Three former guards at Bridgewater State Hospital in Bridgewater, Mass., were acquitted in the death of a patient eight years ago. The three were charged after the patient died of a heart attack when strapped to his bed, according to an article on The Patriot Ledger website.
The were being tried for involuntary manslaughter charges and criminal civil rights violations.
The judge did say that the officers were “woefully” untrained to perform the restraint.
“The Department of Corrections had a robust training program but did not train correctional officers in appropriate techniques for restraining a resistant patient, leaving that crucial learning to ‘on-the-job’ training,” he said.