AUGUSTA — A Riverview Psychiatric Center outpatient who was shot by police in January wants to get out of the forensic hospital and out of state custody.
A judge heard testimony Friday at the Capital Judicial Center, at a hearing that was a continuation of one that began Oct. 6 on a petition for release filed by Jason Begin, 37. It was not clear when the judge would make a ruling.
Begin was placed in the custody of the commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services in 2004 after being found not criminally responsible for hijacking a plane and crashing in Canada in an apparent attempt to kill himself when he was facing charges of gross sexual assault involving family members. He was found not criminally responsible because of mental illness.
Begin had been out of the hospital and living for a year in a group home in Augusta when he was called to a meeting of Riverview’s outpatient services team Jan. 12 and asked about a report he was using marijuana or supplying it to other forensic outpatients at the home.
Reports indicate that when he was told he would be returned to Riverview, Begin became agitated, threatened others, pulled out a knife and began stabbing himself in the arms.
Augusta police Officer Laura Drouin, who had been called to escort Begin to Riverview, shot him three times.
A report on an investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office on the officer-involved shooting has not been released, and Tim Feeley, a spokesman for that office, said Friday there was no timeline for the report. The office routinely investigates shootings involving police.
Begin was treated for gunshot wounds at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and was returned to Riverview on Feb. 27.
On Friday, Begin’s attorney, Matthew Bowe, questioned Miriam Davidson, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Riverview, about a report she and other hospital personnel had prepared on Begin in light of his request. The hospital previously had opposed his release into the community.
Davidson said Begin’s current diagnosis was one of post-traumatic stress disorder, pedophilic disorder, and personality disorders including narcissistic and histrionic disorders.
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