CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Schneider Hospital is asking the Virgin Islands Supreme Court to block an order that would force staff to admit a “violent inmate” as a patient, arguing that staff and other patients could be placed at risk.
The inmate, Khalid Richardson, was arrested in July after Virgin Islands Police said he stabbed a relative, causing severe, life-threatening injuries that required emergency surgery.
Following his arrest, Richardson was charged with first-degree attempted murder, and he remained jailed after a psychological evaluation determined that he was not competent to stand trial.
Superior Court Judge Ernest Morris Jr. ordered the Health Department to transfer Richardson to an appropriate behavioral health facility by September 30.
The territory does not have a secure forensic psychiatric facility where individuals like Richardson can be held, so those in need of involuntary treatment are shipped to private facilities off-island, such as Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center in California, and Wellpath, formerly known as Correct Care, in South Carolina.
The government failed to comply with the transfer order, and at a hearing on October 9, Morris asked why Richardson was still in jail.
Assistant V.I. Attorney General Chad Mitchell explained that the Virgin Islands government “owes money to both Sylmar and Wellpath, and those facilities will not accept any new patients until they are paid,” according to court records.
Mitchell said Richardson had been accepted as a patient at Larkin Behavioral Health in Florida, but “the Department of Health has not determined its ability to pay Larkin.”
Morris “expressed extreme dissatisfaction” that Richardson remained in jail, and scheduled a show cause hearing for October 15.
At that hearing, Deputy Finance Commissioner Wilfredo Guzman assured the court that the government is trying to catch up on overdue payments to the treatment facilities, according to the record of proceeding.
Morris said it is not appropriate for the government to not pay its bills, “particularly given the lack of a behavioral health facility in the Territory,” according to court records.
Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion explained the difficult process of finding placements for criminal defendants like Richardson, which she said takes at least 60 days. She also noted there is no forensic care facility and “very limited capacity for long-term care in the Territory.”
Morris noted that the Behavioral Health Act passed in 2022 requires at least one appropriate mental health treatment facility in the territory.
He also “impressed upon the Commissioner the importance of transferring defendants to appropriate treatment facilities within the time frame ordered by the Court,” and “warned that failure to meet the deadlines will result in the Court being forced to release Defendants from the custody of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections in order to ensure that their constitutional rights are not violated.”
Morris ordered Richardson to be transferred to Schneider Hospital while the government worked to sort out placement at an off-island facility, which prompted Schneider Hospital’s legal counsel, Su-Layne Walker, to file an emergency motion for reconsideration.
Based on the pending charges, “his own admissions to healthcare professionals, and his violent history,” Walker wrote that the community hospital’s Behavioral Health Unit “is not designed to care for people like Richardson.”
Richardson requires specialized care in a secure forensic facility, “that is separate and apart from other mental health patients,” Walker wrote.
Schneider’s unit has a maximum capacity of six patients all housed in the same space, and hospital security are unarmed and not trained in dealing with potentially violent patients, she added.
An August 29 psychiatrist’s report noted that Richardson has a history of hospitalizations for mental health, including a previous admission at Correct Care Wellpath, where “he continued to get into fights in South Carolina, prolonging his stay,” according to the motion.
“If he was not stabilized and cooperative in a facility designed for his care,” Schneider Regional Medical Center, or SRMC, “is not the right facility. Placement at SRMC will put our staff and other patients at risk,” according to the motion.
Walker empasized that while Richardson “may not be getting the optimal medical care at the Bureau of Corrections, he is safe, the staff is trained to control him if there is an incident, and there are no patients who are seeking medical treatment within his vicinity.”
Morris denied the request Friday, but granted the hospital’s motion to intervene in a status conference set for today on St. Croix.
Richardson’s defense attorney Ronald Russell filed a motion requesting to be excused because he is off-island seeking emergency medical care.
On Monday, Walker filed a petition to the V.I. Supreme Court, asking for help in ensuring Richardson is placed in an appropriate facility — not Schneider Hospital.
Walker wrote that it “would be negligent on our behalf” for the hospital to admit Richardson without the ability to properly care for him, and would be an “injustice” to Richardson, other patients, staff, “and all the families that could be impacted if there was an incident.”
The court docketed the petition for an extraordinary writ Tuesday, and has not yet issued any orders.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/Virgin Islands Daily News
