PEF raises DAs’ awareness of need to prosecute workplace assailants

By SHERRY HALBROOK
It’s bad enough to be assaulted on the job. The injury is compounded if law-enforcement officials don’t want to arrest and prosecute your attacker.

Recently, PEF President Roger Benson and PEF General Counsel William Seamon met with district attorneys from several counties to discuss the issue.

“We requested this meeting because the number of assaults on our members by mental-health patients and prison inmates has been increasing. And because our members say the police often discourage them from pressing charges,” Benson says.

The police may think it’s a waste of time to prosecute people who are in prison or a psychiatric institution.

“The district attorneys assured us that they treat crimes against state employees seriously and will prosecute such crimes to the fullest extent possible,” Benson says. “However, they did concede that officers called to the scene might have tried to discourage the employees from filing a criminal report.”

After much discussion, the DAs told the union leaders that the best thing employees can do if they are assaulted on the job and want to press charges is refuse to take no for an answer.

“Press for a criminal investigation and or report until one is completed,” Benson says. (See box at right for more tips.)

And, he says, local PEF leaders and staff “should be available to support a member who’s been attacked.”

And be sure to notify your local health and safety committee, as well as the PEF Health and Safety Department in Albany.

“It’s very important for local PEF leaders to meet with management at the facility to discuss procedures for dealing with such incidents,” says PEF Director of Safety and Health Jonathan Rosen.

The state Office of Mental Health has a policy calling for facility administrators to negotiate agreements with local law-enforcement regarding the investigation and prosecution of crimes against patients and staff.

“OMH even has a model agreement for facility managers to use,” Rosen says, “but not all facilities adhere to the policy. We need to make sure facility managers follow it.”

Recently, PEF Division 238 Council Leader Phil Sullivan was punched in the mouth by a patient with a bloody hand at Hudson River Psychiatric Center where Sullivan is a psychology assistant. He found out just how unprepared his facility and local law-enforcement were to deal with it.

“Phil and PEF Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus have persuaded the facility to establish new procedures for quickly and effectively responding when someone may have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B or C or HIV,” Rosen says.

Getting the local DA to prosecute the assailant has been tougher, but PEF is still working on it.

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