L Walker 
As Plainville and a parents group argue over financial responsibility in the Kyle Fasold child pornography case, a federal judge has ordered a psychological evaluation for the former youth swim club volunteer.
Fasold, 51, was recently transferred to in a federal medical facility in North Carolina for an extensive evaluation after several suicide attempts have left him a parapalegic.
The criminal case against Fasold, who is accused of secretly taping underage girls undressing in a school locker room, has moved slowly since his arrest in the spring of 2020.
It has triggered a series of civil lawsuits against the town and Fasold, with the parents of teenage girls saying their daughters were traumatized by being secretly taped over a period of years. Prosecutors have said Fasold, who at one point was vice president of the parents association, posted some of the videos and photos to child pornography sites on the dark web.
This spring, the town launched a counter-action against the parents association for the swim club, saying its leaders should have done a better job of vetting volunteers and association members.
That triggered a backlash from several residents, including Zach Ferguson, who told the town council this month that the parents shouldn’t be blamed.
“The volunteer association was in charge of raising funds … every swimmer on the team’s parents are members of the association, so essentially the town is choosing to respond by suing the victims’ families,” Ferguson said.
Lawsuits from the families of eight girls and young women contend that the town was responsible for monitoring activities at the high school pool and locker room, which the Blue Devils team was allowed to use.
The suits contend that then-Assistant Recreation Director Kimberly Crowley selected the directors of the nonprofit Blue Devils swim club, and that the town should have better monitored volunteers’ behavior.
Several of the suits claim that town employees were repeatedly told of concerns about “inappropriate and disturbing conduct” by Fasold, but never intervened. The suits do not give details about the conduct or who observed it.
The town, however, argues that the association should have done background checks on Fasold, and failed to monitor or supervise him. The town’s legal action, known as an apportionment actions, seeks to hold the association accountable for some or all of whatever damage result from the suits.
Fasold, a father of two, until last year was a widely respected part of the community. He was a sales manager for a medical device manufacturer, but since federal agents arrested him in March 2020 he has been jailed, his job ended and his wife divorced him.
According to a court motion filed by his attorney, Fasold tried to hang himself two months after his arrest while being held at the federal Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island. He was comatose but revived at a hospital.
Then in August 2020, Fasold leapt about 20 feet from the second tier of a cell block at Wyatt, says the motion by federal Assistant Public Defender Charles Willson. Fasold underwent spinal fusion and has been in a wheelchair and incontinent ever since, Willson wrote.
Federal authorities transferred Fasold to the Columbia Regional Care Center in South Carolina last fall, and was assigned to a four-person room with other patients in the criminal justice system.
“Mr. Fasold did not disclose the nature of his charges so as to avoid the accompanying risk, especially given that he was now a paraplegic,” Willson wrote.
In February 2021, staff found Fasold passed out and unresponsive; he was revived at a hospital where doctors determined he had deliberately overdosed after taking days’ worth of pain medication all at once.
“Mr. Fasold is back on suicide watch due to three Tylenol having been found in his diaper on March 27, 2021,” Willson wrote in April when he sought a competency hearing for his client.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shea ordered Fasold to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina. After those results are evaluated, the court will schedule a competency hearing, Shea wrote a memo.
