The mother of an Arizona man who was strangled to death Saturday while awaiting trial on a drug charge in Massachusetts blasted state officials yesterday for failing to protect William Mosher and for not letting him return home to be treated for mental illness, reports the Boston Globe. ”We are outraged,” said Carolyn J. Mosher, whose 32-year-old son was strangled with a ligature in a cell at a state hospital, allegedly by another inmate there. A spokeswoman for the state department of correction said there were no lapses in policies or procedures in connection with the killing.
Mosher said her son’s arrest on an OxyContin drug trafficking charge in Massachusetts in 1999 was still not resolved five years later, and because their son could not make bail, he spent the last 18 months bouncing between the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge and Bridgewater State Hospital. Mosher was afflicted with bipolar disorder and had been institutionalized in Arizona. He was allegedly attacked by Bradley Burns, 29, who was at the 340-bed psychiatric hospital while awaiting trial, at about noon on Saturday. Burns allegedly first called attention to Mosher, who was found lying on the floor with a ligature around his neck, by telling guards there was a body in his cell. Burns was to be arraigned Monday on murder charges. His attorney said the suspect had led ”a life of achievement” until experiencing a mental breakdown 18 months ago.