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Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by former Riverview worker assaulted by an inmate with a pen

Bangor Daily News (ME) - 1/31/2015

Jan. 31--BANGOR, Maine -- A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by a former mental health worker at Riverview Psychiatric Center who was assaulted and stabbed with a pen by a patient when she was pregnant.

U.S. District Judge George Singal said in his opinion issued Thursday that her attacker, not the state, created the danger.

Jamie Hill-Spotswood of Augusta claimed the state failed to protect her after she expressed concerns about her safety during the pregnancy while employed by the facility in 2013, according to court documents.

She was 18 weeks pregnant on March 16, 2013, when she was stabbed several times in the head and hands by Mark Murphy, a patient at the Augusta psychiatric hospital, who had been diagnosed with a range of mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder with psychosis, according to a previously published report.

Hill-Spotswood alleged that staff at Riverview intentionally kept from her and other employees information about how dangerous the job might be and the violent criminal history of the man who attacked her.

"Mere awareness by the government of the danger posed by a private individual is not sufficient to amount to a due process violation," Singal wrote in his 11-page decision. "[Riverview's] actions did not deprive Hill-Spotswood of the liberty to act on her own behalf."

Hill-Spotswood's attorney, Michael Waxman of Portland, said the decision would be appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

"Riverview deprived her of the right to make an informed decision about whether to work in a remarkably dangerous environment and expose her unborn child to that level of risk," Waxman said Friday in an email. "[Riverview] placed her in an incredibly dangerous place without giving her information about the population of inmates with whom she would be dealing.

"Since she had no clue about how dangerous people like Murphy were, she had no opportunity to make an informed decision not to work in that environment, not to expose herself and her baby in utero to that risk," he continued. "Placing Ms. Spotswood in this unit without notifying her of the dangers to which she would be exposed is like placing a nurse in an infectious diseases ward including Ebola patients, but failing to inform her that Ebola was in the ward. In both cases, grave harm would be the only likely result."

Waxman said Hill-Spotswood gave birth to a healthy baby but continues to suffer the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the attack. Information about when she resigned from Riverview was not available late Friday.

Robert "Jay" Harper, superintendent at Riverview, said in a statement issued Friday the judge understood that physical confrontations with patients are an unfortunate part of the job.

"Patient assaults on staff are, in every instance, unfortunate," Harper said. "When a staff member is injured, it is felt by the whole institution. It is very regrettable but part of the work we do involves dealing with individuals who occasionally assault staff. The current court ruling recognizes the reality of this work."

Hill-Spotswood in May sued her supervisors, the Department of Health and Human Services and its commissioner, Mary Mayhew, in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The hospital is run by DHHS.

Murphy, 49, was convicted in January 2014 following a jury-waived trial in Kennebec County Superior Court of elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault in connection with the attack on Hill-Spotswood. Superior Court Justice Donald Marden found that it was anger over lost privileges -- not delusion -- that caused him to attack Hill-Spotswood.

Murphy was sentenced to 15 years in prison with all but 10 suspended. He is due to be released from the Maine State Prison in March 2021, according to information on the Maine Department of Correction's website.

The assault on Hill-Spotswood triggered new security protocols at Riverview, including the placement of law enforcement officers within the hospital.

A subsequent investigation by the federal government led to the hospital losing its accreditation because of overcrowding, inadequate staff and the use of methods such as handcuffs and Tasers to subdue violent patients, according to a previously published report.

The loss of accreditation, which was restored last February, led to a reduction of $20 million in federal funding, and became a political football during the last legislative session. A supplemental budget approved by the Legislature in April 2014 earmarked $900,000 for security at Riverview and Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor.

BDN writer Mario Moretto contributed to this report.

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