Alleged criminals who can’t stand trial because of a brain injury need mental health services, not a free pass, advocates told lawmakers this week. They support a bill aimed at plugging a loophole in court proceedings for the mentally ill.
A woman whose son was sexually assaulted by a relative who suffered a traumatic brain injury described the daily nightmare of living next door to the man who admitted to assaulting her son.
She and others said the law should be changed so that people with traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, can be eligible for a “commitment hearing,” in which a judge can admit them for mental health services.
Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, told how the son of a family friend sexually assaulted her several years ago. The man suffered a traumatic brain injury after a car hit him when he was 9 years old. Now he is 40, she said.
Flory described how difficult it is to get mental health services for the man because TBI is not a mental illness.
The bill, H.555, would essentially afford TBI patients the same treatment in court as those deemed incompetent to stand trial for mental illness.
Witnesses before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday described how traumatic brain injury changes the personality of someone who once lived a normal life.
Flory said the man who assaulted her blurts out words without control, can’t read social cues and misinterprets signs of friendliness.
“He’s going to do this type of thing again because he doesn’t know better,” she said.
Janel, the mother of the boy who was sexually assaulted by his relative, said she is scared to go outside, push her stroller, even go to the grocery store where he works.
“I am openly scared of what this individual can do to anybody, especially me,” she said, struggling through tears.
State police investigated the incident and charged the relative, but because the man had suffered a brain injury he was deemed incompetent to stand trial and set free, she said.
The state police detective who prosecuted the case also testified, describing his frustration after not being able to prosecute the man, who admitted he committed other sexual assaults.
Trevor Squirrell, director of the Brain Injury Association of Vermont, said 3,000 people are diagnosed with brain injuries each year in the state. Nine thousand Vermonters have ongoing, long-term issues, he said.
Brain injury cases in the criminal justice system are 10 times higher than in the public at large, he said.
“We need to do something about that. We need to help them,” he said.
The committee also heard from Laura Gans, an attorney with the Vermont Disability Law Project at Vermont Legal Aid.
Gans said her organization agrees that people with traumatic brain injury can be deemed incompetent to stand trial. But because she represents people with TBI, she said she could not comment on whether they should be involuntarily committed for mental health services.
Court-ordered mental health services for TBI patients should reintegrate them safely into society, according to Gans’ written testimony.
“The Disability Law Project believes that such services, supports and treatment do not currently exist sufficiently to serve people with TBI who may be committed,” the testimony said.
Gans also said traumatic brain injury can encompass a broad range of mental statuses. As such, the definition in the law should be clearly established, she said.
John Alexander, director of Eagle Eye Rehabilitation Center in West Burke, described how he treats people with traumatic brain injury at his farm, which has 11 residents. He described techniques for keeping people with brain injury stable and caring for them long term. His residential facility helps them find jobs and become independent, he said.
Alexander also talked about how people with TBI are often shunned. He met with resistance in West Burke when he tried to expand his program. Often family members abandon relatives who live at Eagle Eye, he said.
Alexander said the farm supports the bill and believes TBI patients should receive the same opportunity for services as mentally ill people.
At the end of the hearing, Chairman Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, asked the committee’s legislative attorney to prepare a primer about laws regarding commitment hearings, a process that can be complicated.
