I cannot believe that Mark Bechard is going to be released from the grounds of Riverview.

Has our state totally lost its sense of reality? I must make a comparison to another Maine person accused of murder.

First, we have Bechard. There is absolutely no question that he stabbed/killed four of the most innocent people on this earth.

This happened after a previous AMHI discharge to the community. And now he is going to be released again? Whether it’s a residential facility with supervision or not, Bechard will be living in the midst of a nursing home, a day care and several physicians’ offices with a constant flow of patients.

If Bechard does not take his meds while there, he cannot be forced to take them. And I bet the current “emergency plan” will be about as effective as it was the other time. What will happen this time? Who might his victims be? Children? Patients from the nursing home?

Second, we have Dennis Dechaine, well-known in this state as a child murderer. He has been in prison for 24 years.

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There is not one shred of positive evidence against him for this crime, and he has consistently been denied his legal rights. He was a scapegoat from the very first day of that crime.

As with Bechard, Dechaine is well known to be “no problem” prisoner, yet it is quite clear that no one is going to let him out of that prison to live anywhere, ever. I have consistently said this situation is a clear travesty.

I believe that Bechard belongs at Riverview for the rest of his life; Dechaine is welcome to live next door to me anytime.

Rhonda Hamilton

Washington


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