By DEAN SHALHOUP
MILFORD – Two Amherst Rescue Squad medics who say they continue to live in fear of the Mont Vernon woman who allegedly assaulted them on Memorial Day were nevertheless denied a request for a stalking order at a Tuesday hearing in Milford District Court.
Paramedic Carylyn McEntee and EMT Lynn Briggs, who say they are still out of work recovering from the multiple injuries received in the incident, told Judge Martha Crocker they constantly worry about being harmed by their alleged attacker, 29-year-old Adrienne Valdez, even in chance encounters around town.
Crocker also denied the medics’ last-minute request to continue the stalking-order hearing. The two, accompanied by a state victim’s advocate, asked for the continuance so they could hire lawyers to represent them.
Earlier on Tuesday, Crocker also ruled that Valdez’ scheduled review hearing on the one felony and two misdemeanor charges stemming from the May 31 attack would not take place, as those charges had been dropped, she said, as part of an earlier ruling by Judge Paul Moore.
That ruling was made in August, after county attorney Robert Walsh agreed to not pursue the charges against Valdez on the condition she enter, and honor, an agreement stating she remain under the care of a psychiatrist and a case worker, take prescribed medication and undergo therapy to treat the bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder with which she’s been diagnosed.
But the decision, which also included dropping subsequent charges including two felonies, sparked controversy and prompted the medics to speak out against Walsh.
“We had no idea this deal had been reached,” McEntee said at the time, adding she was “shocked and devastated” upon hearing the news. “Nobody from the (county attorney’s) office told us anything. Nobody spoke with us (beforehand) about what was going to happen, to ask us our thoughts,” she said.
Walsh later apologized for mishandling Valdez’s case, admitting to “acting too quickly” on the case, partly because he was eager to utilize Nashua’s mental health court. “I clearly mishandled the matter … I should have sought victim input,” he said in published reports. “I made an off-the-cuff decision without reviewing the file.”
That case, and at least one other Walsh is involved in, are currently under review by the state Attorney General’s office.
On Tuesday, McEntee and Briggs testified separately in requesting the stalking order against Valdez, each describing “a violent, personal and pointed” attack in which Valdez threatened, McEntee testified, “to rip our uteruses out” and “kill both of us” even after they administered Haldol to calm Valdez down, she said.
In denying the requests, Crocker maintained that Valdez, given her alleged state of mind at the time, would likely have attacked anyone she perceived as interfering or trying to interact with her that morning.
“I find no evidence that you were specifically targeted, that (the attacks) were directed at you personally,” Crocker said to McEntee and Briggs. “To grant a stalking order I must find that a specific person is being targeted and fearing for his or her safety.”
The months-long saga began the morning of May 31, shortly after McEntee, Briggs and EMT Sandra Powers, who was not hurt, responded to 27 Old Milford Road in Mont Vernon to answer Valdez’ 8 a.m. call for medical assistance.
McEntee said they had just begun talking to Valdez when “she suddently launched up and head-butted me, and went after Lynn,” she said. “It was back and forth, me, Lynn…she bit me hard on the elbow and kept trying to stick a finger in Lynn’s eyes” while threatening to gouge Briggs’ eye out.
Attorneys for Valdez, who has been arrested numerous times on assault, resisting arrest, violation of bail and other charges since the Memorial Day incident, say their client is a hard-working, postgraduate law student whose actions stem from an “emotional and mental meltdown” complicated by subsequent attempts to balance her medications. Her most recent arrest came on Sept. 15 when Nashua police charged her with stalking.
Trial in the Nashua case is scheduled for Dec. 6 in Nashua District Court. All of Valdez’ cases are being handled through Nashua District Court’s Mental Health Court, of which counselor Scott Brennan is judicial liaison.
“Adrienne has been a model client,” Brennan said Tuesday. “She’s one of my most reliable people, she’s made every meeting, she’s very determined,” he said, to put the incidents behind her.
“Nobody asks for mental illness,” Brennan said. “It happens, it can happen to anyone. Who would ask to go through something like this?” he said.
Valdez’ attorney, Jean-Claude Sakellarios of Manchester, said the medics’ assertions that Valdez remains a threat to them makes no sense.
“Obviously this woman was not of sound mind (on May 31),” Sakellarios said after the hearing. “She has a mental illness that is being treated, I can’t understand how anyone could think (Valdez) really wanted to kill someone, to rip their uterus out,” he said.
Sakellarios’ law partner and co-counsel David Bailinson agreed. “She also yelled “shoot me” to the police when they arrived,” Bailinson said. “Does that seem like someone of sound mind?”
But Briggs, who said she suffered a dislocated jaw, cheekbone fracture and torn arm ligaments in the attack, countered that the attack did become personal.
While paramedics, EMT’s and other ambulance personnel sometimes get hurt on the job, national studies and emergency providers say, such violent assaults against them are uncommon.
Eric Perry, head of the state Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, cited two recent incidents, the Valdez case and the one in which a Weare woman allegedly attacked an EMT and two police officers who’d responded to a domestic disturbance. In that case, Amanda Adams, 34, was charged with misdemeanor assault, resisting arrest and attempted escape, according to news reports.
A national study in the 1990’s showed that roughly 4 percent of the injuries EMT’s suffered on the job were due to assaults.
But McEntee and Briggs say this is a first.
“I’ve transported many (psychiatric) patients in my career&hell
ip;we’re usually able to talk them through (violent outbursts),” Briggs said in court. But after 30, maybe 45 seconds, it became clear (Valdez’ threats) were personal, very pointed,” Briggs said. “She had the opportunity to stop but she didn’t.”
Both medics, Briggs said, continue to fear Valdez and want her kept at a distance. Granting the order, Briggs said, “would give (McEntee and her) space…I want to be able to just walk away, I want (Valdez) to just walk away.
“I am afraid, and I don’t trust what the outcome might be” if she and Valdez happened to meet by chance, Briggs said.
Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100 ext. 31 or [email protected].
