Transfer OK’D for officer’s attacker
Psychiatric board upholds move despite outcry from victim
Despite outcry from a former Hartford police officer who nearly died in a vicious stabbing, the state board that oversees psychiatric commitments voted Friday to uphold the decision to transfer Jill Kidik’s attacker from the maximum-security Whiting Forensic Hospital to a unit with less security and more privileges for patients.
Kidik, a now-retired Hartford Police Department officer, sat before staff from Whiting and the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) on Friday and described the vicious wounds she suffered in 2018 when a woman she was trying to help attacked her with an eight-inch kitchen knife, slicing through her throat.
The knife ripped through her trachea, leaving a wound that State’s Attorney Vicki Melchiorre described Friday as “near decapitation.”
“I am broken because of her, because she cannot be responsible for herself,” said Kidik, who said she still has trouble swallowing even her own saliva and suffers from panic attacks.
Kidik’s frustrated, angry pleas to the board and hospital staff were heard at the end of an hourslong public hearing in which medical staff from Whiting told the board why they decided that Chevoughn Augustin, the woman who attacked Kidik, was moved earlier this month from the maximum security facility to the less secure, but still locked, facility called Dutcher.
Whiting Forensic Hospital, on the Connecticut Valley Hospital campus in Middletown, is the state’s only psychiatric hospital that provides inpatient services to people involved in the criminal justice system. People are sent to Whiting after they are found not guilty by reason of insanity — meaning they can’t be held legally liable for their crimes due to mental illness or defect but present a danger to the public. People who are found not guilty by reason of insanity are then committed to the custody of the PSRB, which oversees each patient’s case for the length of their commitment.
Friday’s hearing, requested by a state’s attorney, gave the board the opportunity to hear from medical staff who have treated Augustin and decided on her transfer and from Kidik herself. Augustin appeared in the hearing virtually.
After meeting privately following the hearing, the board ruled to uphold Augustin’s transfer to
Dutcher.
The board also requested that they receive an immediate notice if any of Augustin’s psychotic symptoms return or if she demonstrates any refusal to adhere to the medication that keeps her psychosis at bay.
They also requested that the board be immediately notified if Augustin receives any additional privileges. Right now, she is allowed to travel to the dining hall at Dutcher with staff supervision, medical staff said.
Augustin, who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia according to medical staff who spoke Friday, was committed to the custody of the board in August 2021. She was being held in Whiting, the most secure facility in the hospital system, until Jan. 5, when she was “stepped down” to Dutcher less than two years into her 38-year commitment.
Kidik called it a rushed process that left her fearful for her safety and the safety of her daughters. She said she was “completely in shock of how much no one at the hospital considered the victim.”
Historically, it has been the hospital’s procedure to hold a public hearing with medical staff, the board, members of the public and victims prior to making a decision about whether a patient can move to a lesser security facility like Dutcher, where they’ll have more freedoms to move about the facility, including access to the dining hall. They may also be granted freedom to roam the hospital’s grounds — which aren’t fenced in — or even go into the community with staff member supervision.
Under a new law that went into effect last October, medical teams at Whiting are now able to make that decision on their own. They can decide, through a thorough review process, that a patient is eligible for a step down without a public hearing. They’re required to alert the PSRB within 48 hours of the transfer and, after that, attorneys can request a public hearing where victims have an opportunity to speak.
Kidik said she was horrified that her feelings were not considered as part of the process. Though the hospital did notify the PSRB of Augstin’s transfer on Dec. 22, 2022, well before her Jan. 5 transfer to Dutcher, Kidik wasn’t made aware of the move until Jan. 9, she said.
Kidik described the attack she endured when she responded to what was supposed to be a standard landlord-tenant dispute. Augustin lunged at her, she said, and dragged her by her hair to a kitchen drawer that she rifled through to find an eight-inch kitchen knife. She plunged the knife into Kidik’s throat and the back of her neck, causing multiple stab wounds that severed Kidik’s trachea and caused life-altering wounds that nearly killed her.
“I should be dead, but I am not,” she said Friday. “And I am going to be here at every hearing. She has no business being rushed along at 14-16 months [into her commitment].”
Kidik was saved by the help of two maintenance workers at Augustin’s downtown apartment. One of the workers attended the hearing but did not speak.
Kidik said that one of the workers held her throat together to keep her from losing any more blood as they waited for an ambulance.
For hours before Kidik spoke, medical staff discussed Augustin’s treatment in great detail, walking the board through her diagnoses, her medications, her treatment plan, the groups she attends, her compliance with medication, how her symptoms have lessened, what roles she has stepped into within the hospital and how she has responded to any stressful situations while committed, including a calm response to hospital staff telling her she could not finish watching a football game.
Consulting Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Westphal said he has met with Augustin multiple times, including since she was transferred to Dutcher.
When she first arrived at Whiting, Westphal said Augustin was experiencing negative symptoms of psychosis and was prone to acting aggressively toward authority figures like police officers when off her medication because she had trouble processing their intentions and actions due to paranoia and delusions.
Westphal said, however, that while complying with her medications Augustin’s condition was steadily improving.
Over the past six months, Westphal said none of her behavior had been concerning. He added that she had been polite and cooperative and got along with staff and peers.
Westphal said he hadn’t seen any changes since she moved to Dutcher other than her appearing “a bit brighter” than when he saw her in maximum security.
He also said that Augustin had displayed “genuine remorse” for the attack, a point that Kidik argued when she spoke. She said that she wished Augustin had come to the hearing in person to show her that she had improved.
“She is a horrendously violent person who implored the board to move her back to maximum security,” said Kidik. “You cannot risk society’s well-being.”
One member of the PSRB asked hospital staff if they could have waited to hear from Kidik to have a hearing before the board before they moved Augustin. Staff countered that under the new law, they aren’t required to, and said that having the hearings after a patient has stepped down also allows the board to consider how that patient has handled the step down to lesser security.
Dr. Reena Kapoor, Chief of Forensic Services at Whiting, said that she recognized how hard such a transfer would be for a victim to accept.
“This is a very difficult process for victims, and each step that a patient takes forward is retraumatizing for the victim,” she said. “At the same time, our obligation is to take care of the patient, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Kapoor said that their mandate is to put patients “in the least restrictive environment where her risk can be managed.”
Mary Kate Mason, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said that at Dutcher, patients are still locked in a unit and any privileges they may earn are carefully considered and reviewed.
“Our treatment teams are very committed to making sure that our patients recover in the safest possible way,” Mason said.
Kidik said that it felt like Augustin’s best interest was being considered “at the risk of deteriorating my well-being and mental health.”