ROCKLAND, Maine — An inmate has filed a lawsuit against a guard who pepper-sprayed him while he was restrained in a chair at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Knox County Superior Court on behalf of Paul J. Schlosser III. Schlosser is suing Shawn Welch for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On June 10, 2012, Schlosser had been placed under watch in a special section of the correctional facility after his return from a hospital where he was treated for serious, self-inflicted wounds on his left arm, according to previously published news reports. Following prison practice, much of his time in that segregated unit was recorded on video because of the possibility it could lead to a situation requiring the use of force, Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte said in an interview last year.
During his time under special watch, Schlosser removed the dressing from his wounds. When he subsequently refused to go to the medical unit to have his wounds rebandaged, prison guards removed him from his cell, bound his arms and legs to a restraint chair and wheeled him to the medical unit.
Once there, Capt. Welch, the supervisor in charge, pepper-sprayed Schlosser from about 18 inches away after the inmate resisted prison guards trying to reposition him in the restraint chair, according to the previous reports.
An investigator who reviewed the case recommended Welch be fired.
Corrections officials initially agreed with the recommendation and drafted a termination letter for Welch. But Commissioner Ponte later spoke with the captain, who had worked with the department for 20 years, and decided to downgrade the punishment to a 30-day suspension, which Welch served in late August and September 2012.
Welch is the only defendant named in the lawsuit. Schlosser continues to suffer great emotional distress, mental anguish and embarrassment which will affect his ability to enjoy life, the lawsuit states.
Welch remains employed as a captain at the Maine Correctional Center. A message left for him at the facility Thursday was not returned.
Scott Fish, spokesman for the corrections department, said officials have not yet seen the lawsuit and have no comment.
Schlosser is being held now at the Maine State Prison in Warren for convictions of robbery, assault and theft. His sentences will keep him in prison until November 2017.
He is represented by attorney C. Donald Briggs III of Rockport.