BROOKLIN, Maine — Chip Angell says he fought for his son and tried to get him the help he needed before he died.
One morning last week, outside a local inn, Carl Christopher Angell, 39, connected a hose from the exhaust pipe of a car to the interior compartment and sat inside as he started the engine. He was seriously burned when the car overheated and caught fire after he lost consciousness from the fumes.
Emergency personnel pulled his body from the burning vehicle and then took him by LifeFlight helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital.
According to Chip Angell, his troubled son never regained consciousness after passing out from the exhaust fumes. Chris Angell, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was the top-ranked men’s tennis player in Maine, took his own life.
During phone interviews this week, Chip Angell alternately expressed frustration and gratitude with the people in Maine who had interacted with his son over the past six years. Chris Angell moved to Maine in 2006 from New Jersey, where he had grown up, to help his family run the Brooklin Inn.
Like others afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia, Angell experienced highs and lows as he tried to cope with the disease, his father said. His son had been administered various kinds of medication lately in an attempt to manage his moods.
“It’s the first time he’s ever been depressed,” Chip Angell said of his son’s demeanor over the past several months. “We didn’t know how to handle it.”
In spite of his mental illness, Chris Angell was ranked the top tennis player in the state by the Maine Tennis Association for two years running, in 2010 and 2011.
Brian Mavor, president of the association, said Thursday that he played against Angell a handful of times over the years, including one “epic” 5½-hour match in 2009. He said Angell had been the top player at Clemson University in South Carolina, which has one of the best tennis programs in the country. Years out of college, Angell still played competitively with methodical determination, he said.
“You had to be mentally tough to compete against Chris,” Mavor said. “If Chris was involved, it brought another level of excitement to the tournament. That’s where he shined all of his life.”
Angell, whom his father described as a “racehorse type of athlete,” first developed symptoms of schizophrenia while a student at Indiana University. But after transferring to Clemson for his senior year, he graduated in 1997 with a degree in history.
After college, he competed briefly as a professional on the satellite tournament circuit and not long after started teaching tennis. Angell was a tennis pro at Ellsworth Tennis Center at the time of his death.
Despite his accomplishments on the tennis court, Chris Angell also made repeat appearances in the criminal court system in Ellsworth.
Chip Angell said his son had to take medication for his illness and frequently drank as a form of self-medication. One drinking episode led to Chris being charged with disorderly conduct, which led to bail conditions, which in turn led to frequent violations of those conditions because of Chris’ ongoing consumption of alcohol, the father said.
In 2009, Angell was convicted of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants and as a result was fined $500 and had his license suspended for 90 days, according to court records. In recent years, he also was convicted of other misdemeanor crimes such as operating a motor vehicle without a license, theft of services and sale and use of drug paraphernalia, court records indicate.
Chip Angell said he and his family had hoped that the court system could make his son get the help he needed by ordering ongoing treatment, but that they could not get such an order. He said he felt frustrated that the court did not do more to help Chris.
“He was in and out of jail,” Angell said. “The court system doesn’t have a way to deal with someone who is sick.”
Carletta “Dee” Bassano, district attorney for Hancock County, said Thursday that the criminal court system is not designed to require long-term mental health treatment for someone who commits low-level crimes and who does not want to be committed.
Bassano said she was familiar with Angell’s court history and, when he did receive court-ordered evaluations, he responded positively to treatment and stabilized quickly. Because he expressed no interest in a voluntary commitment, she said, and because the crimes he was charged with did not pose significant threats of bodily harm to anyone, he was allowed to return home after each relatively brief time he spent in jail.
Bassano added that she can understand Chip Angell’s frustration and the anguish he feels over his son’s death.
“It isn’t a mental health system,” Bassano said of the state’s criminal courts. “To the extent that people with mental health issues intersect with it, our options are limited. The less serious the crime is, the less likely a [commitment order] is going to happen.”
According to Assistant Hancock County District Attorney William Entwisle, Angell was facing bail violations and charges of violating a protection order and terrorizing this past winter and was evaluated to determine if he was competent. After serving time in jail and at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, Entwisle said Friday, those charges were resolved. Angell was not facing any charges at the time of his death, he said.
Chip Angell said he is unhappy with the limited care his son received at Riverview this past winter. He said Riverview staff made no effort to contact him or Chris’ other family members while he was being kept there.
“They medicated him [for court purposes] but they didn’t treat him as a patient,” Chip Angell said. Developing a long-term treatment plan for Chris, he added, should have been “a simple thing.”
According to Chris’ mother, Gail Angell, her son received powerful medication at Riverview that helped him and made him realize how sick he was. But officials there stopped administering the medications before they released Chris in March, she said, which took a psychological toll on him.
A registered nurse, Gail Angell said Friday that she was in New Jersey in the weeks after her son was released from Riverview. She said he called her on the phone and told her he had suicidal thoughts.
“Now he’s gone. He’s gone forever,” she said.
Chip Angell said he and his family did not try to have Chris committed to a psychiatric institution against his will. Doing so would have been “cruel and almost impossible,” he said.
“Life doesn’t work like that,” he said.
Angell said the family tried to get Chris admitted to Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor, but to no avail. He said he filed a grievance complaint with Riverview officials before Chris killed himself over his son’s treatment there and that he plans to pursue it.
“He needed a place to go,” Chip Angell said.
Mary Louise McEwen, superintendent of Riverview, said Friday that she could not comment directly on Angell’s situation or on the grievance because of patient confidentiality concerns.
She did say that when someone is evaluated while facing criminal charges, it is up to the State Forensic Service and the courts to decide how long that person is held and treated. If a person is found not competent, they usually are held and treated until they are competent, she said, at which point they are transferred back to the court system, either to be held in jail or released.
Chip Angell said that as his son tried to cope with his mental and legal problems, he worked hard to keep up his tennis skills. People who work at Ellsworth Tennis Center knew of Chris’ problems but still supported him, he said.
“They did everything they could for him,” he said, his voice catching with emotion. “They were wonderful.”
Chris found time to drive to Portland and Boston for tournaments, according to his father. Chris didn’t have a lot of money but would scrape cash together and hop in the family’s used Volvo and drive off to matches, hoping he would have enough dollars to get back home.
“It was a huge effort on his part to do this,” Chip Angell said.
Devi Maganti, tennis director and manager at the Racket and Fitness Center in Portland, said Thursday that she organized many of the U.S. Tennis Association tournaments that Angell played in and sometimes let him stay at her house.
Maganti said she knew Angell had mental problems, which once or twice manifested during tournament matches, but that she knew tennis was important to him. He had to miss some tournaments a few years ago, she said, but resumed competing and did well.
“As soon as I saw him play, I knew he was very talented,” Maganti said. “I always tried to help as much as I could.”
Some people were less accepting of Angell’s quirks, she said, but she found him sociable and gracious. He had told her he wanted to be the top-ranked player in Maine, she said, but he did not let that ambition affect his attitude off the court, even when he lost matches.
“He never, ever made excuses for his game,” Maganti said. “He always gave credit to his opponent for how well they played.”
She said she and others in the state’s tennis community will miss Chris Angell.
“He definitely made an impression on me, that’s for sure,” she said.
A memorial service for Angell is planned from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at the Brooklin Inn, located on Route 175 in Brooklin village.
Follow BDN reporter Bill Trotter on Twitter at @billtrotter.
Being a tennis player myself i am sad to read this story. This man had a great Father standing by him all the way, good job Chris, more people need fine parents as yourself. Respectfully submitted.
A terrible disease … a terrible ending … a life too short … sympathies to all who loved this young man.
My prayers to the Angell family. I just cannot imagine your pain.
Maine, like so many other states, has seen many cutbacks in mental health programs and we are likely to see more. This is the type of result we can expect. There really are people who just need a solid hand lent to them to be solid productive citizens.
People with Chris’s disease are a dime a dozen. Chris was lucky in that he was so talented, that someone thought to write a detailed article about him.He was so talented that he was actually described as a, “Maine tennis pro,” even though he’s only lived here for 6 years? Usually, in Maine, people refuse to ascribe you from being FROM HERE, unless you were born here. It is truly an acclaim to his talent that this usual distinction was overlooked.I am like Chris, but not talented, and served in Vietnam, and nobody would write an article about me, or the countless millions of other people like me.I am lucky in that I survived my mental illness, as well as many others who have suffered mental illness, living in hospitals, jails, or homeless around our nation.I am sorry for Chris’s family, and sad for Chris. But I am glad that he had a talent that he could express so well for so many years, and that so many other people enjoyed his talents that he generously shared with others.When we think of Chris, we can remember that, like the visible part of the iceberg, most of it is hidden beneath the sea. There is a whole sea of people, just like Chris, who nobody will bother to notice, and perhaps this is just part of human nature. My prayers go out to Chris and his family and friends. Roger.
And regretably it’s only going to get worse with everyone coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. RIP Chris and know that you are not alone.
I am sad to hear that you feel as if no one cares about people with mental illness. I worked at DDPC for many years and there were many caring people there. That’s why they were there. Mental illness is hard for some people to except, at times. A very wise patient asked me once what was the difference between she and I. I told her that those that be hadn’t caught me doing my strange quirks and they had seen hers. Other than that I saw no difference. I wish you well Roger.
Maybe they will write about you, but you are not dead yet.
My sincere condolences to the family. I’m truly sorry that you had to go through all this. I wish I could be there to tell you that in person. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.
This article is very appropriately titled. This young man died of mental illness. Not “suicide” per se. Not alcoholism, which was a symptom of the larger disease. We all need to be more aware that these are real diseases, and, sadly, we need more resources to address them, and the courts need more resources and means for addressing them as well. Our courts and jails are full of people who suffer from mental illness, addictions, and learning disabiities. Yes, people need to take responsibility for their actions, but at the same time we need more appropriate interventions. And I am going to say that such interventions including early diagnosis and prevention interventions should be a priority above endless tax giveaways to those who don’t need them and are doing fine without them. Mental illness can strike ANYONE regardless of social class. Abraham and Mary Lincoln, for example, both suffered from severe depression. We all know of the story of Nobel Laureate mathematician John Nash and his severe history of mental illness. We all have friends or family who suffer from these diseases. Many condolences to the family of this good young man.
I couldn’t agree more. My prayers for the family. I say this as the sibling of a paranoid schizophrenic who committed suicide in 1977. There is no easy answer, but I believe the lack of long term treatment continues to be a serious problem, as well as stigma. People like this go through hell on earth and so do their families. I keep my brother’s kind heart in my memory every day and for me, I look forward to meeting him on the other side.
Then when most people commit suicide, it should be titled “Mental illness claims person’s life” as most people who choose to end their own lives do suffer from mental illness.
Thoughts are with his family and those who knew this talented man.
No sane person commits suicide, but drugs are not the answer. See http://www.cchr.org
I disagree that “no sane person commits suicide”. Frankly, the demonization of suicide is something I’ve never grasped.
He died from suicide induced by psychiatric drugs. http://www.cchr.org
These are also creative minds and smart intelligent people. Many great people had a mental illness, and anyone carrying a faub, or token that changes numbers every couple minutes or so to log into their network at work can thank Mr. Nash for that addition level of security.
It is now questionable whether Eimstein had Asperger’s because how old he was before he spoke and look at all his great ideas.
Why be so scared that someone may hear something?
All the more reason not to throw these people away and call them incompetent, and take things and family away. Give them a break, and maybe someone will surprise you with something great….
I thank the family for being public about their sons mental illness.This disease is soooo dwept under the carpet by many. My heart goes out to you!!
So sorry for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Angell.
This is sad for so many reasons, except one. His suffering is over.
I have visited the Brooklin Inn many times. I’m so sorry for your loss Chip and Gail. It is very disheartening that there was no help to be found for this young man.
It is a sad story. I wish that the reporter would have identified more constructive solutions instead of concentrating on the criminal side. If this was an inevitable consequence for a case with supportive parents and a talented / educated adult, I worry about less protected individuals without a responsive environment. Greater resources are needed from the government to take care of the mentally ill because the problem is immense and deserving of our care and attention.
Mr. and Mrs. Angell, I am so sorry for your loss. I did not know Chris personally, but many like him. Please know that you are more supportive than many parents I have seen and that all that you did was appreciated by Chris, I am sure. May you find comfort in knowing that.
First, I’m very sorry for his family’s terrible loss. There is a serious mental health care crisis in this country and I think most people are blissfully unaware of it; however, anyone can wake up in the nightmare of being unable to get proper mental health help for a loved one. Like cancer, mental health problems are indiscriminate and can appear out of nowhere. It *doesn’t* always happen to someone else.
Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill seems to have resulted in the pendulum swinging to the other extreme, to where mentally ill people are in the prison systems due to offenses committed while in the grip of their illness. Full circle. Meanwhile, parents, spouses, and others deal with the unimaginable frustration of watching a slow-motion train wreck and often feeling unable to get anyone to help. Mental illness is not a moral deficit nor a weakness of character, but a health issue; those who are unwell need ongoing treatment, not condemnation.
I recommend the book “crazy” by Pete Earley; it’s a sobering read.
You do know that one of the side effects of Risperidone is diabetes, don’t you?
Science Daily says one study showed the prevalence rate ( the number of people in a population who have a disease at a given time: the numerator is the number of existing cases of disease at a specified time and the denominator is the total population.) for diabetes in men and women with schizophrenia was 50 percent in women and about 37 percent in men. – http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090330165808.htm (9th paragraph down)
http://ndep.nih.gov/diabetes-facts/index.aspx – National Institues of Health says the prevalence rate for diabetes in the US population is 8.3%.
http://www.google.com/search?q=image+of+diabetic+amputees&hl=en&rlz=1W1ADRA_enUS392&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tUylT5SzFIu16AGT0eCqBA&ved=0CGcQsAQ&biw=1541&bih=690 – images of diabetic amputees.
Remember, people who want to mandatory medicate their persecutees, you may wind up mandatory medicating yourselves.
It also messes with the dopamine system of the body, which is more than just the reward system as it synthesizes into epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline). Good luck being physically active, pushing your body to limits, being an athlete, and not passing out on that drug. That goes for almost if not all the anti psychotic medication.
It is also known to cause what people call sudden unexplained death.
Is high dopamine the cause, or is it the effect?
Sounds to me like the medications are about sedating people more than anything else.
So remember, mandatory medication may cause death.
Risperidone is a dopamine/seratonin antagonist, not an agonist.
Hope you’re well Chris, wherever you are.
It wasn’t ” mental illness” that killed him. He had never been depressed before he was given mood altering psychiatric drugs. for info on what they do see ww.cchr.org
Y0u might also want to check out this documentary, it’s very revealing.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/making-a-killing-the-untold-story-of-psychotropic-drugging/
http://www.naturalnews.com/011353_bad_medicine_psychiatric_drug.html
to chris’s family–i am so very sorry for your loss…mental illness is a terrible disease …to chris…rip…
Think about it. No cruel and unusual punishment. Why lock someone up if they do not deserve to be locked up? He was a Tennis Pro. His love was Tennis. There are no tennis courts in a mental hospital setting. A hospital is also not setup for the kind of help that is not cruel.
They are there to take your shoes, hair pieces, and any jewelry away because they could hurt someone. Not too many blankets because someone may try to hang themselves. They have crafts for 5 year olds because people do not have the mental capacity? They take away plastic knives because someone could get stabbed, but forks are ok? The gym is too small to run, and the activities are limited. Do we lock anyone up who does not commit crimes, or take their stuff and families away? Or lock up people who commit misdemeanors for long? Why treat him or people like him differently because he has a different mind, or better hearing?
The bottom line is the respect for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and as he has relatively respected others, and not seriously harmed anyone else, we do not lock them up. I think people should respect his life, and the life of other people who are called mental.
Maybe we should design a different type of help for mental people?
Sorry to hear someone go….
I am so very saddened to hear this news.
A few years back, Chris taught one of our sons (then a shy and gangly tween) to play tennis at ETC. Despite the fact that Chris was a very accomplished player, he was never, ever anything but patient, kind and tolerant with our young, bumbling kid, who thought Chris was just great and slowly gained confidence and skills under his teaching.
We never knew Chris as anything but gracious, and our hearts go out to Chip and Gail. It took a lot of courage for them to discuss what’s happened so frankly, especially so soon after Chris’ loss, and with so many armchair experts weighing in with their blunt and unfeeling opinions.
I wish the Angells comfort and I hope they can gain a measure of solace in time knowing that Chris was a lovely young man who was appreciated by so many. He’ll never be remembered with anything less than warmth by our family.
My comment was one of condolence and it was for the family and friends. You are stalking. I hope a few others here will see that and also flag you.