Who Cares About Howard Hyde?
by Greg
June 4, 2011
My opinion of the justice system is not a very favourable one. In my life I have
followed several legal trials, every single one of them resulting in what I felt
was a serious lack of justice. I have known at least two good policemen who were
friends of the family and who each believed that “two out of three judges are
corrupt”. Almost all of the church ministers that I knew of had been brought up
on charges of child molestation at one point or another, in every single case
being found innocent by the judge.
Authority blindly respects, and protects, authority. There is a certain “Us VS
Them” mentality in the justice system, of the establishment looking after itself
and trying to save face collectively against anyone who casts a shadow of doubt
over its prideful image. As we all know, appearances are often deceptive. The
best way to judge whether or not a system is working for us, the People, is to
look at the facts. The case of Howard Hyde is just one example among many, but
one of concern for Nova Scotians as it has been mainstream news.
Howard Hyde
Hyde was arrested by two Halifax regional policemen after a civil disturbance in
2007. The attending officers were
Special Const. Greg McCormick and HRP Const. Jonathan Edwards. They were unaware
that Hyde was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was off his medication
at the time of the arrest. In attempting to subdue Hyde, he was Taserered by the
policemen a total of five times and they restrained him. Video cameras at the station
caught one of the men saying: “you’re going to do the f***ing dance next,
Howard.” Obliviously, this suggests that they used intimidation to control him.
On the second day, Mr. Hyde reacted to a threat made by a jail guard to have one
of his testicles cut off. Mr. Hyde reacted in fear, to escape. The officers
attempted to restrain him. Mr. Hyde died during his time in custody. This began a
long and difficult investigation, sparking questions of his physical treatment
by the police, the overuse of Tasers and theories of his mental illness somehow
being to blame for his death.
Special Const.
Greg McCormick
McCormick, who had Tasered Hyde, eventually admitted in court to copying
portions of his report from Edwards’. This was in contrast to his previous
testimony. Lying in court is called perjury and is a crime. It is most serious
when it comes from a member of the RCMP. Also when you take threats into
account, and physical treatment of him involving death, you’d think it would be
a pretty open-and-shut case. When it involves the authorities it’s a completely
different story. And what’s more, I doubt this surprises you.
His widow, Karen Ellet, stressed to the media that Mr. Hyde was not aware of his
actions. That, while off his medication, he reacted in a state of terror to the
police and especially with the introduction of Tasers. Mr. Hyde had been Tasered
by officers two years prior to this event, and it had made a lasting impression
on him. She stressed that he was a good man, but not himself when off of his
medication, when he assaulted her the night the police were called to their
home.
Karen Ellet
He was 45-years-old, a local musician who was well-liked. And that is how she
wants the People to remember him.
Late last year, provincial court Judge Anne Derrick released a fatality inquiry
report that Tasering was not the cause of Hyde’s death, but the restraint used
against him combined with a rapidly deteriorating mental state. Her report
speaks of intellectual honesty and so I conclude that she at least had a
dedication to the truth.
When we examine the autopsy, we can clearly see why she was unable to declare a
particular reason for Mr. Hyde’s death.
Dr. Martin Bullock noticed multiple blunt force injuries on Mr. Hyde’s face,
ears and scalp. He also found bruises on his neck and jaw, and a superficial
laceration on the lining of his right upper lip. He also found hemorrhages on
his neck (evidence of possible pressure applied to his neck.) He also found
bruising and abrasions on Mr. Hyde’s torso and abdomen. Also, multiple rib
fractures, which he assumed were due to CPR. He identified bruising and
abrasions on his back, hands, wrists, arms and legs. He found three “pattern
wounds” on his upper back due to CEW probes. They were “burn-like”, consistent
with Tasering.
Dr. Matthew Bowes, Chief Medical Examiner of the province of Nova Scotia,
stated: “...excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia. Atherosclerotic
coronary artery disease, obesity and restraint are contributing factors.” The
inquiry report mentions that this is the second or third time that Dr. Bowes
concluded that the cause of death was due to “excited delirium”.
It seems obvious here that attempts have been made to suggest that Hyde was in
some way responsible for his own death, due to his excited state and his weight.
The death may very well be accidental (unintended), but the question here is
whether or not excessive force was used. No comment on this possibility seems
noted at all.
Since the inquiry determined that Tasers did not result in death in this case,
then obviously it is the physical force used by policemen in dealing with
suspects that must be brought into question here, not Tasering.
Dr. Bowes continues: “...I conclude that it is reasonable to consider restraint
as a contributing factor in his death, but I cannot qualify the role that it may
have played. I also conclude that it is reasonable to consider atherosclerotic
coronary artery disease and obesity as having contributed to his death.”
No doubt that if he had discovered evidence of mild asthma, blood pressure
problems or weak muscles these also would have been given as contributing
factors in his death. What about air quality? Maybe he swallowed a moff ball and
that was also a contributing factor.
Dr. John Butt, a forensic pathologist, attributed Mr. Hyde’s death to “an
agitated state related to chronic schizophrenia...associated with (the)
restraint issue.” He sounds confused with his own assessment as he continues
that the cause of death was “agitated behaviour associated with restraint” with
the underlying cause being chronic schizophrenia.
According to Dr. Butt (a name which I deem most appropriate for him,) Mr. Hyde
died due to his excitability, not the restraint placed on him due to his
excitability. If taken literally, this would mean that Mr. Hyde accidentally
killed himself by resisting restraint. This would be the equivalent of an
over-excited dog strangling itself to death on its own leash, or a patient
struggling against restraining straps in a medical bed to the point where he
dies from over-exhaustion. According to Dr. Butt, not only was no excessive
force used, but the very act of using restraint was not the main factor in the
detainee’s death.
Derrick’s findings do admit that excited delirium was not the cause of Mr.
Hyde’s death. There has been much controversy over whether or not such a state
even exists. It is not recognized in reliable psychiatric literature, nor is it
listed as a cause of death in the International Statistical Classification for
Diseases (ICD.) Dr. Bowles suggested that he might classify the death of Mr.
Hyde as due to an “autonomic hyper-arousal state” (AHS.) To her credit again,
Derrick says that changing the language does not change the likelihood of the
officially unrecognized phenomenon being the cause.
Judge Anne Derrick
A number of other people have also died in custody in the same way. One might
think that this would warrant an investigation into the police’s treatment of
suspects, but apparently not. These experts all have a way of pinning the blame
either on the mystique of an unofficial mental disorder or a physiological
mystery which science has yet to understand. Apparently the possibility of
mistreatment, even though such force is admitted to be an unquestionable factor
in this by the experts, is somehow not the likely cause of death.
Dr. Christine Hall admitted that Mr. Hyde did not resemble someone who was
suffering from excited delirium on the morning of November 21, after his initial
arrest, as he spoke with nurses and police officers in the ER. He was not in
state of “mental, physical or physiological excitement.” Yet on November 22 at
SNSCF, she views excited delirium acceptable for describing him as: “screaming,
incoherent, agitated and (requiring) chemical sedation to control him.”
She further explains that “the combination of those things combined with intense
physical struggle requiring multiple people to use restraint and then having a
fatal cardiopulmonary arrest on the second event is in keeping with what we know
about sudden in-custody death and excited delirium.”
But Derrick concludes that it was not excited delirium which took Mr. Hyde on
the second day. He was perfectly fine until he received a threat—the cutting of
“one of those balls off”—and then tried to escape. He was paranoid about the
threat of having to deal with mental health or police authorities when Ms. Ellet
was on the phone with the Mobile Mental Health Crisis Team, resulting in an
assault upon her. This is consistent with the flight from his apartment before
authorities arrived. Mr. Hyde was “most prone to act impulsively and/or
aggressively when acutely psychotic and believes his liberty is about to be
curtailed.
The report also mentions that the video footage clearly shows the officers being
outwitted by Mr. Hyde and losing the fight, and so clearly Mr. Hyde was not
suffering from his own overreaction. Also, not only do his actions depict a
clear intention to escape the authorities (which is in stark contrast to one
suffering from delirium and has no focus whatsoever,) but his body temperature
was normal.
He was also undernourished, either not asking or receiving much to eat during
those two days. A “bag breakfast” which he received on the morning of November
22 went uneaten. A lack of food and rest would have contributed to his state.
Dr. Charles Kerr, a
cardiac electrophysiologist,
tried to explain the apparent loss of oxygen which Mr. Hyde had suffered as
“hypoventilation”.
Restraint, including strangulation (either of the throat or over the lungs, or
both) would be more likely.
The report concludes that restraint was clearly a factor in Mr. Hyde’s death,
but cannot state that it is the sole cause. And should there be any wonder? I
believe that Derrick oversaw the evidence with great care, seeing through the
holes in the story with a mind which was both accurate and honest. But when
faced with a lack of support by the experts who had examined Mr. Hyde’s body,
she had nothing with which to support the obvious conclusion.
Further to her credit, she said: “...describing the underlying cause of Mr.
Hyde’s death as schizophrenia is stigmatizing of Mr. Hyde as a person who had a
mental illness. Such a characterization suggests, even where this would be
unintended, that Mr. Hyde’s death was somehow inevitable, that he died because
he was a ‘schizophrenic’; that ‘normal’ people would not die in the same
circumstances. It stigmatizes in a similar manner that alleging excited delirium
as the cause of death does: to employ Dr. Noone’s words: ‘...the deceased is
identified as the culprit...’”
Derrick also made a series of suggestions to promote education and understanding
in these issues, relating to both medical personnel and the police, in the
system’s treatment of mentally ill people. She also expressed concern for the
overuse of Tasers.
Joanna Blair, holding an old picture of her brother, Howard Hyde
In response to this, the government has just released a 52-page-pamplet to deal
with these issues. Seeming to ignore Derrick’s findings, it returns to the
belief in excited delirium (in its reworded form of “autonomic hyper-arousal
state”.) This has outraged Mr. Hyde’s sister, Joanna Blair, who is now fighting
the government over what she considers to be an attempt to suppress the truth of
how her brother died. She has written a scathing letter to Darrell Dexter,
stating that the government has “failed” Nova Scotians.
I see one woman, a judge no less, fighting for truth and justice. I see a
man who suffered from a difficult illness being misunderstood and mistreated by
the police. But more than anyone else, I feel sorry for Ms. Ellet. She loved and
looked after a man suffering from a difficult illness, and after his death
expressed a need for people to remember him for the good man that he was when
taking his meditation. She also expressed a faith in the police for doing their
job as best as they knew how. If more people had the heart of Ms. Ellet and the
mind of Derrick I believe there would have been justice in this case. As it
stands, I doubt there will be.
This is not down to a lack of faith in the good of the People, but of those who
work within the system. The justice system, the medical establishment, the
government—all of it is broken. The system works for its own interests.
How many of us have known specialists in Nova Scotia who would not outline a
cause in a work-related injury or illness, or an insurance-related one? If they
do, they may lose some time and money to have to go to court and testify. Their
findings may come under the scrutiny of tough lawyers working for the interests
of a large corporation, and they may hire an expert to contradict their
findings—who may even attempt to make them sound unprofessional.
Who wants that? No one. But doctors are supposed to put their patients first.
But even when it affects their patient’s health or financial future—even the
difference between suffering through life and living well—they usually duck away
from the responsibility that comes with making a decision and find that the
injury or illness in question “may” be caused by this, or “may” be caused to
that. This simple and seemingly innocent act of uncertainty may save them from a
lot of hassle, but meanwhile it can make your life a living hell.
Of course, in the medical world just as in the justice system there are good
people and bad people; those who care about the People and those who actually
don’t. Those who have a brave heart should be respected for it, and all those
who don’t shouldn’t be. They only care about the money they get for pretending
to care, so why should you care about them? People like that should not be
working for us, because in their hearts they really aren’t.
Victims of these crimes are numerous—not only the victim himself but his loved
ones who must carry on without him, and in knowing that justice has not been
done for him. It’s enough to make a good person turn cold. There is every reason
to assume that more incidents like this one will arise as long as nothing is
done. As long as the system is more concerned about protecting itself than the
truth or the pursuit of real justice, we have a system that does not work
for the People.
Who could blame Mr. Hyde for fearing the police?
Sources:
Nova Scotia government trying to hide cause of Howard Hyde's death, sister says
Nova Scotia yet to release Taser rules six months after Howard Hyde inquiry
Man jolted with Taser needed help, widow says
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2007/11/23/hyde-taser.html
The Inquiry Report
http://www.courts.ns.ca/hyde_inquiry/hyde_inquiry_report.pdf
Officer defends his actions in struggle with Hyde
Nova Scotia inquiry recommends CEWs used only as "last resort"
http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/mental_health_notes_story.asp?cID=922751
N.S. responds to jail death inquiry
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/05/12/18138921.html
Howard Hyde's death caused by struggle with jail guards, inquiry report says
Howard Hyde Inquiry - Police Commit Perjury
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOjSRSV0KL0
