A Department of Corrections officer who helped restrain an uncooperative psychiatric patient said she never saw Matthew Millar place his knee on the man, offering little support for prosecutors’ claim that her fellow officer had caused the man’s death by kneeling on his back.

Josephine McDonough testified that Millar only participated in the restraint of 50-year-old Jason Rothe toward the end of the melee, which occurred in the state’s secure psychiatric unit in April 2023.

Millar has been charged with second-degree murder. His lawyers have countered that Rothe died of a heart attack and that their client is being scapegoated for institutional failures.

During several hours on the witness stand on Wednesday, the second day of the trial, McDonough described significant lapses in departmental protocols and a lack of specific training to handle a situation that quickly turned violent.

She testified that her supervisor erred when she abruptly decided to forcibly remove Rothe from a room in the unit, which is connected to the New Hampshire State Prison. McDonough said the supervisor, Lesley-Ann Cosgro, failed to articulate a plan for the removal of Rothe, which McDonough said involved six correctional officers. Cosgro also failed to call a nurse on duty to attempt to de-escalate the situation prior to using force, in violation of departmental policy, according to McDonough.

When the group barged into the room, she said they quickly lost control.

“I remember bodies being scrambled around and I remember feeling like I was the only one fighting him,” she said.

After getting one handcuff on Rothe, McDonough said his other wrist escaped her grasp.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh shit, he’s going to get me now,’ because now he has one handcuff on and a loose handcuff dangling,’” she said.

“I grabbed my radio and I smacked him in the head with it,” McDonough said.

At around that point, McDonough said Millar entered the room, arriving from another part of the facility. Multiple correctional officers were still struggling with Rothe when McDonough said she momentarily left the room to retrieve leg irons. When she returned, she said Rothe was no longer moving. Millar had his hands – but not his knee – on one of Rothe’s shoulders, she recalled.

Later that day, Concord Hospital doctors pronounced Rothe dead.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Dan Jimenez’s questioning of McDonough, the first major witness called in the trial, did not clarify when exactly prosecutors believe Millar knelt on Rothe’s back or what evidence they would rely on to support it.

A hand-held camera used during the altercation apparently malfunctioned and did not capture a recording of what happened.

Rothe, a New Hampshire native, spent the last five years of his life in New Hampshire Hospital or at the secure psychiatric unit, according to his sister, Aimee Khatib, who testified earlier Wednesday.

Khatib said Rothe started experiencing symptoms of mental illness at the age of 19.

“He told me that he was hearing voices,” she said. “He said it felt like he was able to read the minds of his co-workers, but he knew that wasn’t right.”

McDonough, who had started working at the secure psychiatric unit about six months before Rothe’s death, said she had developed a rapport with him, but that he could be explosive and violent at times.

On the day of the fatal altercation, McDonough said Rothe was particularly agitated. That morning, he had accused correctional officers of starving him. Rothe was refusing to leave what correctional officers referred to as the “day room,” a small, sterile-looking single-occupancy section of the unit.

McDonough said that while she agreed he needed to be removed from the room, she believed the officers had enough time to appropriately prepare for the extraction, because neither they nor Rothe were at imminent risk. Instead, she testified, Cosgro ordered an “immediate action.” McDonough said that they did not have enough time to put on protective gear and that Cosgro failed to assign everyone roles.

Once they entered the room, their protective shield was quickly cast aside and Rothe levied punches at the guards. Eventually, McDonough said that Cosgro tased him.

Cosgro is among more than 40 witnesses the prosecution has said they may call in the trial, which is scheduled to last until July 1.

 Catherine McLaughlin contributed reporting for this story. Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at j margolis@cmonitor.com.