BANGOR, Maine — A District Court judge on Wednesday found a woman accused of setting her 77-year-old grandmother on fire nearly a year ago not guilty by reason of insanity.
Emily A. Cole, 27, of Ellsworth was committed to Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, according to Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County. Under state law, she will stay there indefinitely until staff decides she is well enough to be released.
Ernestine Cole, 77, suffered severe burns on her upper body from the attack, police said last May. She has recovered, according to Roberts.
The prosecutor and Seth Harrow, Cole’s Bangor attorney, both said the court’s decision not only was in the defendant’s best interest but what the victim desired as well.
“We could have gone forward to trial, but given her mental illness, borderline personality disorder, and, with input from the victim, we decided this was the best outcome,” Roberts said after District Court Judge Bruce Jordan issued his decision.
The long-term goal is for Cole to “once again assimilat[e] safely into society,” Harrow said after Wednesday’s hearing.
“This was a difficult case due to Ms. Cole’s history of mental illness and obviously the serious situation that occurred,” the attorney said. “This resolution was in the best interest of all involved in this matter. Her family, including her grandmother, supported this result.”
Cole was indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury for attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault after she doused her grandmother on May 17, 2011, with gasoline and set her on fire at the elderly woman’s Bangor home.
Jordan dismissed the attempted murder charge Wednesday.
Emily Cole had no prior criminal record, according to the State Bureau of Identification.
According to police, Ernestine Cole saw Emily Cole pouring gasoline on pine needles outside her grandparents’ home at 1601 Broadway. The younger woman threw gasoline on her grandmother and ignited it after the elder woman told her to stop.
Emily Cole also ripped the telephone off her grandparents’ kitchen wall.
She committed the crime because she was upset about a breakup with a female partner, according to court documents.
This is sad all the way around. I hope and pray for Mrs. Cole that ALL wounds heal, and that Emily does receive 100% of the help she needs, and someday is able to live in society safely and productive.
The law needs to be changed so people will be found guilty and placed in mental health hospitals if we have any left.
She is in a mental hospital and will remain ther
for a teeny amount of time. She will be cited
shoru and released.
She should be in prison and treated there.
there are far too many mentally ill people in the prisons already, getting NO treatment, they are just medicated and kept as calm as possible, the state closed most of the mental help hospitals so there aren’t enough to treat them all as it is. I would agree with prison if they had the facilities to treat the mental illness there, but that is not what they were designed for and there is no help for her (or any other mentally ill person) there
Very true, and when many states shut down the “State Hospitals” for fiscal reasons, we were left with the homeless, transients, and repeat offenders that everyone knows are ‘off’. Many are harmless, hopeless, or left behind.
I certainly don’t know the answer. :-(
Sadly, neither do I
While that may be true, I haven’t seen it be much different in a hospital. It is not my intention to sound cold or uncaring, but I really don’t think there is a fix for people with these problems or there wouldn’t be a need for mental hospitals, that are just another prison. Still no matter how sad you feel you about it, there’s no hospitals and no money and you can’t have people going around and setting people on fire or doing other such awful things.
Prison she wont get treated, i worked for a prison years ago, and the treatment that the prisoners get was horrible, yes they deserve it for doing the crime but guards were mean. I resigned after i went to the comissioner back then and told him about it, he said get used to it. I quit then and there, hopefully she will get what help she needs at riverview, she will be there at least six years
I don’t like it either, I also feel bad. I have spent my entire life around people who have had all sorts of issues from polio, to M.D. to mental illness but we are all at a place where insurance doesn’t want to cover, hospitals are gone, no one has money, lots of prison, new ones, don’t think that wasn’t a plan, so what to do?
6 years is not long enough for someone who doesn’t know what she did was wrong.
>>>>
Many years ago some distant cousin who is or was quite
alot older than me was at BMHI. She was just drugged
never got better, never got any real help and as gas as I
know still there or died. So maybe that’s no place
to be either. She was 13 when committed and would be about
70’s now. Even when I was 3 or 4 I know things weren’t
right with her there. Sadly all her care givers died
decades ago.
>>>>
are you kidding me right now?! i’ll agree that NON VIOLENT mentally ill offenders don’t need jail. HOWEVER this is an EXTREMELY VIOLENT CRIME there for she should most certainly recieve jail/prison time. it wasn’t a random act, it wasn’t a stranger she didn’t know. It was her FAMILY someone she LOVED. if she can do this to her own loved ones. whats gonna stop her fro doing it to someone she doesn’t know as a former firefighter who had a few MINOR burns while on the job, this is a HORENNDOUS amount of pain.
>>>>
i don’t care if the president of the united states spoke on behalf of her… she’s a danger to the public and there fore should be LOCKED UP. so when she gets out and get’s “angry” cause someone broke it off with her or god only knows why else, can we come back and blame the judge for being incompetent? we all know how well they keep dangerous offenders locked inside at dorthea dix…… NOT IMPRESSED FROM BANGOR =)
What is “well enough” and who makes that call? “she will stay there indefinitely until staff decides she is well enough to be released.” Maybe when the “staff” decides to let her go, she can stay at their house with their family…bet that would change the “well enough” decision.
>>>>>
no kidding Pensionerade–I copied and pasted from the story. but does it really matter? that chick is never gonna be “sane”, or safe for a community.
She wasn’t able to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions, so what purpose would it serve to throw her in prison? Prison is not an appropriate place for treating such severe mental disorders. In fact, prison would likely exacerbate the situation.
By the way, people committed to a mental hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity tend to stay longer behind locked doors than those sentenced to prison.
Apparently being in a mental home doesn’t work all that well. It’s my opinion if a person can’t control themselves, or unaware setting someone on fire is wrong they are far more dangerous then someone who plans it with a supposedly sane mind.
Mental hospitals are just another form of prison. I just don’t think there is help for people who do these sort of things. If there is why isn’t it being used?
$$$$$
My thoughts exactly.
At the heart of criminal law are the concepts that a person deliberately committed an act as charged and did so with a guilty mind. Without guilty intent — the understanding of the consequences of one’s actions while committing the act — there is no crime.
When she was first arrested, she was sent to Acadia. She was in the same unit as my brother. He asked me at a visit if I’d heard of anyone setting their grandmother on fire and I said, “yes, it’s all over the news” and asked why. He replied that at dinner she had come and sat with him and asked if he had heard of her and that she was the one who set her grandmother on fire. He said she said it very matter of factly as if it were an everyday event, which freaked him out.
We can only pray that when this young woman is released into society, she continues to take whatever medication is prescribed for her. There should never be another situation where a person has to fear grievous bodily injury because of her illness.
I hope the grandmother is recovering from her burns and the poor woman shouldn’t have to live in fear of a future confrontation with Ms. Cole.
“This resolution was in the best interest of all involved in this matter. Her family, including her grandmother, supported this result.”…. what about THE PUBLIC. sorry i understand she needs help, and i also understand that NO ONE wants to send their family to jail. however, with that said; this woman will be back on the streets in max 5 years ( probably considerably less). and shes already showed that shes not just a danger to her self but more so to others . . . what next?… STATE OF MAINE JUDICIAL SYSTEM NEEDS MORE THAN RESTRUCTURING. it needs to be knocked down and completely REBUILT . . i STRONGLY disagree with the states decission on this. . .
kind of funny how all my comments have been removed! Grow the hell up people!
Until staff think she is well enough to be released???
It’s sad that not more is done to hospitalize the mentally ill. I have a friend that has mental issues and I suspect he should be blue papered. But he keeps getting into trouble with the law and arrested. He is in and out of jail and prison while his mental problems go un treated. He’s often homeless and when he gets arrested he’s often been mistreated by the police (police brutality). People with mental illness don’t have a voice, they can’t speak for themselves. There is a lack of institutions and mental treatment facilities, not to mention a lack of PhD holders that can address serious mental illness. There needs to be more Psychotherapists and Psychiatrists, as well as Psychologists. But sadly they are short supply. We’ve mostly got regular counselors and social workers not trained in more serious problems. Also laws are way too leftist liberal these days to over compensate for mistreatment of patients back up to the 1970s. Today it is extremely hard to get someone hospitalized aka blue papered. They act like the seriously mentally ill are just going to walk into hospitals and check themselves in. Im not talking about the people that check themselves in suffering from depression or other problems but those that are seriously ill that are in denial of their problems and/or simply not aware of just how bad off they are. They fall through the cracks in our society, they are often mistaken for thugs or other criminals and end up in Prisons or Jail which in turn make them even worse from more abuse and punishments. More needs to be done. Also I noticed that in the Bangor area it’s hard to find a good PhD that accepts MaineCare. And a lot of people that do suffer from serious mental issues are unable to work to afford pay-healthcare. They are even lucky to obtain MaineCare which a lot of doctors don’t accept. It seems that a lot of PhDs are sick of the MaineCare office sending IOUs and on top of that seem to only want to help the rich and wealthy in the community. With Class-bias doctors and the lack of services, lack of money, and lack of understanding, it’s so sad to think that it’s 2012. Is this the future of mental healthcare that a lot of people envisioned 20 to 40 years ago?