Hostage Standoff at Mass. Jail Ends Peacefully
MIDDLETON, Mass. -- An inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge took a computer teacher hostage at Middleton Jail Tuesday morning, a jail official said.
The standoff ended peacefully within 15 to 20 minutes after three trained hostage negotiators at the facility persuaded William Goddard, 42, of Worcester to surrender and release the hostage, said Barbara Maher, chief of staff to Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins.
The incident occurred just after 8 a.m. in a classroom where Goddard was attending a computer training course, Maher said.
He held a pen that had been whittled into a weapon to the neck of the teacher, whom jail officials declined to identify yesterday.
Staffers Rick Smith -- the jail's lead hostage negotiator, who has recently negotiated a resolution to two other hostage incidents at the jail -- Dave Cammarata and Christine Arsenault were able to persuade Goddard to surrender, Maher said.
Both Cammarata and Arsenault had completed an FBI-run hostage negotiation course, Maher confirmed.
"You just try to be proactive on these issues," Maher said. "You never know what could happen in a correctional facility. You want to have a staff that's trained in as many areas as possible."
Goddard, who was charged in a 2008 shooting in Webster that left his girlfriend dead and her co-worker injured, was suffering from a mental health issue, Maher said. He believed that a girlfriend was being kept in the basement of the jail.
"He clearly wasn't in a right frame of mind," Maher said.
Goddard underwent a mental health evaluation yesterday after the incident and was to spend the night in a segregation unit. He's due in Salem District Court this morning to face charges of kidnapping, hostage taking by a prisoner, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
The Worcester Telegram and Gazette reported in 2008 that Goddard is a Level 3 sex offender and that he has a seven-page criminal record.
Copyright 2012 - The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service