KINGSHILL — A judge has dismissed criminal charges against two mentally ill defendants because the Virgin Islands government failed to provide them with treatment over the last year. The judge ruled that they are still not competent to stand trial.
In recent court hearings, Superior Court Magistrate Judge Ernest Morris, Jr. detailed the many ways government officials have abandoned their responsibility to provide care for community members like Mirla Santos and Deonte Peterson, who spent months behind bars waiting for help that never came.
The dismissals granted Santos and Peterson their freedom. But Morris said they must now do what the government could not — find and pay for their own mental health treatment.
For Santos, 37, it was the eighth time a judge has dismissed a criminal case against her. For more than a decade she has been getting arrested, jailed and released without being prosecuted or treated for her underlying illness.
Her first arrest came in 2008 at age 25 when she was charged with unlawful entry, and her criminal history includes three arrests for assault and battery. She has never been convicted of a crime.
Peterson, 21, is now on a similar path. At a hearing on February 24, Morris recounted the Kafkaesque criminal justice system that Peterson has been subjected to since his arrest on February 4, 2020 for contempt of court.
Peterson was charged in that case with violating a restraining order and aggravated assault and battery on a police officer. On June 24, he was charged with simple assault and battery, disturbing the peace by fighting, and being a “person housed in correctional facility who knowingly and maliciously throws bodily fluid and waste,” according to court records.
Peterson was later released to his mother’s custody, but she said in July that he’d run away from home and she was struggling to control his escalating psychosis. Days later he returned, and could be heard screaming at his mother in the background of a telephonic court hearing.
On September 21, the Health Department sent Peterson to the Jarzofrah Inc. facility in Puerto Rico, but “the Jarzofrah facility was a failure, where he escaped from their custody and they did not and would not provide us with an appropriate treatment plan,” Morris said.
Peterson’s parents obtained legal guardianship and the court granted permission for his mother to take him to Florida, where his family agreed to pay for private treatment.
But his mother told Morris that Peterson was dosed with so much medication by the Florida facility that he was left seriously ill and nearly died. As a result, he refused to participate in outpatient treatment and was kicked out of the program.
Peterson’s mother said she is struggling to “get a job here, pay the rent here, and we still have the mortgage at home, everything to pay for,” she told Morris. “I just need to go home with that boy.”
His mother said she didn’t understand why Peterson was sent to Puerto Rico in the first place, and asked why he can’t receive the treatment he needs in the Virgin Islands.
Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Eric Chancellor, who was tasked with prosecuting Peterson’s criminal cases, said he wouldn’t object to him returning to the Virgin Islands for treatment.
But the court had already ordered the government to find treatment for Peterson “and that failed,” Morris said. “Why should I keep this matter open longer for the Department of Health to fail again?”
Considering the available options, “I don’t think the court can help any further,” Morris said.
Morris dismissed all charges and told Peterson’s mother, “it’s going to be your responsibility going forward to ensure your son stays out of trouble and doesn’t violate the law so he doesn’t end up back at Golden Grove.”
Morris said that “as we’ve seen, the government seems to be incapable of providing him with the appropriate treatment that he needs. So now that responsibility is going to lie squarely on your shoulders.”
Peterson’s mother thanked the judge.
“Don’t thank me, thank the People of the Virgin Islands, but also be upset with them and the Department of Health that they were not able to provide him with appropriate treatment,” Morris said.
Peterson’s father also thanked the court.
“I’m sorry that we were not able to do more,” Morris said. “Hopefully with your continued efforts, you will be able to find a suitable treatment program for your son, and I wouldn’t give up all hope with the Department of Health. They may be slow, but see if they can still assist you in any way.”
On Monday, Morris held a similar hearing for Santos, whose most recent arrest came in October 2019 when police said she attacked a woman with a glass bottle.
“We’re now in March of 2021. To think we’re still discussing appropriate treatment for Ms. Santos, at this juncture, I don’t even know what to say about that,” Morris said.
In December 2019, Morris said Santos was transferred to The Village treatment facility on St. Croix, but it was determined they could not handle her “dual diagnosis” of mental health and substance abuse issues.
Santos left The Village without permission “and she was gone for a period of several months,” said Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Jasmine Griffin. “I say this because I don’t want the court to be of the opinion that the Department of Health has simply failed to provide services for Ms. Santos.”
“Unfortunately, that’s what I am finding. That both the Department of Health and the People of the Virgin Islands have on multiple occasions failed to provide appropriate treatment for Ms. Santos,” Morris said.
Officials located Santos and returned her to jail, but despite a psychiatric evaluation recommending that she receive long-term residential care, she was released from custody on June 26, and officials lost track of her again for several months.
“She proved incapable of complying with the conditions of her release and was returned to custody, that being some 11 months after her initial arrest,” Morris said.
Morris said in June that he would dismiss charges against Santos if the Health Department didn’t put her in a treatment facility.
Santos was transferred to Jarzofrah several months later. But the facility failed to provide the court with a treatment plan, so Morris ordered her returned to St. Croix.
On Monday, Griffin told Morris that “as the territory right now does not possess a functioning, secure treatment facility that could benefit Ms. Santos immediately, I don’t know — I cannot tell the court what I don’t know.”
Griffin assured the judge that the Health Department will continue to look for treatment options, “with or without an active criminal case against Ms. Santos.”
Territorial Public Defender H. Hannibal O’Bryan said that “I have an ethical obligation at this time to ask that my client be released immediately.”
“In this court’s discretion, Ms. Santos has again been failed by the People of the Virgin Islands,” Morris said. “Ms. Santos has been in custody for more than 13 months, and that excludes the three months where she was released and disappeared.”
Morris ordered all charges dismissed because “this court cannot in good faith allow this matter to continue without Ms. Santos receiving an appropriate placement for treatment.”
A free woman, Santos must now find her own mental health care.
“I wish that the court could do more to help you today, but the limits of the court have been extended in this matter. And so, I just wish you the best,” Morris said.
SOURCE: VIRGIN ISLANDS DAILY NEWS