AUGUSTA — A patient at Riverview Psychiatric Center has been charged with attacking three mental health workers in recent weeks, including hitting one so hard he ruptured her eardrum.
Ismail Mohamed Awad, 25, who is from the Portland area, had an initial court hearing Friday via video from the Kennebec County jail on charges of aggravated assault and assault. He is accused of attacking mental health workers at the hospital on Oct. 1, Oct. 7 and Oct. 14. The latest attack resulted in a charge of aggravated assault.
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In the complaint filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, Awad is accused of causing serious bodily injury to Rayanne Vigue, 43, of Augusta, at the hospital on Tuesday.
“I got hit from the side,” Vigue said in a phone interview Friday. “For the first 30 seconds, I was kind of like in shock. I felt a little dizzy, then I had a ringing in my ear. It immediately stopped, and then I couldn’t hear.”
Vigue said she suffered a tear in her right eardrum and is still in pain.
At the hearing, Awad repeatedly begged Judge Valerie Stanfill at first to let him plead guilty and be freed on probation and later to place him in a mental institution.
“Can I got back to a mental institution?” Awad asked. “Please, please, I cannot do jail time.”
He told the judge he had a mental illness and had spent time at various psychiatric hospitals, including Spring Harbor and Riverview in Maine and several years at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts, which handles patients who are accused of a crime.
“My body’s hesitating, my body’s shaking,” he said. “I cannot do jail time. My body will fall apart.”
The three alleged attacks at Riverview involving Awad are the latest in a series of attacks on people who work at the hospital. The most high profile attack occurred in March 2013 when patient Mark P. Murphy first apologized and then attacked Jamie Hill-Spotswood, a mental health worker, beating her in the head and leaving her with a pen point embedded in her hand.
A year later, two patients admitted threatening to harm workers at Riverview.
Charges remain pending against another man, Frank Stewart, who is accused of attacking a nurse with a chair in August, causing serious injuries to her face and eye.
The beleaguered state hospital lost its eligibility for federal funding, which supplied about $20 million a year, amid growing criticism of safety and operations there.
Assistant District Attorney David Spencer said Friday that Awad was placed at Riverview after being found incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case.
An affidavit by Capitol Police Officer Jeffrey Belanger, which was filed in court in Augusta in connection with the assault charges, says the assaults were reported to the police on Tuesday by Riverview’s chief financial officer, David Lovejoy.
“David stated that client Ismail Awad, without warning struck all three mental health workers while they were working shifts on the Lower Saco (Special Care Unit),” Belanger wrote.
One worker, Brandon Lewis, told police he was punched in the right eye without warning by Awad, who had been “agitated and pacing back and forth in the hallway” on Oct. 1.
In the Oct. 7 incident, workers told police Awad again appeared agitated. The victim, Shelby Moreau, “was standing approximately eight feet away from Ismail directing him to clear his room so housekeeping could come in; he charged her swinging his arms and striking her in the arm and head area,” Belanger wrote.
Moreau also witnessed the Tuesday incident. She told police she was standing at the nurse’s unit while coworker Vigue was doing rounds. “Ismail walked up from behind Rayanne and swung his arm, striking her in her right ear causing a ruptured eardrum,” the affidavit said.
Vigue, whose title is a mental health worker manager, said, “In the 10 years I’ve worked there, I’ve never gotten hit like that.”
In fact, it’s the second time she’s been hurt as a result of a patient’s action, she said.
“Three or four weeks ago, a client charged a nurse while trying to escape,” she said. “He knows the back door is there to get out of the building. They both flew into a half door.”
She was struck in the hand and required 10 stitches in her finger.
The psychological piece is the biggest part,” Vigue said. “Two major assaults in the whole 10 years I’ve been there. Is it time for me to move on? Is there not enough help? We do as much as we can do with the resources we have.”
She said she has helped a number of people.
“I have good rapport with a lot of clients,” she said. “I am very good at what I do. I help so many. I’ve never had a client even get angry at me. It’s a lack of resources, a lack of funding and treatment, and what we are capable of handling from the violent individuals.”
Belanger wrote that he watched recordings of the three incidents and concluded, “It is clear that client Ismail Awad is being selective when he is going to attack mental health workers and he appears to do this when they are off guard.”
The affidavit also says that the hospital’s medical director and a physician’s assistant, who are working with Awad on a clinical diagnosis, reviewed the same footage and indicated that their medical opinion was “it does not appear the Ismail assaultive behavior towards clients and staff was caused by a psychotic disease. They both indicated that it was clear on the video that the client was choosing targets who were females and smaller, slower moving clients or peers.”
The complaint describes Awad as 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighing120 pounds. On the video monitor, however, he appeared to be taller and heavier. He wore a white T-shirt rather than the usual orange or green jail uniform, and he was handcuffed during the hearing.
His case was the last one handled Friday. Corrections officers told the judge that the hearing room at the jail had to be emptied of other inmates before Awad could be brought in. He was escorted to the room by three guards, and one remained several feet behind him as Campbell advised Awad of his rights.
Stanfill set bail at $3,000 with a condition that bans Awad from returning to Riverview.
“Riverview simply can’t handle this individual,” Spencer told her.
Stanfill was reluctant to impose that condition.
“My concern is that Riverview might be the hospital of last resort,” she told Spencer.
Spencer said the jail has placed other inmates in the special mental health unit at the Maine State Prison in Warren. “That has been very successful,” he said.
Awad has previous criminal convictions in Portland, and on Sept. 9, Justice Roland Cole in Portland found Awad incompetent to stand trial on four charges: two of theft, and one each of burglary and trafficking in cocaine. Awad was placed in the custody of the Commissioner of the Department of Health & Human Services and sent to Riverview for restoration of competency. The court order says Awad would be held there for 30 days, and that deadline could be extended.
“My hands are very weak,” Awad told Stanfill, frequently speaking over the words of attorney Andrews Campbell, one of two defense attorneys serving as lawyer of the day on Friday. “I would like to go back to a mental institution. I have nobody. I have no house. I have nothing.”
He said the attacks on the workers were a result of his medication.
“I was overmedicated, and I would like to say sorry,” he said.
Awad said in the past he has lived at the Portland shelter operated by Preble Street.
Stanfill appointed attorney Lisa Whittier to represent Awad on the assault charges and scheduled his next hearing for 10 a.m. Dec. 16 in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Portland Press Herald reporter Scott Dolan contributed to this story.
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