Police: Man assaults officers during bad mushroom ‘trip’

Officers struggled to contain man.

LEOMINSTER » Originally called to Arlington Street on a report of 10 people fighting, officers instead found a man suffering from severe hallucinations after taking a “large amount” of psilocybin mushrooms who was attempting to jump from a second-floor window, according to police and court documents.

In the early morning hours of April 18, the first responding officer to the Arlington Street address was met by two men who told him that their friend, Michael J. Bernard, 21, of Cloverleaf Road, was having a bad trip on mushrooms and “is freaking out,” the reporting officer said.

The two men said several people had been trying to hold down Bernard, who police said was over 6 feet tall and weighed over 250 pounds, to keep him from jumping out the window, the officer reported.

The officer called for assistance and three other officers arrived minutes later and an ambulance was called, the officer reported.

When the officer entered a bedroom where Bernard was located, he saw two men lying on what was left of a bed frame struggling with Bernard, trying to hold him down, the officer reported.

Bernard was described as sweating heavily and bleeding from several open wounds, the officer reported.

Four officers then tried to get control of Bernard, while telling him everything would be all right and to calm down, the officer reported.

While trying to calm him

down, Bernard was yelling things “over and over again that made no sense” and it was apparent he was trying to jump from the window, the officer reported.

As the officers attempted to take control of Bernard, he began kicking them and thrashing around, the officer reported .

he officers finally got handcuffs on him, but he continued to kick at the officers, who then administered four stuns from a Taser over several minutes, each having no affect.

After biting one of the officer’s fingers, one officer, using his fist, struck Bernard on the chin and then the side of his face, the officer reported, adding that a use-of-force form would be filed to document the fist punches and Taser stuns.

Eventually Bernard became compliant and for a

moment agreed to go to the hospital for treatment, but then threw himself against a wall and fell down again, the officer reported.

First responders arrived and injected Bernard with a sedative, which did work to calm him down, and he was taken to the hospital, the officer reported.

As a result, Bernard was charged with three counts of assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery on ambulance personnel, disturbing the peace, and vandalizing property, according to court documents.

When arraigned in district court Friday, Bernard, who pleaded not guilty, was released on personal recognizance and ordered to return to court on Nov. 23.