Mock Investigative Interview Assault on Staff in a Hospital Causing Malicious Criminal Damage

Mock Investigative Interview:   Assault on Staff in a Hospital Causing Malicious Criminal Damage

Purpose

The purpose of this mock investigative interview is to provide the results of a hypothetical interview with a witness to an alleged physical assault on a registered nurse, “Martha,” at the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, a tertiary medical center, on 30 July 2020 at approximately 0933 hours.  

Background of the case

It has been alleged that the suspect walked into an office at the hospital and became extremely agitated, at which point he struck a registered nurse in her face with his fist and then picked up the computer monitor off of her desk and smashed it against a wall. The estimated cost of the destroyed computer monitor was $200. No other patients or visitors were involved in this incident. 

The registered nurse who was the victim of the assault works in the Community Mental Health Service specializes in the treatment of adults that are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with a special emphasis on helping disabled Australian combat veterans who served during Operation Slipper (late 2014) and Operation Highroad (early 2015) in Afghanistan as a member of the Australia Defence Force. During his military service, Mr. Johnson rose to the rank of staff sergeant and was ultimately assigned to lead a platoon of Australian Army soldiers prior to his injury and discharge. 

At present, the veteran suspected of the assault is a married, 50-year-old male combat veteran, “Benjamin Johnson,” who served in Afghanistan from January 2014 through February 2015. During his combat tour in Afghanistan, Benjamin suffered a severe traumatic brain injury (STBI) as a direct result of an improvised explosive device explosion that also injured several other troops in his vehicle. Besides the STBI, Mr. Johnson also suffered a broken mandible, a lacerated pancreas, both ankles broken and a fractured right femur. To date, Mr. Johnson has received 17 orthopedic procedures and is currently walking with a normal gait and appears fully recovered physically from his service-connected injuries. 

 Following his initial treatment in Afghanistan, Mr. Johnson was returned to Australia for follow-up medical treatment and rehabilitation. Following a 2-month inpatient stay, Benjamin was discharged from the military and returned to civilian life in his home in Queensland where he remains married and employed as a machinist. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two adult children who live nearby but who do not visit them on a regular basis.

The hypothetical interview that follows was conducted on September 10, 2020 at 1000 hours by this writer, Constable Cindy Langley at an interview office at the Queensland Police Service. This case was assigned to me in order to investigate the alleged assault on Martha. The interviewee, “Jennifer,” is another registered nurse who works with Martha who witnessed the alleged assault, and who agreed to provide a detailed account of the incident. The interview script that follows is based on the above fact scenario. 

Interview script

Cindy: Good morning. Please have a seat and make yourself comfortable. My name is Incremental Senior Constable Cindy M. Langley and I’ve been assigned to this case. I’ve been a law enforcement officer in Queensland in some capacity for more than 15 years now. The gentleman with me to my right is Mr. John Manning, who will record our interview but will not be asking any questions. Thank you very much for agreeing to meet with me this morning. First, let’s take care of the legalities. I must inform you that you do not have to say or do anything but anything you say or do may be given in evidence in a court of law of competent jurisdiction. Do you understand all of that?

Jennifer: Yes.

Cindy: In addition, I must also inform you that you have the following rights. You may communicate with or attempt to communicate with a friend or a relative to inform that person of your whereabouts. Further, you may also communicate with or attempt to communicate with a legal practitioner. Do you understand that?

Jennifer: Yes, I do.

Cindy: Thank you. Do you have any questions about these rights?

Jennifer: No, I understand.

Cindy: We have coffee and doughnuts if you want them and please let me know if you need to take a restroom break or get a drink of water at any time, okay?

Jennifer: Okay, thanks. I’ll pass on the coffee and doughnuts right now. I had a snack on the way over here.

Cindy: Okay, great. Now, please state your full name, occupation and length of time working here at Central Queensland Hospital.

Jennifer: My full name is Jennifer R. Johnson, I’m a registered nurse working as an occupational rehabilitation specialist. I’ve worked here since 2011, almost 10 years now.

Cindy: What is your position title at the hospital?

Jennifer: I’m the project manager in charge of risk management at the hospital, which, I know, makes this incident especially ironic but all the more important to prevent in the future. 

Cindy: We can all agree on that. At any rate, I’ve read the incident report about the altercation with Mr. Johnson and I must say, working with and helping disabled combat veterans suffering from PTSD must be a challenging but highly rewarding profession. Do you and your co-workers enjoy working with veterans?

Jennifer: Yes, we love our veteran patients. We hold them in high esteem and regard them as national heroes, but there are some downsides as well, that’s for sure.

Cindy: Such as?

Jennifer: Well, on one occasion, an intoxicated veteran who had been diagnosed with HIV vomited on my desk during a counseling session and I’ve been assaulted in the past more than once.

Cindy: You were assaulted by patients?

Jennifer: Yes.

Cindy: Were they also combat veterans?

Jennifer: Well, one of them was I know for sure but I’m uncertain about the other individual.

Cindy: Can you tell me what happened?

Jennifer: The first instance involved a patient with PTSD and some other comorbidities that, as it turned out, had stopped taking his medications.  and started hallucinating as a result, imaging that everyone around him was trying to harm him. 

Cindy: What do you mean by comorbidities?

Jennifer: I’m sorry. I should have just said other disorders instead of comorbidities, but I mean many of these patients also have other medical conditions that just exacerbate their PTSD.

Cindy: Thank you. Can you tell me what happened next with this first instance of an assault?

Jennifer: Well, as I was saying, this patient said he thought everyone was trying to hurt him and all of a sudden, he just jumped out of his chair and started running into a wall over and over. When I tried to stop him to keep him from hurting himself, he knocked me over. I’m not sure whether he intended to assault me or not, but that was the end result.

Cindy: Were you injured?

Jennifer: No, not really, I was just scared and shaken more than anything else I guess.

Cindy: You stated you had been assaulted more than once. Can you tell me about the other incidents please?

Jennifer: Well, there was only one other notable incident that involved a physical attack. A patient came into our office mistaking it for the dermatology service and when I told him he was in the wrong office, he slapped me for no apparent reason. Although I notified our security service immediately and filed a patient incident report, I don’t believe this individual was ever apprehended and we never saw him again. I don’t know if he was a veteran or had PTSD or what, but I do not he was violent for no apparent reason.

Cindy: Thank you. All of that sounds far more than just challenging which leads us to the incident in question. Please tell me in your own words what happened. 

Jennifer: We had just finished our weekly staff meeting and everyone had returned to their desks when Mr. Johnson entered our office.

Cindy: Mr. Johnson is the individual who is alleged to have committed the assault against your coworker and then destroyed a computer monitor afterwards?

Jennifer: Yes.

Cindy: What was the date, time and duration of the incident?

Jennifer: I remember that the incident took place on a Thursday since that’s when we have our staff meetings. The last Thursday in July was on the 30th so that’s when it occurred. The meeting wrapped up at about 9:30 a.m. and we all returned to our desks immediately so it must have taken place just a few minutes after that.

Cindy: Where did it happen?

Jennifer: The assault happened in the quality assurance and risk assessment and management office on the second floor of the Central Queensland Hospital at Martha’s desk.  

Cindy: How did it happen?

Jennifer: Well, we’re trained to handle disruptive and combative patients so we’re generally ready for anything but the incident with Mr. Johnson was different. 

Cindy: What do you mean?

Jennifer: First of all, I noticed when Mr. Johnson entered the office immediately because he was being loud and vulgar and he sounded very angry. Second, over the past few years, I had seen Mr. Johnson on several occasions and w had even conversed in a friendly fashion a couple of times while he waited on an appointment with Martha so I knew immediately that this situation was different. Although I did not know or need to know the details about his case, it was common knowledge in our office that he was being treated for PTSD at the time of the incident because Martha was our specialist assigned to this.

Cindy: Do you see many veterans with PTSD?

Jennifer: More than you might think. We had tens of thousands of Australian soldiers serve in Afghanistan and while the vast majority have returned to normal lives after their military services, many of them have experienced severe problems transitioning back to civilian life after their discharge and far too many even take their own lives as a result. 

Cindy: Was there anything else unusual that you can recall about the incident with Mr. Johnson?

Jennifer: Well, I also recall that our receptionist admonished him to calm down and have a seat but he brushed right past her and walked up to Martha’s desk, loudly demanding to know why his medications had been changed. We see angry patients all of the time, including those that had their medications changed or cancelled, but there was a sense of urgency in Mr. Johnson’s voice that made me pay close attention to what was happening between him and Martha. 

Cindy: Can you give me some details about what you heard?

Jennifer: Well, I heard Martha ask Mr. Johnson to please calm down while she attempted to explain that the change in Mr. Johnson’s medication had been ordered by his treating physician and she had nothing to do with the change. After hearing Martha’s explanation, Mr. Johnson became even more agitated and struck her.

Cindy: Which hand did he use and where did he strike her?

Jennifer: Let me think [pause]. It all happened so fast. Okay, I remember now, Mr. Johnson punched Martha in the face with his right hand, hard.

Cindy: Did Mr. Johnson use an open hand or fist to strike Martha?

Jennifer: I think his hand was clenched into a fist.

Cindy: Please demonstrate how Mr. Johnson struck Martha using me for a dummy.

Jennifer: [Jennifer makes a swinging motion with her arm and imitates Mr. Johnson’s fist striking Cindy’s chin.]

Cindy: Thank you. I get the picture now. What happened after Mr. Johnson struck Martha?

Jennifer: Martha was still sitting in her desk chair but after he hit her, she scooted her chair back as far away from Mr. Johnson as she could. 

Cindy: Did anyone else see it happen? Who? What did they say? What did they do?

Jennifer: Everyone in our office saw what happened. There were three of us at the time, me, Martha and our receptionist, Millie. Immediately after the incident, the other nurse who witnessed the attack, Jeff, and I were on the phone, desperately trying to reach security when Mr. Johnson picked up the computer monitor on Martha’s desk and based on what I could see from my vantage point at my desk, he smashed it into pieces against the wall behind her. Glass and debris flew everywhere but the monitor did not hit Martha, thank goodness. She was all tangled up in computer cables, though, and she later told us that the edge of her keyboard had hit her in the stomach.

Cindy: What did you do in response to the incident or behavior?

Jennifer: As I say, Jeff and I were already on the phone with security but someone else from another service had already contacted them after hearing the shouting coming from our office and immediately after I hung up, three hospital security officers arrived, restrained Mr. Johnson without any further incident and then took him into custody and escorted him from our office.

Cindy: What did you say in response to the incident or behavior?

Jennifer: The first thing I did was scream, ”Why did you do that you idiot!?” at Mr. Johnson, a reaction that I now regret because it was unprofessional but I was angry and scared that he would do something even worse. At that point, the security officers arrived and took Mr. Johnson into custody and escorted him away. The next thing I did was to check on Martha. She was still seated at her desk, crying with her face in her hands. The left side of her face was bruised and swollen, but she insisted she was all right and did not require any medical attention. We got her an ice pack and decided to keep an eye on her just in case, but she appeared more shaken up than anything else. 

Cindy: How did the subject of the allegation react to your response?

Jennifer: You know, it was the strangest thing. After I screamed at him, it was like the air seeping out of a balloon, a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of transformation. 

Cindy: How do you mean?

Jennifer: Well, one second he was positively livid, beet red in the face, spittle coming out of his mouth and screaming at Martha at the top of his lungs, threatening her and his treating physician with violence and the next minute, after he had struck Martha and thrown the computer monitor, he was completely quiet, subdued and all of the color was drained from his face. It was like he didn’t know where he was or what he had been doing and he just woke up all of a sudden and realized what was going on. 

Cindy: How long did all of this take?

Jennifer: The whole thing was over in less than 15 seconds or so, but the incident played out in slow motion so it seemed like it took an eternity, at least to me.

Cindy: So Mr. Johnson’s actions when he first entered your office were sufficiently extreme and out of the ordinary that you paid closer attention to what happened afterwards than you might have normally done with another patient?

Jennifer: Yes, that’s exactly right.

Cindy: Do you have any reason to believe that Mr. Johnson was pretending to be angry, perhaps in an effort to receive the drug of his preferred choice from his treating physician?

Jennifer: Well, that does happen sometimes and we’ve encountered these types of patients before but I can say this. Mr. Johnson was not pretending to be angry, that much was clear to me at the time. Moreover, he did not appear to be in any drug-withdrawal type of distress, but was rather mostly agitated over his change in medication. We do have protocols in place for dealing with drug-seeking patients, but based on my experience with these types of situations, this was not that type of situation or reaction on Mr. Johnson’s part. He was genuinely mad and even a little terrified.

Cindy: Thank you. So from your perspective, the subject was primarily angry because of the change in his medication without his prior knowledge, is that correct?

Jennifer: Yes, that’s correct.

Cindy: Did anyone else say or do anything else to Mr. Johnson that may have also triggered this incident?

Jennifer: I’m not sure. As I noted previously, our receptionist asked him to calm down and have a seat but he just ignored her. I couldn’t see the entire incident from my desk, only the part where Mr. Johnson struck Martha and then smashed her computer monitor on the wall behind her. I only learned that she was not struck by the monitor when I got up from my desk and rushed to assist her.

Cindy: Did you report this to anyone in management? To whom? When? What they say and/or do?

Jennifer: Of course. We immediately contacted the hospital director’s office about what happened. I spoke with the assistant hospital director while our receptionist contacted the patient advocate’s office in case there were inquiries by the press. The assistant hospital director advised us to remain in our office until the security personnel were assured that this was an isolated incident and no part of a larger plan. The patient advocate requested additional information about the incident and he was instructed to contact the security office. 

Cindy: Was that the end of the incident?

Jennifer: No, after about 15 minutes, a security officer came to our office and reported that there was no further threat and that Mr. Johnson had been arrested but would be evaluated immediately to evaluate his need for in-patient psychiatric care.

Cindy: Did you tell anyone else about the incident or behavior? Who? What did they say and/or do?

Jennifer: Yes, we immediately filed an electronic patient incident report as required by hospital policy. As you probably know, we track all types of adverse incidents that involve patients, family members, visitors and other staff such as assaults, patient abuse, or even fires in order to identify trends and potential problem areas. We even track these incidents by ward and shift in case there are just one or two individuals that are consistently involved.