The man who caused an evacuation of Baker University Center more than a week ago by threatening suicide on the building's fifth floor again threatened to jump early yesterday morning - this time from the top of the city's parking garage, according to a police report.
And just as in his previous attempt, the man came down without any serious injuries - save for the damage caused by two shots from a Taser.
Athens police officers responded to a request from Ohio University police officers at 2:40 a.m. yesterday about a man on the sixth floor of the Athens parking garage, across from city hall on East Washington Street, according to an Athens Police Department report.
Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer confirmed the man they found was Marc Kidby, the same man who threatened suicide on the fifth floor of Baker Center on Feb. 8 and an administrative associate in OU's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Kidby is a 2003 graduate of OU with a bachelor's degree in legal communications.
Officers spotted Kidby with a knife and cell phone by the southeast corner of the garage's sixth floor, and they later discovered a three-page handwritten suicide note in his car parked on College Street, according to the police report. Kidby, who was talking on his cell phone to 911 operators from the top of the garage, said he would jump if officers approached him, according to the police report.
Kidby paced back and forth about four times between the wall and Officer Roger Deardorff, who had been talking with Kidby, according to the report. That allowed APD Officer Destry Flick to get behind Kidby and shoot him with his Taser, according to the report.
Flick shot Kidby with his Taser to get control of him so he wouldn't jump
Chief Mayer said. Flick then gave Kidby a second burst from his Taser when Kidby was on the ground and would not show his hands.
Kidby was sent to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital to be evaluated by Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services, according to the report. Kidby was treated and released from O'Bleness and then transported to another facility, said Lynn O'Leary, a nursing supervisor at the hospital.
Kidby's note indicates the reason for his suicide threats might be a recent divorce from his wife. The note describes Kidby's love for his wife and daughter and asks that he be given a traditional funeral so that people can attend and say goodbye.
This divorce has killed me Kidby wrote. I cannot live a life apart from my wife and baby. I made a commitment to love (my wife) forever and nothing can change that.
The Post has decided not to publish the entire note in order to shield the identities of some of the family members Kidby mentions.
Kidby's wife filed for divorce on Feb. 4, according to the Athens County Court of Common Pleas Web site. Domestic abuse charges and a request for a restraining order were filed against Kidby in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 11, according to he Web site.
I am innocent of the claims against me
but I don't want that to be the focus of this letter
Kidby wrote in the note without specifically mentioning the domestic buse allegations.
Mayer declined to speculate on whether Kidby would be charged with disorderly conduct for the threats or whether Kidby will be placed in confinement.
That's up to the health professionals
he said.
Healthcare benefits for OU employees are divided into two categories, outpatient for counseling that will run about a day and inpatient for lengthier stays, said Greg Fialko, Ohio University's director of Benefits and Compensation.
For outpatients, the first five counseling visits of the 50 days allotted per year are free, with a seventy percent discount for doctors within a network of approved counselors and fifty percent for doctors outside the network during the next 45 days, he said.
Fialko could not comment on whether, or to what extent, Kidby had received treatment because of health care privacy laws.
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