Family Waits Years For Millions After Son Beaten At Hospital

Jason Davis case a missed opportunity for Mass.

rom his retirement home in Pennsylvania, Frank Davis has watched the Joshua Messier case unfold with keen interest and painful familiarity.

Messier is the young man who died while being restrained by guards at Bridgewater State Hospital in 2009. Governor Deval Patrick has called the death “disgusting” and has disciplined several officials deemed responsible.

But before the death of Messier, there was the beating of Jason Davis, Frank Davis’s son. He, too was a mental patient at a Massachusetts state hospital — in his case, Westborough State Hospital. He suffered a beating at the hands of guards, in 1993.