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Bridgewater State Hospital Guards Face Justice For Patient's Death

BOSTON (CBS) - For six years, his family has demanded justice and now those calls are finally being heard.

Lisa Brown says there is finally justice for her late son Joshua Messier who was only 23 years old when he died while being restrained by guards at Bridgewater State Hospital six years ago.

Now three of those guards have been indicted, charged with manslaughter and civil rights violations.

"I'm thankful to God that finally, finally when it seemed like there wasn't going to be any justice that there's a first step," said Lisa Brown.

Josh Messier suffered from schizophrenia. He was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital after staffers at a private hospital filed assault and battery charges.

A month later, the incident at Bridgewater was captured on video. Following his restraint, Messier died of heart failure.

"They piled on top of him. They pushed into his back. Apparently they folded him in half so he couldn't breath," Brown said.

Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz declined to press charges after what he called an exhaustive investigation.

But last year, Attorney General Martha Coakley reopened the case appointing a special prosecutor who decided to seek charges. Attorney Roderick MacLeish represented Joshua's mother.

"This case represents a colossal failure of our criminal justice system to ensure those who wear uniforms, whether law enforcement or correctional officers, are held to same standard that you and I would be held to if we had committed crimes like this," MacLeish said.

In a statement District Attorney Cruz says, "We have always worked to the best of our ability to see that justice prevails within the criminal justice system, and that remains true now."

But Lisa Brown remains angry. "They're gonna protect themselves, protect their people and it doesn't matter what's right or wrong and it doesn't matter what I say or what I feel what's been done to Joshua."

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