HALIFAX - A key procedural change made after the death of a mentally ill man while in custody would not have helped Howard Hyde had it been in place when he was arrested in 2007, the sheriff of Halifax told a fatality inquiry Thursday.
Laurel Purcell, whose responsibilities include court security and the transfer of those in custody, was referring to revisions to a document known as a health information transfer form, or HIT form.
The form, in use since 2002, is filled out each time someone in custody is transferred from a health-care facility to a court or correctional facility. It is supposed to alert police, corrections officers and the sheriff's deputies to important medical information, including instructions for medications.
The use of the form has come under close scrutiny during the inquiry, mainly because testimony from police and deputy sheriffs has revealed confusion over instructions included on Hyde's form by an emergency room doctor.
Hyde, a 45-year-old musician with a long history of schizophrenia, died in jail about 30 hours after he was arrested for an alleged assault and Tasered during a struggle inside a Halifax police station.
Immediately after the Tasering, Hyde was taken to hospital. He was released into police custody about six hours later to be arraigned before a judge.
The note on his HIT form, written by Dr. Janet MacIntyre, instructs police to return Hyde to hospital if the judge failed to order a forensic psychiatric examination.
Earlier, MacIntyre testified that she included the note because she wanted to make sure Hyde received an assessment, something that wasn't done at the hospital because the doctor was confident the court could provide one after the arraignment.
Police and deputy sheriffs have testified they didn't have the authority to bring Hyde back to the hospital, something MacIntyre said she was unaware of.
Purcell testified that on Nov. 21, 2007, one of her deputies called her to ask about MacIntyre's note after police transferred custody of Hyde to the deputy sheriffs at a local courthouse.
The sheriff said she told the deputy that regardless of what the note said, the deputies did not have the authority to detain or transfer Hyde if he was released or remanded into custody after the court hearing.
"If the court released Mr. Hyde from custody, we would have no authority to arrest him or to detain him," she told inquiry counsel Dan MacRury. "We're not even able to offer ... a ride in one of our secure vehicles."
She said the only way the deputies could legally transfer Hyde to the hospital was if he had a medical emergency.
The deputy sheriffs escorting Hyde did not hand the HIT form to the Crown and defence lawyers handling the case because the legislation at the time forbade them from sharing such information with anyone but health-care providers.
In the end, the judge presiding over the arraignment did not order a psychiatric assessment and Hyde was sent to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, where he died the next day after a scuffle with guards.
On Thursday, Purcell testified that changes made to the form after Hyde's death would not prevent a similar chain of events from happening again.
Under the new policy, the HIT form is to be shared with Crown and defence lawyers if it contains information about a medical condition "that is unusual or out of the ordinary."
Purcell said that rule would not apply in Hyde's case.
"I don't think that Mr. Hyde had a medical condition that was unusual," she said.
"I think the (doctor's) remarks on the health information transfer form may have been unique ... but I don't believe that the medical condition was unusual."
Purcell said she had reservations about the revised form.
"I don't believe that the wording adequately reflects the intent that the Department of Justice is trying to achieve," she said.
The sheriff said the rules should say that anything "pertinent to the person's well being" should be disclosed to the lawyers.
The inquiry continues Friday.
