After his arrest, Richardson was charged with attempted first-degree murder and remained incarcerated after a psychological evaluation determined 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 Sept. 30.

The territory has no secure forensic psychiatric facility where people like Richardson can be held, so those who need involuntary treatment are transported to private off-island facilities such as Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center in California and Wellpath, formerly known as Fair Care in South Carolina.

The government did not comply with the transfer order, and at an Oct. 9 hearing, Morris asked why Richardson was still in prison.

VI Assistant Attorney General Chad Mitchell explained that the VI government “owes money to both Sylmar and Wellpath, and those facilities will not accept new patients until they are paid,” according to court records.

Mitchell said Richardson was 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 displeasure” that Richardson remained in jail and scheduled an Oct. 15 hearing.

At that hearing, Deputy Finance Commissioner Wilfredo Guzman assured the court that the government is trying to recover outstanding payments to the treatment facilities, according to the minutes.

Morris said it was not appropriate for the government to not pay its bills, “especially 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 that there is no forensic care unit and “very limited long-term care capacity in the Territory”.

Morris noted that the Behavioral Health Act, passed in 2022, requires at least one adequate mental health treatment facility in the territory.

He also “impressed upon the Commissioner the importance of transferring the defendants to appropriate treatment facilities within the Court-ordered time frame” and “warned that failure to meet the deadlines will result in the Court having to release the defendants from custody. Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections to ensure that their constitutional rights are not violated.”

Morris ordered that Richardson be transferred to Schneider Hospital while the government worked to sort out placement at an off-island facility, prompting Schneider Hospital legal counsel Su-Layne Walker to file an emergency motion to reexamination.

Based on the pending charges, “his own admissions to health 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 unit, “which is segregated and segregated from other mental health patients,” Walker wrote.

Schneider’s facility has a maximum capacity of six patients, all housed in the same space, and hospital security is unarmed and not trained to deal with potentially violent patients, she added.

An Aug. 29 psychiatrist’s report noted that Richardson has a history of mental health hospitalizations, including a previous admission to Correct Care Wellpath, where he “continued to fight in South Carolina, extending his stay,” according to the motion.

“If he wasn’t stabilized and cooperative in a facility designed for his care,” Schneider Regional Medical Center, or SRMC, “isn’t the right facility. Placement at SRMC will put our staff and other patients at risk,” according to the motion.

Walker emphasized that while Richardson “may not be receiving optimal medical care at the Bureau of Corrections, he is safe, staff are trained to control him in the event of an incident, and there are no patients seeking medical treatment in 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 asking that he be excused because he is off-island seeking emergency medical care.

On Monday, Walker filed a petition with the 6th Circuit Supreme Court asking for help to ensure 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 that it would be an “injustice” to Richardson, other patients, the staff, “and all the families which could be affected if there was an incident.”

The court sent the request for an extraordinary warrant on Tuesday and has not yet issued any order.