A judge on Wednesday sentenced an ex-supervisory nurse at Whiting Forensic Hospital to five years in prison, putting a period on the criminal portion of the most extensive patient abuse scandal to surface at a Connecticut psychiatric facility in modern times.
It was precisely the prison term that the patient’s brother asked for in his remarks at the sentencing hearing in Superior Court in Middletown, and five years more than defense attorney Norm Pattis believed Cusson should have received.
“If there was a wolf in the room it was Mr. Shehadi,” said Pattis, referring to patient William Shehadi and his brother’s portrayal of Cusson as the leader of a “wolfpack” at the maximum-security Whiting. “The shepherds did all they could.”
But Superior Court Judge Jose A. Suarez said Cusson betrayed his professional responsibility to Shehadi, no matter how difficult the profoundly mentally ill man could be at times.
The scandal at Whiting led to the arrest of 10 workers and the dismissal of more than 35. Legislators grilled mental health officials at a public hearing in November and a Whiting task force is now debating the continued existence of what is described as a foreboding, obsolete, overcrowded facility.
The curtain was flung back on the scandal after a whistleblower came forward and forced the administration at Whiting to view hours of surveillance tape that had captured the abuse of William Shehadi in March 2017 but had not been immediately viewed.
Nine of the 10 Whiting defendants were convicted after entering pleas. Cusson, 50, of Southington, was the only one to hold out for trial and received the largest sentence.
After two weeks of evidence, with a grainy, soundless surveillance tape as the centerpiece, and 10 hours of deliberation over three days, the jury in April found Cusson guilty of three counts of cruelty to persons, a felony, and five counts of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
On Wednesday, Suarez said he had to reconcile the two sides of the man he had come to learn about through the trial and sentencing process — the loving father and faithful friend with three long rows of supporters in the Middletown courtroom, and the cruel nurse in an influential position at Whiting Forensic Hospital, caught on video tape repeatedly abusing Shehadi, without provocation, while he lay in bed or cowered on an overturned mattress or against a wall. Most of the abuse occurred in the pre-dawn hours on third shift.
At the hearing, Cusson’s two daughters, aged 16 and 14, implored the judge to be lenient, describing through sobs how they loved their father boundlessly.
But in the end, despite the entirely credible tributes to Cusson as a family man and mentor to his colleagues at work, he never accepted responsibility for the betrayal of his profession, Suarez said.
“The court has really struggled with this case,” he said. “But the defendant chose to work at Whiting. You are entrusted with the care and owe a duty to these patients. It is your responsibility to treat them in a professional manner. Mr. Cusson did not do that here.”
Several of his co-workers spoke at the sentencing, praising Cusson as a man of compassion and integrity who earned their respect. They said Shehadi was violent and dangerous and some said they had personally been injured by him. And they said management at Whiting and at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services provided no specialized training, and they were left to learn on the fly about how to deal with Shehadi, who had been acquitted by reason of insanity in the killing of his father in the mid-1990s.
Prosecutor Jeffrey Doskos said in his remarks that Whiting was not on trial. He said there may be issues with the training, “but what training do you need to tell you it’s improper to put a mop on a patient’s head or straddle a patient on the bed and put your crotch in his face? That comes down to decency.”
Cusson was also seen wrapping his legs around a prone Shehadi in a scissor hold on several instances and kicking the mattress out from under Shehadi, pitching him to the floor.
In his trial testimony, Cusson had said he was wrapping his legs around Shehadi to calm him, like swaddling a baby.
“I don’t see it as swaddling and neither did the jury,” Doskos said.
On another occasion, Cusson strides into the room and dashes a cup of liquid in Shehadi’s face. In yet another instance, Cusson taps Shehadi and spins around his bed, causing him to sit bolt upright and spin around to follow a circling Cusson.
It was a endless “cat and mouse game” that created a menacing climate — and none of the workers thought to stop it, said Doskos.
Yet the last line of Cusson’s progress notes at the end of each shift was, “We will continue to observe and provide a safe environment,” Doskos said.
Al Shehadi acknowledged that his brother was a difficult patient. He said William Shehadi was psychotic and had features of autism that caused him to engage in ritualistic and repetitive behaviors. His thoughts were disorganized and he suffered from a condition that made his speech unintelligible.
“He was the perfect victim,” Al Shehadi said, calling Cusson a “sadist, a liar and a coward.”
Al Shehadi said his brother remains profoundly ill, but in the absence of the abuse he rarely has had to be restrained and his obsessive behaviors have lessened.
“A far cry from the wild animal described by the defense,” Al Shehadi said.
Josh Kovner can be reached at jkovner@courant.com.
