Update on Neli Latson

Things did not go well for Neli Latson after he received a reduced sentence for assaulting a Stafford County deputy in Virginia.  In June, The Free Lance Star reported:

Latson was living in a group home in Winchester last August when he got into a scuffle with a deputy there. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer and attempting to disarm a police officer but was released on time served. 

He was then brought back to Stafford and charged with a probation violation. This time, he was ordered to serve another year and was serving that sentence when he picked up his latest charge on April 24. 

According to the evidence presented by Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Olsen, Latson was placed on suicide watch and was being escorted by three officers from one area of the jail to another. 

As one of the officers was instructing Latson to put his hands on the wall, according to testimony, Latson replied, "don't [expletive] talk to me that way." 

He later added, "I will rock your ass. I will rock your punk ass," and punched the officer three times in the head. 

A Taser was used on Latson to get him under control, according to the evidence.

Ruth Marcus has published inaccurate commentary on this case, as The Daily Howler explains.

A release from the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia:

Today, the ACLU of Virginia sent a letter to Governor Terry McAuliffe asking him to review the case of Reginald “Neli” Latson, a young man with intellectual and developmental disabilities who has been held in solitary confinement in a state correctional facility for almost a year.  The letter urges the Governor to take executive action to allow and facilitate Latson’s transfer to a secure treatment facility in Florida, a recommendation that was made by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Disability Services (DBHDS).

... 

“Unfortunately, Mr. Latson is not the only Virginia prisoner in solitary confinement, nor is he the only person with a developmental disability to be jailed rather than treated,” said Gastañaga. “That is why we have asked the Governor to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the use of solitary confinement and the treatment of people with disabilities by law enforcement and in our prisons and jails.” Gastañaga added, “As Governor, he is also in the best position to lead a broader conversation about how our law enforcement and judicial systems can respond more effectively to situations involving people in our criminal justice system and those in mental health crises.” 

The ACLU of Virginia has joined the Arc of Virginia, Autism Speaks, and others to ask the Governor to take whatever steps are necessary to transfer Latson to an appropriate facility, including granting him a conditional clemency. 

Latson currently is serving time on an assault conviction and has a trial scheduled on January 5, 2015, on another assault charge. Both assault charges were a direct result of the repeated and cumulative failures of law enforcement, prosecutors, and correctional officers to properly address his disabilities. 

Read the ACLU of Virginia’s letter to the Governor here.

Reduced Sentence for Neli Latson

An earlier post reported that Neli Latson had received a lengthy sentence for assaulting a law-enforcement officer. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reports on a dramatic new development:

A judge Tuesday suspended most of the 10½ years a jury had recommended for an autistic man whose assault on a Stafford County deputy forced the officer to retire.

Reginald Cornelius “Neli” Latson, 19, was instead ordered to serve two years in prison.

A courtroom packed mostly with Latson’s supporters watched the proceeding in Stafford Circuit Court.

Latson’s case has attracted widespread attention, with many people insisting that Latson’s condition and a long prison sentence do not mix.

In suspending 8½ years, Judge Charles Sharp imposed conditions that include several residential treatment programs and intensive probation once Latson is released from prison. He has been behind bars for a year while the case worked its way through court, and that time will count toward his sentence.

During a three-day trial in March, a jury found Latson guilty of assault on a law-enforcement officer, wounding in the commission of a felony, disarming a police officer and obstruction of justice.

Latson had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Deputy Tom Calverly, who had been in law enforcement for more than 30 years, suffered severe ankle damage and other injuries during a May 24, 2010, scuffle with Latson outside North Stafford High School, where Calverly worked as a resource officer.

Calverly was forced to give up his job because of the injury, and ankle-replacement surgery is pending.

Latson’s attorney, William Reichhardt, never disputed that Latson injured Calverly. But he argued that Latson’s conditions, which include a form of autism known as Asperger’s, made it impossible for him to control his actions that day.

The incident began when several children at Park Ridge Elementary School reported seeing a man with a gun at the nearby Porter Library.

Autism and the Police: A Tragedy

Earlier posts dealt with the Neli Latson case. The Washington Post provides an update:

When a Stafford County jury this month found an autistic teenager guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer and recommended that he spend 10 1/2 years in prison, a woman in the second row sobbed.

It wasn’t the defendant’s mother. She wouldn’t cry until she reached her car. It was Teresa Champion.

Champion had sat through the trial for days and couldn’t help drawing parallels between the defendant, Reginald “Neli” Latson, 19, and her son James, a 17-year-old with autism.

James might have said this, she thought. James might have done that. She had fresh bruises on her body that showed that James, too, had lost his temper to the point of violence.

“This is what we live with,” said Champion, of Springfield. “When they go over the edge, there is no pulling back. ”

...

The issue resonates not only with parents but with police. Every year, the International Association of Chiefs of Police picks one major issue to address at a national summit. In 2010, it was improving police response to people with mental illness and such conditions as autism.

“It has been a huge and significant part of our conversation in the last couple of years,” said John Firman, director of research for the organization.

Firman, who participates in the Big Brother program, has a “little brother” with Asperger’s. He said that when he goes out with the youngster, he sometimes wonders, “If anything would happen here, how would police deal with him?”

Among the summit’s recommendations, Firman said, were that all officers be trained in how to deal with such people and that police work closely with families and community organizations.

Latson’s case, however, was not a matter of a law enforcement officer being untrained, the prosecutor said. “This deputy has a 33-year-old mentally retarded child,” Olsen said. “So the deputy is very sensitive to dealing with children with disabilities. He’s lived it every day for the last 33 years.”

Autism and the Police, Continued

The Spokesman Review reports a bizarre case in Idaho:

The parents of an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested at her northern Idaho elementary school are suing the school district and the sheriff’s department in federal court, contending the agencies violated the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Spring Towry and Charles Towry, along with their daughter, Evelyn, filed the lawsuit Friday in Idaho’s U.S. District Court against the Lake Pend Oreille School District and the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department.

...

The case arose Jan. 9, 2009, when the Kootenai Elementary School third-grader was arrested, handcuffed and taken to the county’s juvenile lockup on suspicion of battery. School staffers said Evelyn had spit on and inappropriately touched two instructors. The child was later released to her parents, and the prosecutor’s office dropped the charge against her.

After the incident, Charles Towry said his daughter has Asperger’s Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. He said that on the day of the altercation, she was wearing a hooded sweatshirt her mother had decorated with sewn-on ears to look like an animated cow character from the movie “Barnyard.” She wasn’t allowed into a school party because of the sweatshirt, although the lawsuit didn’t explain why.

Evelyn was placed in a separate classroom instead, Towry said, and when she tried to leave, staffers restrained her. Towry said that caused the girl to panic and react violently.

According to the lawsuit, Evelyn’s teacher, Louise Zumuda, and her principal, Betsy Walker, called police and asked to have her arrested and charged “because they felt they were not getting their point across” to the child and her parents after creating a plan to address behavioral issues. The Towrys say two deputies arrested, handcuffed and patted down Evelyn, refusing Spring Towry’s request that they release the child to her.

WTTG in Washington reports on the Neli Latson case:

Neli Latson Case in The Washington Post

Here and here, this blog has posted items on Neli Latson, an ASD youth under arrest, as well as the efforts of his mother, Lisa Alexander, to draw attention to his case. Today it is in The Washington Post:

"What she has done has absolutely blown my mind," said Mark Bell, a civil rights consultant in Atlanta who has seen other parents stand up for their kids, but "I have not seen one person with the tenacity that she has."

By tenacity, he means Alexander's campaign for attention to her son's case. The effort has spread to Facebook, Twitter and an online petition that has collected more than 1,500 signatures. Some supporters are parents of autistic children like Latson, who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in eighth grade, and others are African Americans drawn to the story of a black teenager who was arrested after an encounter with a police officer in a majority-white county.

...

On Alexander's Web site -- http://avoiceforneli.com -- strangers have left comments arguing, for example, that Latson is "a victim of SWB, sitting while black."

Meanwhile, Gina Vokoun, who lives in Arizona, has posted Latson's story on national e-mail groups for parents of autistic children. She became an advocate for autistic young adults after her son, 18 and diagnosed with Asperger's, was arrested after a friend placed a fake bomb in his backpack. Police tend not to recognize symptoms of autism, she said, and confrontations leading to jail can reverse progress young people have made.

It is likely that the mention by a major news organization will greatly increase traffic to Alexander's site.