CARIBOU — A Caribou woman is suing several Aroostook County Jail employees and the sheriff, alleging that her constitutional and civil rights were violated during her incarceration at the Houlton facility in 2009.
Brenda Klezos Wilkins alleges in the two-count lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor last month that her rights under the Fifth, Eighth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act were violated. She also alleges numerous violations under the Maine Civil Rights Act and Tort Claims Act.
Among the charges, Wilkins alleges use of excessive and unreasonable force, cruel and unusual punishment, invasion of privacy, willful and gross negligence causing severe mental and emotional distress and physical injury, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wanton and oppressive conduct.
As a result of the alleged actions, Wilkins states in the lawsuit, she suffered physical injury and continues to suffer severe mental and emotional distress and loss of life’s enjoyment.
She has requested a jury trial and is demanding punitive and compensatory damages and reasonable attorneys fees.
Doug Beaulieu, Aroostook County administrator, was frank Thursday when discussing the lawsuit.
“It has no merit,” he said. “All of the proper protocol was followed. She was provided with all of the services we could offer her. These are unfounded allegations.”
Named in the suit as defendants are Aroostook County Sheriff James Madore, James Foss, the jail administrator, and 12 other individuals who work at the jail as correctional officers, shift supervisors and a nurse at the facility.
Some of the defendants are only identified by their last names and two are called “John and Jane Doe.”
Although the alleged actions took place during her incarceration, Wilkins has named Madore and Foss as defendants because they were in supervisory positions over jail staff “and directly responsible for its administration.”
It is not clear from the court documents why Wilkins was incarcerated at the jail in January 2009.
The documents state that Wilkins’ sister died of a drug overdose the next month and that she was allowed to attend the funeral.
After the funeral, Wilkins, who suffers from bipolar disorder, alleges that she made approximately 20 requests to jail personnel for counseling and for her psychiatric medication. Wilkins claims that all of her requests were ignored.
People suffering from the disorder experience periods of overly joyful moods alternating with periods of profound depression, and the mood swings can often be very abrupt, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Wilkins states in the suit that after she attempted suicide in mid-February, she was put in the segregation unit. She alleges that she was stripped naked and left in full view of corrections officers in a control booth and that she was also seen by other inmates. She says that she was denied access to toilet paper, made to urinate and defecate into a hole in the floor and subsequently contracted a urinary tract infection.
Wilkins says some of the defendants laughed at her when she began banging her head against the cell door and demanding a gown. She says she kept banging her head until guards came in, handcuffed and shackled her and walked her naked to a nearby cell and strapped her into a restraint chair while also making “rude comments” to her.
Wilkins also says in the suit that the straps caused bruising and numbness that appeared after she was let out of the chair several hours later. She also says that the chair contained residue of pepper spray or something similar and that she got it in her eyes. She states that she was once again denied toilet paper or water to drink.
She was returned to her cell naked several hours later but given a blanket when visited by a mental health worker, according to the suit. Wilkins says in the documents that she was so upset that she told the worker she wanted to die. She says jail staff took the blanket away after the worker left and she spent the night naked in the cell, again exposed to guards in the control booth and other inmates. She alleges that staff “humiliated” her by watching her from the control booth or “walking by and staring at her.”
Wilkins says she was given a blanket when two mental health workers visited the next day. The blanket was again taken away after they left, but she says that staff complied with the workers’ orders to release her from segregation. She reports that when she was being transported back to her cell, several of the defendants, including a nurse at the jail, made fun of her physical appearance.
Because of overcrowding at the jail, inmates are sometimes transferred to jails in Somerset, York or Cumberland counties. Wilkins alleges that she was not given medication to treat her urinary tract infection until three days before being transferred to the York County Jail.
Wilkins claims that the defendants acted with “deliberate indifference” to her constitutional rights and as a direct result of being placed naked in the segregation unit and in the unclean restraint chair, she suffered “physical injury, mental and emotional distress, and humiliation.”
The suit states that Madore and Foss “developed and maintained policies and customs” regarding jail discipline and supervision of correctional officers “which exhibited deliberate indifference to the clearly established constitutional rights of incarcerated United States citizens.” The suit also claims that the correctional officers named as defendants knew that their behavior toward Wilkins would not result in any sanctions.
Andrews Campbell of Bowdoinham, one of Wilkins’ attorneys, said Wednesday that he could not recall why Wilkins was incarcerated, but said that she has “long ago” served her sentence and is back in Caribou. He said that not all of the defendants in the case have been served, so he has not yet received a response to the complaint.
“What they did to her was terrible,” he said. “She was stripped naked and put in a restraint chair in the basement of the jail in February [2009]. Her medical needs were not addressed and she suffered for it.”
He acknowledged that proving the case will be a “tough uphill battle.”
“I think that it is tough for any prisoner in the state to prove that they suffered unjust treatment in jail,” Campbell said.
Beaulieu, the Aroostook County administrator, said Thursday that he was not sure if the County’s attorney had seen the case and he could not comment on the specifics of it. But Beaulieu said that Aroostook County commissioners were informed last year that the complaint likely would translate into a lawsuit.
“We are talking about an inmate with mental health issues that was suicidal,” he said. “From what I have been told, we followed the proper protocol right to the letter. We helped this woman as best as we could. I believe that there are a lot of allegations made in this case that are just simply unfounded.”