In my local community, we have our fair share of fascinating and interesting cases that emerge from our seven cities. Today, I want to talk about “deferred judgement” and how it applies to a man who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In September 2023, our local news stations reported that a 20-year-old man had been arrested for allegedly giving a 7-year-old girl an Apple AirTag hidden in a pack of stickers while he was working his cashier job at a Virginia Beach grocery store. The girl’s mother discovered the AirTag and threw it away before they went home. This incident occurred in mid-July 2023.

The man was fired from his job, and then there wasn’t a lot of other news until the end of March.

He pleaded guilty. The judge reviewed all the facts and decided to defer judgement until June 2024. The judge was able to do this because of a Virginia law that was passed in 2020.

SB133 “allows a court to defer and dismiss a criminal case where the defendant has been diagnosed with autism or an intellectual disability and the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the criminal conduct was caused by or had a direct and substantial relationship to the person’s disorder or disability.”

Prior to 2020, the only similar remedy was for the defendant to plead insanity.

It turns out the woman in the grocery store wasn’t this man’s only victim. He had accidentally violated a restraining order that was taken out against him. He spent 12 hours in the Newport News City Jail. The victim in that case was a student at Christopher Newport University (CNU).

Both victims in court disagreed with the motion for a deferred judgement.

The defendant was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2023. He’s been in weekly counseling sessions and supposedly made progress in group therapy, admitting that he now recognizes his action were creepy. In addition, “he also acknowledged that he may have caused his victims to have to seek out mental health care — just like he’d had to — and apologized.”

In addition to Autism Spectrum Disorder, a psychosexual evaluation identified impulse control and two sex-related disorders.

The intention for the deferred judgment is to give the defendant time, three months, to continue treatment and attend therapy.

The defendant is slated to appear in court again on June 24, 2024.

Resources

SB 133 Criminal cases; deferred disposition | Virginia’s Legislative Information System

Checkout crime: Wegman’s employee tried to hide tracker to track mother | WAVY

VB man with autism get deferred judgment after planting tracker in Wegman’s checkout | WAVY