Markey, Warren criticized
Father of state patient accuses senators of ignoring calls for justice
‘The state was really responsible for the actions against my son, and they should be held accountable.’
WILLIAM DAVIS father of patient Jason Davis who was beaten while under state care in 1993
The father of a man who was beaten by employees at a state mental institution is accusing U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren of neglecting his and his attorney’s calls for justice, saying the senators brushed them off after a 2018 meeting two decades into their quest for help.
“Justice for my son hasn’t been done,” William Davis told the Herald this week.
Davis’s son, Jason Davis, who had been diagnosed as schizoaffective along with other mental health issues, was a 28-year-old patient at Westboro State Hospital when he was severely beaten by workers there in 1993.
Unable to sue the state itself under federal civil rights law, his father successfully sued seven workers involved in the incident. A jury ruled in Davis’s favor in 1998, and appellate judges agreed. But the state fought tooth and nail, ultimately appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in 2002, according to court documents. Jason Davis died in 2004.
Yet two decades later, Davis’s lead attorney, Christopher Perry, says the defendants largely haven’t paid up — they claim in court documents they can’t afford it — and that the family is still owed more than $2 million. Efforts to make the state pay instead have failed on Beacon Hill.
Davis and Perry have turned to all corners for help seeking justice over the years — including the state’s two senators. In 2018, Perry took the Davis case to the offices of Warren and Markey, asking them to “stand with the Davis family to help them obtain justice” — side with them about the money owed in this case — and imploring them to move to change the federal civil rights law to allow states to be held civilly liable in future similar cases. Based on several decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence, states aren’t considered “persons” in lawsuits seeking damages, and therefore can’t be held liable in them.
After an initial meeting that April with staff from both senators at Warren’s Springfield office, Perry claims in documents that he was “shuffled off to a scheduling clerk” who “refused to return” his phone calls or emails. He says his followups were met with silence from both offices.
Markey’s and Warren’s offices issued nearly identical comments to the Herald this week, confirming they had met with Perry but providing little other detail.
A Markey aide wrote that “Jason Davis deserves justice and his family is owed their full settlement,” while a Warren aide wrote minutes later that “Jason Davis and his family deserve justice — including the full settlement they’re owed.”
Earlier this year, Perry and William Davis, who now lives in Pennsylvania, turned to U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III’s office for help and said they found a much more welcoming reception. Kennedy’s office confirmed the attorney had approached their office in the spring and that they are working with the House Judiciary Committee to identify solutions, including potential legislation, that would allow for greater accountability in the Davis case and others like it.
Davis told the Herald that he just wants justice for what happened to his son more than two decades ago — and to make sure nothing like this happens to another family.
“The state was really responsible for the actions against my son, and they should be held accountable,” Davis said this week. “Apparently they’re able to get away with whatever they want.”
Perry says both senators are at fault for failing to act. But he says the onus rests particularly on Markey, whose office he claims took the lead in the 2018 meeting.
The charge comes after two fathers in recent weeks accused Markey of failing to help their families seek justice. Danroy Henry Sr., the father of Danroy “D.J.” Henry, who was shot and killed by a cop in New York a decade ago, and Colin Bower, whose young sons were allegedly kidnapped by their mother, both went to Markey for aid and claimed his office failed to follow up. Henry Sr. is now openly supporting Kennedy’s challenge for Markey’s Senate seat.