes across as the final word on weakling. Either that or a law enforcement authority trying to protect fellow law enforcement authorities, almost as a professional courtesy.
The bizarre unwillingness of Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz to at least call a grand jury to decide if a trial is warranted is so unusual that it’s raising eyebrows.
Cruz claims the medical examiner told him she couldn’t tell exactly when Messier expired during the ten minutes that he was turning shades of blue in cell 13.
All righty, then. So when it comes to mental illness, it’s the age old story: Close the curtain and darken the room. Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along.
Read the rest of this blog entry HERE.
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