State agrees to pay $9 million to settle psychiatric hospital abuse lawsuit
BRIDGEPORT– The state Department Connecticut of Mental Health and Addiction Services Thursday agreed to pay $9 million to the family of a man who was abused at a state-run psychiatric facility.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis approved the $9 million settlement of a 2018 lawsuit stemming from the abuse of William H. Shehadi, Jr., a profoundly mentally ill man, who nurses and other staff at the Whiting Forensic Hospital regularly kicked, hit, and psychologically tortured for years, the state states.
An additional undisclosed sum was paid by the Whiting chief of patient care services, whose employment at Whiting was terminated for her role in the abuse.
The state legislature had previously approved the settlement.
“Our goal in bringing these lawsuits was to hold abusers and state officials accountable for the torture of a profoundly vulnerable human being who depended upon them for treatment and care,” said Shehadi’s attorney, Antonio Ponvert III of the Bridgeport-based firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. “No person is above the law, especially those who are responsible for our most helpless citizens.”
State officials did not immediately respond to emails for comment on the settlement.
Ponvert said more than 50 incidents of abuse over 24 days were captured on video, including a male nurse gyrating his groin on Shehadi’s face, individuals dousing him with liquids, throwing food at him, and forcing him to wear a diaper on his head.
Under the terms of the settlement the state also agreed not to collect more than $8 million Shehadi owed for the cost of his nearly 30 years in state custody. In addition, the state agreed to substantial injunctive relief, including constant video monitoring for the remainder of Shehadi’s time at Whiting.
Defendants in the lawsuit included the State of Connecticut, state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the commissioner of DMHAS and 11 Whiting administrators and supervisory level employees. The lawsuit claimed violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Connecticut Patients’ Bill of Rights.
A second lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, sued the Whiting forensic nurses and treatment specialists.
Almost 40 Whiting employees were fired for their role in the abuse scandal. Ten staff were arrested, nine staff were convicted and eight were sentenced to prison. Nurse Mark Cusson was found guilty by jury of three felony counts of cruelty to persons and five counts of disorderly conduct. Cusson is still serving his multi-year term in state prison.
“Let this case be an example to all mental health workers in Connecticut and across the nation,” Ponvert said. “Our laws and our nation’s Constitution protect ill and vulnerable people, people in custody, the weakest among us. Violate your sacred duty toward your fellow human beings, and you will go to jail. You will forever be known as a sadistic monster.”
Albert Shehadi, Bill Shehadi’s brother and legal conservator, said, “It is hard to comprehend the level of systemic failure that allowed someone so incapacitated to be so brutally abused so openly for so long.”