By Ryan J. Stanton
The Bay City Times
BAY CITY, Mich. — Bay City Police Officer Michael Socia found himself in a scuffle with a 50-year-old woman on Thursday when he went to serve her a mental health petition for hospitalization.
The woman, who lives in the 100 block of North Union Street, resisted Socia’s attempts to serve her the papers, allegedly hitting the officer over the head with a snow shovel and sending him to the hospital instead, according to police and family members.
''She fruited out,’' said family friend Kelly Lenea, who was on the scene after the incident happened around 1 p.m.
For more than two hours afterward, several Bay City police officers arrived and remained on the scene, along with the woman’s 21-year-old daughter, Sheena Fullerton of Kawkawlin.
Several items, including a large shovel and a metal bat, remained scattered in the front yard, which was roped off by police tape. Socia was taken to Bay Regional Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries, police said.
''It’s not serious and that’s about all I can say,’' said Officer Matthew Hayes. ''From what we understand, he’s doing fine.’'
Deputy Chief Thomas Pletzke said the petition Socia tried to deliver was for an examination. He said the woman was taken to Bay Regional Medical Center.
The investigation will be forwarded to the Bay County Prosecutor’s Office where charges will be sought for assault with the intent to commit murder, Pletzke said.
Bay County Animal Control was on the scene to deal with the woman’s five dogs, three of which were taken away, witnesses said.
Fullerton said she was worried that her mother had two other pets loose in the house: a pair of rather large macaws — bright-feathered, long-tailed parrots native to Central and South America.
''They’re a foot long,’' she said. ''They’ll tear the place apart.’'
Fullerton said her mother is divorced and lived alone in the small yellow apartment house on the northwest corner of East North Union and North Dewitt streets. She said her mother had a mental disorder and lived off of government disability checks.
''She has not been herself for the last few months,’' she said, adding that she tried to seek help for her mother and personally went to Bay-Arenac Behavioral Health last week to see about getting her mother committed.
''They told me to go talk to her counselor, but I can’t talk to her counselor because of the privacy act,’' she said.
''Well, guess what, somebody got hurt. This would never have happened if they would have just listened to me last week.’'
Fullerton says she’s still uncertain how police ended up at her mother’s doorstep.
Robert Blackford, CEO of Bay-Arenac Behavioral Health, said he was bound by rules of confidentiality from discussing the case.
Generally speaking, however, the agency does work in tandem with police to initiate a ''hold’’ on certain individuals and bring them to the hospital for an around-the-clock psychiatric evaluation, Blackford said.
Copyright 2008 The Bay City Times