AUGUSTA — A Riverview Psychiatric Center patient at the center of a pepper-spray incident at the state-run forensic hospital pleaded guilty Wednesday to assaulting a hospital worker.
Arlene M. Edson, 29, formerly of Biddeford, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for assaulting Susan Unangst on Dec. 11.
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Edson was committed to the custody of the commissioner of the Department of Health & Human Services in 2011 and placed at Riverview after being found not criminally responsible for arson and assault because of mental illness.
Assistant District Attorney Joelle Pratt described the Dec. 11 assault Wednesday to Justice Andrew Horton.
“Susan Unangst was standing at a desk in the common area when Edson came up behind her and hit her in the head a number of times,” Pratt said. “Edson said she’d continue to do it unless she got what she wanted.”
Pratt said staff at Riverview understood Edson’s remarks meant that she wanted to be placed at a Department of Corrections prison.
Edson, with short cropped hair and wearing an oversized orange jail uniform, answered the judge’s questions with clipped, one-word responses indicating she understood the rights she was waiving in order to plead guilty. Horton referenced Edson’s mental health diagnosis, and Edson’s attorney, Andrew Graham, said he believed that the state had enough evidence to prove her guilt.
In exchange for the assault plea, a charge of violating conditions of release from the same incident was dismissed. The sentence was jointly recommended by both attorneys.
Horton also told Edson and the attorneys that he is the judge overseeing the consent decree that governs standards for the state’s treatment of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.
Pratt said the prosecutor’s office had been in contact with Unangst as recently as Wednesday morning and that she did not specifically object to the sentencing recommendation.
“She did not want to be present,” Pratt said.
Unangst’s job at Riverview was not made clear at the court hearing.
The charge was listed as a felony because Edson has two previous assault convictions.
While Edson is serving the prison sentence, she remains on unsecured bail on several other assault charges, all listing Riverview employees as victims.
In a separate incident, state investigators found that Edson was pepper-sprayed while naked and left without treatment for hours at the hospital in December 2013, and her attorneys at Daniel G. Lilley Law Offices in Portland, have sent a notice of claim to the state, informing it of a potential lawsuit involving that incident.
The 92-bed hospital, which replaced the Augusta Mental Health Institute, has had a series of problems over the past year and a half, including a number of assaults by patients on nurses and mental health workers. So far, most of those have been prosecuted criminally, and the defendants are serving time in prison.
Corrections officers brought in to work at Riverview in response to a brutal assault by a patient on a mental health worker in March 2013 were replaced later with acuity specialists to monitor patient behavior.
The use of corrections officers caused federal regulators to review the hospital, which resulted in a loss of certification and eligibility for federal funds that amount to about $20 million a year.
After that, the state issued a conditional license to Riverview, part of which says, “The hospital staff will not use nor will they give permission to use weapons, including pepper spray and Tasers, in application of healthcare restraint or seclusion.”
In the meantime, the hospital has applied for recertification.
The state hospital houses patients who have gone through a civil commitment procedure where other hospitals act as gatekeepers as well as forensic patients who have been sent there under court order for evaluation, for restoration of competency and for treatment after being found not criminally responsible for various offenses.
Riverview Psychiatric Center Superintendent Jay Harper has said previously that the group of patients without a diagnosis who engage in criminal behavior, including intimidation of other patients, pose the most difficulty for the hospital staff.
The state recently opened a special mental health unit in the Maine State Prison, which sometimes can house people who cannot be held safely at Riverview.
Also sentenced Tuesday and Wednesday in Kennebec County Superior Court:
• Zachary Ryan Eaton, 25, of Oakland, domestic violence assault Nov. 1 in Oakland and violating condition of release Nov. 18; three-year jail sentence.
• Matthew R. Hopkins, 25, of Gardiner, operating under the influence Nov. 15 in Gardiner; $500 fine and 150-day license suspension.
• Steven V. Long, 47, of Mount Vernon, operating after habitual offender revocation and attaching false plates April 3 in Hallowell; 45-day jail sentence, $500 fine.
• Jason D. Ross, 40, of Sidney, domestic violence assault Nov. 25 in Hallowell, 365-day jail sentence, all suspended, and two years’ probation.
• Ashley N. Rideout, 27, of South China, four counts of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, three counts of violating conditions of release and one count each of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs and operating after suspension Nov. 21, 2013-Dec. 24, 2014, in Augusta, Gardiner, Waterville and Winthrop; four-year jail sentence, all but six months suspended, two years’ probation, $650 in fines and $265 restitution.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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