Cape & Islands News

DA's office coverup death in Cape hospital, Trooper drunk driving

Visitor to Hyannis Hospital killed by employee using a restraint hold
What took hospital, police and D.A.'s office three weeks to reveal killing?
When isn't empty beers cans enough reason to give a Breathalyzer test?

By Walter Brooks

State and local police are investigating the death of an unidentified visitor to Cape Cod Hospital which happened three weeks ago. Daniel J. Ryan, 35, of Quashnet Woods Drive, Mashpee was subdued by employees inside the Hyannis facility on October 9 according to radio station WXTK. The man had been trying to visit his wife who was being treated for psychiatric issues.

Hospital security put the man in a choke hold, rendering him unconscious. Then he died.

The Cape Cod Times reported that the 35-year-old man came to the hospital to visit his wife, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. The man ended up in the emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation, the source said. The emergency room employees placed him in "one-on-one observation," which means a hospital employee was assigned to watch him closely.

At some point, the man fled from the emergency room and ran through the hospital, the Cape Cod Times source said. A short time later, a page was heard over the hospital's loud speakers calling for help in the lobby of the Mugar Building. The page later announced a "Code 99," a medical emergency usually requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The man was placed on life support due to a lack of oxygen in his brain. At the time of his death he had been on life support for nearly two weeks.

The hospital says employees restrained the patient in order to prevent him from injuring anyone else. Several Cape Cod Hospital employees were injured.

Why isn't our DA investigating some crimes?

"The facts that State Trooper Peirce admitted to consuming alcohol earlier in the day and that two empty beer cans were found in his car were not enough to compel police to administer a Breathalyzer test."
                                - D.A. O'Keefe.

Hospital security put the man in a choke hold, rendering him unconscious, according to WXTK radio. Another source told cctoday that DA O'Keefe has too many skeletons in his own closet to vigorously pursue some case, the failure to investigate the highway crash involving a State Trooper was mentioned as another example.

The D.A. said yesterday, "The facts that State Trooper Peirce admitted to consuming alcohol earlier in the day and that two empty beer cans were found in his car were not enough to compel police to administer a Breathalyzer test."

It would have been compelling enough to get most drivers tested and arrested.

That death on an abortion table, the DA's missing guns

In 2007 the DA's office did not pursue an abortion death until this newssite and others reported the incident.

Cape Codders have to wonder whether Mr. O'Keefe's own problems have him unable to police the police and the "power structure" here.

He has never fully explained the disappearance of guns from his Sandwich home, and he has never been prosecuted for his failure to keep them locked and possibly even registered.

The 2006 theft of a firearm from the home of Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe - a firearm for which no serial number is available - has raised questions concerning the Cape's top law enforcement official.

Who polices the police?

The police department investigation of the missing gun, which remains open, has been hampered by what a department memo calls "the lack of a serial number."

State law requires that the serial number of a firearm be recorded every time the gun is sold or transferred. Law enforcement officials say serial numbers are key tools for investigating crimes involving guns.

Massachusetts law also requires that the owner of a firearm hold a license or permit appropriate for that gun.

O'Keefe lives in Sandwich. On Dec. 28, 2006, Sandwich police responded to a report of breaking and entering at his home. During that break-in, according to police, a gun was stolen.

The police department investigation of the missing gun, which remains open, has been hampered by what a department memo calls "the lack of a serial number."

Why wouldn't the chief law enforcement officer for Cape Cod and the Islands have the registeration numbers? And what would your police department do to a mere resident were they to not disclose that information?

Who polices the police?

The hospital statement

The hospital released a prepared statement Friday which read in part, "Cape Cod Hospital can confirm that a patient who died in the hospital earlier this week was involved in an altercation in which certain of our employees restrained the individual while waiting for additional assistance."

"Several of those employees were injured themselves although none to the extent of those involved in the event at Massachusetts General Hospital just a few days ago."