Six months ago, Robert O. Rankin was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the grisly killing of his mother, Margaret Rohner, at her Deep River home on the day after Christmas in 2013. In August, a three-judge panel committed him to 60 years in the state’s maximum-security mental hospital in Middletown.
But legal repercussions of the case are far from over.
Rohner’s estate has filed a lawsuit against the state, seeking unspecified financial damages and claiming negligence by personnel at River Valley Services, a state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services facility in Middletown where Rankin had undergone treatment.
RVS personnel approved Rankin’s holiday visit, during which he stabbed and mutilated his mother with a fireplace poker and a hunting knife, the lawsuit says.
The RVS staff “knew that he was severely mentally ill and increasingly threatening toward his mother yet permitted him to leave … and to visit her without supervision,” according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer Steven L. Seligman of Hartford.
RVS also “knew that Rankin posed a specific threat to his mother yet reassured her that it was safe for her to have him visit” and “failed to warn the mother that her son posed a threat to her safety and to her life,” the suit says.
Seligman filed the suit in Superior Court in Hartford in late October on behalf of Rohner’s estate and its administrator, Jill Levin.
It’s often difficult to win the right to sue the state for damages because Connecticut’s laws give the government “sovereign immunity” from lawsuits unless the plaintiff gets permission from the claims commissioner, which can take years.
But Seligman got the lawsuit into court by using a legal exception that opens the door to malpractice suits against state hospitals. Under that exception, if a plaintiff submits a written “certificate of good faith belief” from a qualified professional saying improper care was provided, the claims commissioner can’t block the filing of a suit against the state.
The legal papers filed in court by Seligman include such a “certificate of good faith belief” from a psychologist who, after being given legal access to Rankin’s treatment records, concluded, “I am of the opinion that there was evidence of medical negligence …”
Accordingly, state Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. quickly approved the request to sue the state in June.
The office of state Attorney General George Jepsen will defend the state from the lawsuit, and an office spokesman said Friday that a response will be filed in court shortly.
Jepsen’s office declined to discuss the case in detail, but it is looking into whether a medical malpractice suit can be filed against the state on behalf of a “third party” who was not receiving the treatment alleged to have been negligent. It was Rankin who was receiving the treatment, not Rohner, his victim, whose estate is suing the state.
Seligman cited a 1996 case that he says recognized the principle that malpractice could be invoked in behalf of a third-party victim — even though the plaintiff still lost in that case, Fraser v. United States, under circumstances Seligman called different from the Rohner case.
The 11-page, single-spaced “certificate of good faith belief” that Seligman submitted to the court includes a detailed description of the psychologist’s qualifications and experience but does not list his name. That’s because of a quirk in the law that requires that “the name and signature of the … health care provider [be] expunged.” But the professional description exactly matches that of Dr. Leslie Lothstein, a prominent forensic psychologist attached to the Institute of Living in Hartford since 1986.
The certificate says that a review of the case documents suggested “knowledge by RVH staff … that Mr. Rankin was not taking his medications” and that “he was emotionally deteriorating and making more threats against his mother. … There was sufficient evidence that at the very least Mr. Rankin should have been psychiatrically hospitalized for his and others’ safety.”
RVS is a “respite care” facility, which patients enter voluntarily to be treated on an outpatient basis or during relatively short stays. It’s a step down from a facility such as Connecticut Valley Hospital, where a patient can be admitted for a long term and be evaluated for a possible order that he receive medications against his will.
Describing RVS, Mary Kate Mason, a mental health department spokeswoman, said that “respite [care] is an alternative to hospitalization with the intent of treating people in the community. It is temporary, safe, supported housing and is in addition to clinical services. Respite services are voluntary, meaning the individual receiving respite services can leave any time.”
But Rankin, who is in his 20s, had been under treatment there for a period of months, Seligman said Friday. “RVS exercised custody and control over its patients’ ability to leave the facility in that it issued (or withheld) ‘passes’ and determined whether and for how long a patient could leave the facility” and where the patient could go, the lawsuit says.
On various occasions before the killing, Rankin and his mother “discussed with RVS staff whether the son should be permitted to leave the facility for the Christmas holiday” and visit his mother, the suit says, adding that RVS OK’d it.
Doctors testified in Rankin’s murder trial that he is schizophrenic and has experienced severe psychosis.
On Dec. 26, 2013, state police arrived at the home shared by Rankin and Rohner in Deep River after Rankin’s father had called 911 and said he believed “my son killed my ex-wife” and that he could not get into the house. The son told police, “I killed my mother because she is pretty much responsible for everything that has gone wrong in my life.”
Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant’s investigative desk, with a focus on government and politics. Contact him at jlender@courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115 and find him on Twitter@jonlender.
