CT psychiatric review board upholds transfer of woman who nearly killed Hartford cop
MIDDLETOWN — The state Psychiatric Security Review Board on Friday voted unanimously to uphold a decision to transfer a woman who stabbed a Hartford cop in the neck in 2018 from maximum-security Whiting Forensic Hospital to a less-secure setting.
Chevoughn Augustin will remain at the less-restrictive Dutcher unit, but with contingencies, according to Vanessa Cardella, the board’s executive director.
Augustin’s treatment team must notify the board if she receives privileges, Cardella said, and is required to immediately alert the board if she shows symptoms of psychosis or refuses to take her medicine.
The 5-0 vote came after a closed session and a public hearing during which medical staff from Whiting explained that Augustin, in their assessment, has been stable and ready for the transfer.
Cardella said she received an “unprecedented” number of emails asking for Augustin to be returned to Whiting.
During the hearing, board members, a prosecutor and public defender asked questions of the medical professionals, and former Hartford Police Officer Jill Kidik harshly criticized the decision to transfer her attacker.
“I lost everything because of her,” Kidik said, describing how she was injured physically and emotionally.
Eight doctors, psychologists and other professionals said Augustin has improved since the attack in May 2018, when she scored a 5 — the most acute level of mental illness — on a test. They said her thought process was “disorganized,” and she refused to take her medicine.
Dr. Alexander Westphal said Augustin was “withdrawn,” and “was creating all sorts of trouble with anyone who crossed paths with her.” She was particularly difficult when dealing with authority figures, he said. He said she in the past suffered some kind of trauma involving police.
Doctors adjusted her medication, and she improved, becoming “less guarded,” he said.
Last spring, Augustin was described by staff as “bright” and “engaging in treatment,” Westphal said. In fact, when a fellow patient punched her in the face in July, she handled it well, Westphal said. Instead of hitting the person back, she reported it to staff.
But later that week, she reported hearing a male voice singing in the middle of the night and asked for more medication, he said. There were no incidents to report since then, he said.
“So, for the last six months, there is nothing to report,” Westphal said. Dutcher is appropriate for her, he said, and “it is where she should be.”
However, board member Mark Kirschner questioned how well Augustin is if she reported auditory hallucinations in July.
“To me, that would indicate that she, psychiatrically, would not be stable,” Kirschner said.
Since Augustin was moved to Dutcher, a locked unit, on Jan. 5, she advanced one level out of six, with the last allowing the most freedom, staff said. The top level allows the patient to be alone on hospital grounds, they said. Each proposed level change they said is carefully assessed.
Augustin was moved under a new law that took effect in the fall and allows patients to be transferred with approval by hospital staff and medical professionals without a review board hearing. In the past, a hearing was required before any decisions were made to transfer a patient to a less-secure setting.
The new law, PA 22-45, is intended to generally improve conditions at Whiting for both patients and staff and includes new programs and construction as well.
Medical records show Augustin experienced hallucinations and paranoia and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to the Hartford Courant.
After a 2021 trial, Augustin was acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect of attempted murder and other charges. She was committed to the jurisdiction of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board for 38 years and confined to Whiting, the only state hospital for the criminally insane.
Augustin attacked Kidik with a knife from her kitchen drawer on May 17, 2018 after the Hartford police officer responded to her apartment during a landlord-tenant dispute. Workers at the Constitution Plaza apartment building rushed to her aid after the attack, as did Officer Alexander Ortolaza, who attended the hearing.
Kidik angrily accused medical staff of downplaying the injury to her neck by calling it a “laceration,” saying Augustin stabbed her repeatedly with an 8inch butcher knife, severing her trachea. As a result, one side of her throat is essentially paralyzed, making it impossible to swallow without choking or even to cry, she said.
“My trachea was cut in half,” she said.
Kidik, who still has a scar where Augustin clawed her tear duct at the beginning of the attack, also was stabbed in the shoulder, arm, elbow and hand, and still faces surgery.
Despite that, she said late Friday afternoon that she is happy with the board’s vote, as long as staff members follow the board’s conditions.