Special education student kept in jail five weeks without bond for misdemeanor charges

From the Bristol Herald Courier:

MARION, Va. – A pair of misdemeanor charges has kept former mental health patient and special education student Vincent Harris in jail without bond for five weeks.

Court documents state that the 19-year-old from Smyth County is accused of calling FBI offices in Roanoke and Richmond on Feb. 26, threatening to shoot federal agents and take hostages. Arrest warrants state that he called and identified himself as his father, who was at work that day.

Hours later, county sheriff’s deputies charged Vincent Harris with two counts of use of profane-threatening language on the telephone.

A magistrate denied bond, court documents show, and tossed the teenager in jail after listing him as a threat to any prospective witness, juror or victim.

His father and sole legal guardian, Jerome Harris, said the teen, who is mildly mentally retarded and has a form of autism, needs psychiatric help, not jail.

“He’s a big kid, but he’s very immature for his age,” the father said. “He just doesn’t understand stuff like most people do.”

Smyth County prosecutor Roy Evans disagrees that Vincent Harris’ mental health is more suited to a psychiatric facility than jail.

“I don’t have a basis for [believing he needs a psychiatric evaluation] at this time,” Evans said in a phone interview.

Yet two days before the arrest, Evans dropped an earlier assault charge against Harris, over concerns that the teen might not be competent to stand trial. Harris had been charged with assaulting his father, and was slated to appear in juvenile and family relations court two days before the arrest.

This time, Evans said, no competency questions exist.

It was a Friday afternoon when Jerome Harris returned home to find his son missing. Dad had just finished a shift at Kennametal in Chilhowie, Va., where for nearly 20 years he has made mining construction tools.

He is a single parent living with his son in a mobile home on the outskirts of Marion, Va. On Feb. 26, when he arrived home, he found both of the mobile home’s doors, front and back, open, the television blaring and all of the lights on. A half-eaten microwaveable lunch of turkey and mashed potatoes sat on the kitchen counter.

But there was no sign of his son.

Fearing trouble, the father called the Smyth County Sheriff’s Office, and said he was put on hold for several minutes before a deputy finally picked up and said the son was in jail. The deputy briefly explained the charges.

“They said he should be out by Monday, and that’s the last I heard anything,” Jerome Harris said.

In two misdemeanor arrest warrants filed at 4:26 p.m. Feb. 26, Smyth County Sheriff’s Lt. R.M. Whitley wrote:

“Received a call to [Harris home] in reference to a Jerome Harris whom had a shot gun and was threatening to kill the accused [Vincent Harris]. Upon arrival we found the only person at the residence was the accused. Jerome Harris was at work and unaware of any situation at this residence. The call was received through our dispatch by the FBI at the Roanoke office. The accused had called the FBI to report this whom in turn talked to our office. Once on scene the last number dialed from the accused phone was the Roanoke FBI office. The accused did make threats to kill FBI agents and take hostages. Two phone calls were made, one to the Richmond FBI office and Roanoke FBI office.”

Magistrate Jonathan Robbins wrote on a bond determination form that while no firearms were allegedly used in the offense, Vincent Harris was still dangerous because he “has access to firearms.”

Deputies did not write in the arrest warrant whether any guns were found in the Harris home.

But Jerome Harris said neither he nor his son owns guns.

Since his arrest, Vincent Harris has been held at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon, segregated from other inmates for his own protection, said a corrections officer at the jail.

“He is being treated fairly ... and hasn’t caused any real problems other than ones he cannot control due to his mental state of mind,” said the officer, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to answer media questions.

Initially, the teen was moved from a regular cell into one for easy observation because he constantly kicked and banged his head against the cell door.

“It’s true that he probably doesn’t belong there [jail] and needs to be in some kind of mental health facility,” the officer said. “But we do get people in from time to time.”

After speaking with the deputy Feb. 26, Jerome Harris called an FBI field office to learn more. That conversation left him worried.

“The FBI agent, he gave me a real hard time about Vincent,” the father said. “He tried to get me to sign [my] guardianship away.”

A Richmond-based FBI media relation’s office, contacted Thursday by the Bristol Herald Courier, has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

Because of the teen’s condition, the father won the right of legal guardianship in Smyth County Circuit Court in January 2009, when the son was 18. So, even though he is an adult, all legal decisions go through the father.

Vincent Harris’ mental plight is spelled out in multiple psychiatric and school behavioral reports. Evaluations from an overnight stay last December at the Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion list his diagnosis as mild mental retardation and Asperger’s syndrome, which medical journals cite as a high-functioning form of autism.

Patients with Asperger’s are often intelligent, but have difficulty reading social cues and expressing themselves appropriately.

In November, Jerome Harris met with Smyth County school teachers to discuss his son’s behavioral problems in his special education class. Notes from that meeting list his son’s problems as “bizarre behavior, leaving school [without] permission, screaming and cussing.”

An Asperger’s patient’s lack of social graces can lead to trouble, said Donald Oswald, senior psychologist and autism expert at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“It’s often the case that their thinking is different, and their different thinking often gets them in trouble,” Oswald said.

It’s not the first time Vincent Harris has been in trouble with local law enforcement, Jerome Harris said. Deputies have been to the house before.

Smyth County Sheriff R. David Bradley, when asked about past visits, said he was not familiar with the case. He suggested that details of the arrest and any past calls might become available at a bond hearing set for Thursday.

“I’m sure my officers will have everything detailed,” Bradley said.

As for evaluating Vincent Harris’ psychological status, prosecutor Evans said it is not his job to determine if a defendant should be removed from jail and placed in a mental health facility.

“His attorney could request an evaluation right away,” Evans said.

Court-appointed defense attorney Robert Dickert, based in Abingdon, has failed to return multiple Herald Courier calls since Thursday.

Evans conceded that a prosecutor could request an evaluation, but only if there was evidence of mental illness. A diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome and mild mental retardation, Evans said, is not enough to call into question a defendant’s competence to stand trial.

The prosecutor also discounts the fact that his office questioned Vincent’s competency in court two days before the call to FBI offices.

“He was charged with new charges ... I think new information has come forward since then,” Evans said.