The family of Melissa Boarts, who was fatally shot by Auburn police in April, said information released by the Auburn Police Division wrongly portrayed her as a “pill-popping drug addict,” citing a police statement released last month.
A toxicology report along with prescription confirmations released by the family’s attorney and obtained by The Auburn Plainsman show Melissa was prescribed the medications listed on the toxicology report aside from ibuprofen.
Ibuprofen is commonly taken as an over-the-counter pain killer and can be bought at most supermarkets and drug stores. However, it can require a prescription when in high dosages or when combined with other drugs.
The toxicology report does not specify the dosage present in her system at the time of her death.
An APD statement released Aug. 19 said the toxicology report indicated Melissa ingested six medications near the time of her death on April 3. Police said not all of the medications were prescribed to her, something the family refuted in a statement sent to media the following week.
“The medications that she … was on are her daily, everyday medications that she took on a daily basis,” said Melinda Boarts, Melissa’s twin sister. “She did not just pop six pills and go on … some rampage.”
Prescription records show that doctors prescribed Melissa at least seven medications near the time of her death including an antidepressant, two seizure medications, one anxiety medication and a sleeping pill. Five of the seven prescribed medications were in her system at the time of her death, the toxicology report shows.
APD Chief Paul Register said the statement that “not all of which were prescribed her” is accurate, but the main purpose for mentioning her prescription medication was to call attention to potential adverse effects when combined with alcohol.
According to the toxicology report, Melissa had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.097 percent. A blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more is considered driving under the influence in Alabama.
“We can’t know if a medication is prescribed or not if it’s certain types,” Register said. “Ibuprofen, in some situations, is prescribed. It’s not necessarily over the counter. And without knowing that, I think that that’s the point of it. We won’t know if that’s prescribed."
In defense of the Aug. 19 statement from police, Register said regardless of whether or not Melissa was taking a prescription-strength ibuprofen or an over-the-counter form, she did not have a documented prescription for the drug in her system.
Melissa, 36, was shot on Red Creek Road in Macon County on a Sunday afternoon, April 3, after her parents called police when she got in her car, left and began driving erratically on Interstate 85. Terry Boarts, Melissa's mother, said she informed police Melissa was suicidal and carrying a small pocket knife.
Police said they received a call reporting a bipolar, suicidal motorist and confirmed that they did receive the parents’ report of the knife. And after following Melissa for several miles along Interstate 85, police stopped the car on a rural road in Macon County to "check her welfare."
Police said she then charged officers with a lock-blade knife, and two officers fired at her, with one shot hitting her in the chest and killing her. A Macon County grand jury ruled the shooting justified last month after the Macon County district attorney's office presented evidence from an investigation conducted by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations.
The Aug. 19 APD news release also said Melissa knocked an officer to the ground during the confrontation, something her family said would be unlikely because of her shoulder issues. Terry said Melissa had three or four shoulder surgeries in the past and could not lift her arms above her head.
“Her shoulders were held together by pins and stuff,” Melinda added. “When they said that an officer got knocked over … it’s just weird. We want to see that video because we know that she had no upper-body strength at all because her shoulders were totally messed up.”
When asked if he was aware of Melissa’s shoulder issues, Register said he wouldn’t “get into the facts of the case” outside of officially released information because of the ongoing lawsuit.
Melissa dealt with mental health issues for several years, her family said, but was never violent.
Melissa had seizures since she was 15 and began suffering from bipolar disorder in her early 20s, Terry said. In her 30s, Melissa was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and manic depression, she added.
However she never threatened to kill herself before that day, Terry said.
Auburn police had mental health training several weeks before Melissa's death, Register said, but the Boarts have doubts about its effectiveness.
Register said he couldn’t “speak to all the contents” of the training specifically.
“There are a number of tactics that they receive in training such as that, and it would be the things that you would expect in dealing with those who are mentally disturbed,” he said.
Melissa, raised in Montgomery and a Robert E. Lee High School graduate, worked as a medical assistant for different doctors in Montgomery until her shoulder problems took her out of work about four or five years ago, her mother said.
In her final couple of years, she focused her energy into raising Skylar, her 2-year-old daughter, whose birthday she celebrated the day before she was shot, Terry said.
The city filed a motion Wednesday to dismiss a claim in a lawsuit filed by the Boarts family Aug. 2.
The complaint stated officers “negligently, and/or recklessly, and or/wantonly allowe(ed) a firearm to be discharged, which proximately caused the death of Melissa Boarts,” also claiming that officers committed assault and battery upon her, causing her death.
The family attorney Julian McPhillips said their next action will be to pursue other documents and body- and dash-camera footage, even if through third-party subpoenas to other law enforcement agencies.
“I think we’ll eventually get it through a litigation discovery,” McPhillips said.
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