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Vermont Jail Guard Says Denial of Medication Led to Attack by Mentally Ill Inmate

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A Corrections guard attacked by a mentally ill inmate in 2005 is suing the company that provided health care services to prisons statewide at the time, alleging the firm denied the inmate prescription medications meant to control his penchant for violent outbursts.

The guard, Christopher Barrett of Newport, sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result of the attack by Daniel Heart, 46, of Whiting, and he has been unable to return to his job at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, where the attack occurred.

Heart was convicted of aggravated assault following the incident.

According to medical records made public as part of Barrett’s lawsuit in federal court in Burlington, Heart had complained several times before the attack to Prison Health Services staff about not receiving the drugs he needed to control his violent tendencies.

Heart’s medical records show he had told prison medical personnel in the past he “wanted to hurt others” and had “homicidal thoughts toward security guards.” Heart was serving a sentence at the time for killing a roommate in Whiting in 1996.

Barrett also is suing Dr. Paul Cotton, a provider of mental-health services to Vermont prisons at the time, in state court.

PHS, through its attorney Samuel Hoar of Burlington, has alleged there was no way to link its failure to give Heart his medication to Heart’s attack on Barrett.

“It is not reasonable to conclude that PHS could have or should have foreseen where, when or against whom his next assault would occur,” Hoar wrote in a Jan. 10 document filed at U.S. District Court in Burlington.

Feb. 19, however, the federal magistrate presiding over the pretrial phase of the lawsuit disagreed and threw out PHS’ request to dismiss the case.

“Given the overwhelming number of red flags in Heart’s medical file, along with PHS’s obligations, it was reasonably foreseeable that a failure to properly manage Heart’s mental health care and psychiatric medications would cause an attack on a corrections officer,” Magistrate John Conroy ruled.
Conroy’s decision could have bearing on the outcome of another dispute involving claims PHS failed to provide critical medications to an inmate who had asked for them repeatedly.

That inmate, Ashley Ellis, 23, of Castleton, was anorexic and died Aug. 16 while incarcerated at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town. The state’s chief medical examiner has said the denial of a potassium medication Ellis needed to address her eating disorder led to her death.

PHS announced it was ending its affiliation with the state shortly after the details of the Ellis case became public. Correct Care Solutions of Nashville, Tenn., took over inmate health care in Vermont on Feb. 1.

The Barrett case

According to Barrett’s lawsuit, Heart has a history of serious mental problems and assaultive behavior since his arrest and conviction on a manslaughter charge in connection with the fatal strangling of his roommate, Wayne Bannister, during a fight at their trailer in Whiting on June 11, 1995.

A review of his medical records show he was diagnosed with schizo-affective and borderline personality disorders, among other ailments, while in prison and was prescribed an array of psychotropic medications.

The drugs, however, did not stop his outbursts.

In 1997, a medical evaluation of Heart disclosed he had committed “multiple assaults on correctional staff.” He was accused of another assault on a guard in 2000, and, in 2003, he used a broom to attack an inmate while serving a portion of his sentence at a prison in Virginia.

“I have found myself erritibe, still having violent thoughts,” Heart wrote in one inmate medical intake form. “My thought pattern has been errashinal. And I still have times I want to hurt otheres.”

By 2004, when Heart was returned to Vermont, he was taking 10 medications. He was placed at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield and was in and out of solitary confinement in the months leading up to his transfer to the Newport prison, Corrections Department records show.

During his last month at Springfield and after his arrival Sept. 23, 2005, in Newport, PHS administration of Heart’s medication was inconsistent, according to his medical records: For 15 days beginning Aug. 31, 2005, PHS stopped giving him his psychotropic Zyprexa medication altogether.

The assault

The attack on Barrett took place in the cafeteria at the Newport facility on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 2005, an hour after PHS had cleared Heart to be among the prison’s general population.

The incident began when Barrett spoke to Heart as Heart was standing in a “chow line.” Barrett told Heart he could not wear a tank-top shirt in the cafeteria because regulations forbid it and asked him to go to his cell to change.

“Inmate Heart then poked Barrett in the chest advising that the chow line better still be open when he gets back,” Vermont State Police Det. Jason Letourneau wrote in a police affidavit.

“Barrett advised that as he addressed inmate Heart for poking him in the chest, the next thing he knew, he was being punched in the face,” the affidavit continued. “Barrett advised that the punches to his head and face caused pain (and) he did fall to the ground and remembered being hit but did not know if they were punches or if he was being kicked.”

Other guards jumped in to restrain Heart and told police later that Heart had punched and kicked Barrett. Heart is now back at the Springfield prison, which has a mental-health unit.

Barrett was hospitalized after the attack. His attorney, David Williams, said Barrett has not recovered fully from his injuries.

“He continues to suffer severe migraine headaches,” Williams said. “He’s suffered brain damage as a result of being hit so hard in the head. He’s had memory loss.”

Barrett’s injuries also have ended his work life. Williams said his client has been unable to handle several other jobs the state found for him and was finally laid off shortly before Christmas last year. Williams said he has advised Barrett not to comment on the case.
Hoar, the PHS lawyer, said he has a practice of not discussing pending cases.

According to a recording of the Jan. 28 hearing reviewed by the Free Press, Hoar contended PHS was not liable for what happened to Barrett.

“We dispute that he was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off,” Hoar said of Heart. “This was a general and diffuse threat at best.”

Hoar, under questioning by Conroy at the same hearing, also acknowledged that if convicted mass murderer Charles Manson had been an inmate in the Vermont prison system, PHS would have allowed Manson to mingle among other inmates without restrictions, as it did in Heart’s case.

Manson is serving a life term in California for his role in the murders of actress Sharon Tate and eight other people in 1969.

“Could Prison Health Services clear Charles Manson for general population with the understanding that it was up to Dr. Cotton to make the mental-health evaluation?” Conroy asked.

“Yes, because he would not have been within PHS’s purview,” Hoar answered.

Conroy, using the Manson scenario, pressed Hoar further.

“Your client wouldn’t simply medically clear Charles Manson,” Conroy said. “PHS was responsible for at least referring the inmate for mental health. Doesn’t PHS have a responsibility to go beyond just dispensing medication on an initial intake basis?”

“On an initial intake basis, yes, your honor,” Hoar answered. “On a transfer basis, no.”
The case remains active at Burlington’s federal courthouse. Prison Health Services has until March 8 to file objections to Conroy’s Feb. 19 order that allows the case to proceed.