The Massachusetts corrections officer severely injured when he was attacked by an inmate in August is making "a miraculous recovery," a state representative said Thursday.
Matthew Tidman was left on life support after being repeatedly hit in the head by a piece of gym equipment at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Shirley on Aug. 31. Inmate Ray Booth has been indicted in the attack.
On Thursday, State Rep. Steve Xiarhos released what he called an "incredible" update to his Facebook page.
"After nearly being beaten to death by an inmate armed with a free weight, Massachusetts Corrections Officer Matt Tidman has made a miraculous recovery!!" Xiarhos wrote. "Miracle Matt is out of his coma and walking and talking!!!"
Prosecutors with the Middlesex District Attorney's office said the preliminary investigation suggests that shortly after 2 p.m. on Aug. 31, Booth was in the recreation facility in the medium security area at MCI-Shirley when he took a metal pole weighing 10 to 15 pounds and attacked Tidman, who was monitoring the inmates, striking him multiple times.
Tidman's fellow corrections officers restrained Booth after the attack and provided aid to Tidman, who was taken by medical helicopter to Lahey Hospital in Burlington.
"To see him lying on a hospital bed in this condition. It kills me," Tidman's brother, Nick, told NBC10 Boston in an interview earlier this month.
Booth was immediately transferred to protective custody at nearby MCI-Souza Baranowski.
The Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union said the attack was unprovoked.
Investigators assigned to the district attorney's office said they obtained video of the incident and conducted interviews at the facility. Their investigation revealed that Booth allegedly unscrewed the object used to strike Tidman, which was part of a weight-lifting apparatus, and concealed it as he approached and then attacked.
Booth is currently serving a life sentence for murder out of Virginia. He had been transferred to Massachusetts last year to serve his sentence as part of an agreement where certain inmates are transferred between states. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges in Middlesex Superior Court in October.
NBC10 Boston has learned while in prison in Virginia, Booth earned a lengthy disciplinary record comprised of 60 offenses, including a violent assault on another inmate. In January of last year, citing his poor adjustment, the Virginia Department of Corrections recommended he be transferred to an out-of-state prison. He was put into MCI-Shirley, which is medium security.
