A Case of Grave Injustice “(Davis v. Healey, 1:23-cv-12090-MJJ)

Author:
Christopher M Perry

Since 1993 many Massachusetts residents have been horrified and dismayed to learn that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could simply wash its hands of any financial liability in a case involving mentally ill inpatient Jason Davis.

It is a sad and sordid tale of woe both in and out of the courts and the within the Massachusetts legislature as well. It highlights a broken system where States simply have no accountability to anybody even in the aftermath of their own concededly egregious conduct.

The Davis case is one of the greatest Civil Rights atrocities in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. However, nobody in State government will right the wrong.

Governor Maura Healey is the most important reason in the World why Jason Davis and his family have never obtained justice after the savage attack upon mentally ill inpatient Jason Davis on 8.12.93. That is a fact; it is not rhetoric or hyperbole. Governor Healey vigorously fought against justice for Jason Davis in 2014 and she is again fighting against justice for him right now in Federal District Court (Davis v. Healey, 1:23-cv-12090-MJJ). The Davis case has already been to the U.S. Supreme Court after the one-month Federal District Court jury trial concluded in 1998. The 1998 judgment stands at 2.7M.

On August 29, 2020 Senator Elizabeth Warren stated, in a Boston Herald article, that “Jason Davis and his family deserve justice – including the full settlement they’re owed.” On August 29, 2020 Senator Edward M. Markey stated, in this same Boston Herald article, that “Jason Davis deserves justice and his family is owed their full settlement.”

On May 13, 2014 Governor Maura Healey, then an Assistant Attorney General, emailed the Davis family therein indicating that the Davis Case was “a very sad situation.” (Ex. 4). Since then though she has done everything in her power to ensure that neither Jason Davis nor his family ever obtain justice. That again is a fact; it is not rhetoric or hyperbole.

On June 4, 2014 current Senate President Karen E. Spilka emailed the Davis family therein indicating that “clearly these are issues – both mental health and the Davis matter – that are very, very important to me.” In 2014 Representative Rogers said this about the Jason Davis case: (i) “The facts are uncontested. They [Department of Mental Health] hired, failed to train and failed to supervise these workers and to allow the State to walk away is just wrong;” (WCVB TV) and (ii) “In my mind the liability of the Commonwealth has always been crystal clear.” (Boston Globe).

The one-month Federal District Court jury trial of the initial Jason Davis Federal Civil Rights case, as noted, took place in 1998. The Judgment, also as noted, stands at 2.7M. The Commonwealth’s Attorney General appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals (1999) and the U.S. Supreme Court (2000) after the 1998 trial. Jason Davis won in all three federal courts.

See Davis v. Rennie, 997 F. Supp. 137 (D. Mass. 1998); Davis v. Rennie, 264 F. 3d 86 (1st Cir. 2001); Davis v. Rennie, 535 U.S. 1053 (2002); Davis v. Rennie, 178 F. Supp. 2d 28 (D. Mass. 2001); Davis v. Coakley, 802 F. 3d 128 (1st Cir. 2015).

Jason Davis is a national legal hero given the enormous national constitutional contributions he made for the protection of the committed mentally ill. Through his cases the Federal Courts set forth some of the most profoundly important protections ever articulated by the Federal Courts for the committed mentally ill. Though Jason Davis is a national legal hero, given these enormous constitutional contributions, he cannot even obtain justice on his home soil.

Convicted violent felon “caretaker” Philip Bragg literally tried to murder committed mentally ill inpatient Jason Davis on August 12, 1993 by snapping his neck in two on a floor of a locked ward at the old Westborough State Hospital as several other Staff members pinned Jason Davis to the floor to perpetuate the murder.

Jason Davis’ eyes rolled to the back of his skull – with only the whites showing – as he went into a semiconscious state all as recounted at the 1998 Federal Court trial by State Police Officer Gregg Plesh. If hero State Police Officer Gregg Plesh had not intervened Jason Davis certainly would have been murdered by Philip Bragg.

The Charge Nurse at the scene altered medical records and she and other culprits lodged false allegations of wrongdoing against the hero State Police Officer in an attempt at a coverup. A massive coverup ensued by all those who victimized Jason Davis on August 12, 1993.

Trial transcripts prove that, after the attack, Jason Davis was barbarically strapped face down to a four (4) point mechanical restraint table for an hour where he choked on voluminous amounts of his own blood – as it ran out of his nose and mouth and down into his throat – until he was ordered to be released by the hospital’s Civil Rights Officer, Kermit Brown. He then vomited up massive amounts of blood.

Blood puddles littered the ward and soaked the sheets atop the restraint table. Blood was everywhere. It was a gruesome scene. The Federal Court of Appeals, in its landmark Federal Civil Rights decision, labeled Jason Davis’ psychiatric injuries as acute and life altering. These psychiatric injuries caused him to die in 2004 at age 38; he no longer could trust his “caretakers.”

His father, Mr. William Davis, has fought on all these years. The Commonwealth will not give Jason Davis the justice he and his family so richly deserve as his 1998 Federal District Court judgment remains unpaid decades later despite the 2020 calls by Senator Markey and Senator Warren for justice and the payment of his entire judgment.

“I just don’t understand this thirty (30) year vendetta against my son Jason. It certainly is a vendetta and cannot be explained in any other way. If it were not; the judgment would have been paid a long time ago because this case screams out for justice.

No person – lawyer or otherwise – can look me in the eye and tell me my son Jason does not deserve justice. He does. The Commonwealth has paid several civil rights cases over the years: the Dennis R. Smith case, the Joshua Messier case, the Holyoke Soldiers Home case and, most recently, the ‘House of Horrors’ case. I am sure there are more.

These cases should have been paid and I applaud the Commonwealth for paying them but, that said, my son Jason also deserves to sit at the table of justice. His case should be paid as well. They State hired these convicted violent felons who brutalized Jason and the State must be held accountable” said William Davis.

Mr. Davis also added that “Governor Healey emailed me on May 13, 2014 and said Jason’s case was a ‘very sad situation.’ That gave me hope. How did it go from a ‘very sad situation’ to her doing everything in her power to make sure Jason never got any justice? She is the most ‘important’ reason Jason never got justice. That really is true” observed Mr. William Davis.

The present iteration of the Davis case is simple: Jason Davis’s family are constitutionally entitled to be treated on an equal basis with the victims in the Dennis R. Smith, Joshua Messier, Holyoke Soldiers Home and ‘House of Horrors’ cases.

These victims were all paid in the aftermath of their injuries at the hand of State employees who had acted willfully and intentionally. Jason Davis and his family are entitled to this same treatment. The Davis case was already proved at trial and on appeal decades ago.

Most Complaints filed in court amount to nothing more than a series of plausible allegations not yet proved. Here, this case already went to the U.S. Supreme Court after a one-month trial and a 1998 jury verdict which stands at 2.7M. The Complaint filed against Governor Healey on 9.12.23 is a detailed legal and medical proffer supported by 64 exhibits, reported federal cases (in this very matter) and an assortment of documents authored by the Commonwealth itself.

The Pacer System (1:23-cv-12090-MJJ) teaches us that Governor Healey had more than three months to answer the Complaint (10.25.23 – 1.31.24) in the present iteration of the Davis case. She filed a Motion to Dismiss on 1.31.24 which is meritless.

The last of the Motion to Dismiss filings was made on 4.9.24 (Plaintiff’s Motion to Supplement) which is nearly 12 weeks ago at this point. No hearing has been scheduled, relative to the Motion to Dismiss, despite repeated requests for same by Plaintiff and none will be conducted according to Court staff.