LEWISTON – A Norway man shot by three Lewiston police officers in 2003 is nearly out of legal options in his lawsuit charging excessive force.

Vince Berube, 44, is expected to decide within a week whether he will appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Portland attorney John Campbell said.

On Dec. 17, 2003, at 9:30 p.m. Officers Carly Conley, Matthew Vierling and Eric Syphers were in the Lewiston police station. Berube had parked his pickup truck in a vacant lot and slashed his wrists and stabbed his chest repeatedly. He suffered from bipolar disorder with schizophrenic episodes, according to U.S. Magistrate David M. Cohen.

Berube’s actions were interrupted by somebody who drove up to the lot. Believing it was a police officer, Berube became enraged and drove to the back of the police station where officers park their cruisers. He drove into the lot, jumped out of his truck and ran to the tailgate and grabbed a hammer. He began smashing windows of the parked cruisers.

Conley had walked into the parking lot to retrieve something from her cruiser when she heard the smashed glass and Berube shouting obscenities about police. She radioed for help. She saw his shirt front covered with blood.

Vierling and Syphers responded to Conley’s call. By the time they opened the door, they heard gunshots. Vierling saw Berube on the ground. Syphers saw Conley about 10 feet from Berube. She was ordering Berube to stay down. Syphers also told him to show his hands, which were blocked by his body, Cohen wrote.

Vierling and Syphers thought Berube had a gun and was getting ready to fire at Conley. Conley and Syphers continued to yell at Berube to stay down and show his hands. Vierling said Berube rolled onto his back so Vierling and Syphers fired at Berube, Cohen wrote.

A witness from a Lisbon Street apartment told police she had witnessed the events and gave a statement.

Berube suffered a paralyzed leg and shattered hip, among other injuries. He pleaded guilty to criminal threatening, a felony.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied Berube’s motion Friday to hear the case again. An earlier ruling by that court’s three-judge panel overturned a decision by the U.S. District Court in Portland that denied the police officers’ motion for summary judgment. That means the Portland judge had paved the way for trial.

The officers appealed that decision to the Circuit Court, which sided with the defendant that the case could be dismissed.

Berube asked that the three-judge panel at the Circuit Court hear the case again. That panel declined his request. A larger group of judges in the Circuit Court lacked a majority needed to send the case back to the three-judge panel for a second hearing, effectively upholding the smaller panel’s ruling not to hear the case a second time.

That leaves Berube with only one more venue for appeal – the highest court in the country. Even if he does, the top court doesn’t have to hear it.

Ed Benjamin Jr., who represented the Lewiston officers, said Tuesday he believed all along his clients’ actions were reasonable. He said he was only surprised the Portland judge didn’t dismiss the case.

Campbell said he thinks the Circuit Court made two major mistakes in reasoning when it overturned the U.S. District Court decision. First, Campbell said, the Boston court shouldn’t be deciding facts of the case. That’s the job of the jury, he said, referring to the court’s view that the police officers didn’t use excessive force even though Berube was on the ground when he the officers’ shots continued.

Second, Campbell said the Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal before the case had gone to trial.