Opinion ID: 2679891
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: case history summarized

Text: [¶35] In summary, Clifford had been taken into custody and delivered to MaineGeneral for evaluation on September 25, 2007, where she was promptly evaluated and discharged by an emergency room physician, with the agreement of the evaluating C & C worker, after the physician determined that Clifford posed no threat of harm to herself or others. Despite this, C & C supervisors, who had never seen Clifford, directed that she be returned to the hospital for further evaluation, even though there was no new information to support that directive. Kemmerer was aware of these facts. [¶36] Kemmerer did not perform a full evaluation of Clifford when she returned to the hospital, but instead stood by, even facilitated, as Clifford was given a Hobson’s choice of “voluntarily” consenting to admission to the hospital for twenty-four hours rather than, as she understood it, detention at the hospital for seventy-two hours pending a blue paper process that had not yet begun. Kemmerer instructed Clifford to remove her clothes to allow a search for contraband, and when she refused, he—in violation of MaineGeneral policy—called in two male security guards to assist, and all three men watched as Clifford pulled down her pants and underwear. [¶37] Clifford was then held against her will for the night in a locked room in the psychiatric unit. When a psychiatrist finally evaluated her the following day, 21 he, like Grimmnitz before him, concluded that Clifford posed no threat and discharged her.