Editorial

Plenty of mistakes made in Renee Boyd case

The days of having felonies hanging over her head are over now for Renee Boyd.

Last January, Boyd engaged with a police officer. She was outside on her own. Boyd, who had been diagnosed with several mental disorders, including depression, anxiety disorder and Tourette's syndrome, had gone outside to cool off after becoming upset and breaking her phone. Her friends began worrying about her and had called police for assistance.

When an officer arrived, Boyd’s friends told him that she had mental illnesses. When the officer found her and called out for her, Boyd became frightened and started running away, saying “I don’t know you.” The officer tackled Boyd, and Renee resisted, kicking, spitting and lashing out at the officer, who was on top of her and had pinned her down.

The “well check” call turned into a confrontation, which turned into two counts of felony charges of assault of an officer and the assault of a paramedic, who was hit while trying to get Boyd onto an ambulance bed. She was also charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly spitting on the pants leg of another officer who responded to the scene.

Boyd spent 39 days in jail, while trying to navigate the legal system. She was at first afraid to post bond for fear that it would deter her ability to get a public defender.

Boyd was eventually able to hire attorney Gordon Glaus to defend her, but he was unable to convince prosecutors to lower charges from felonies to misdemeanors, even though Boyd had no prior criminal record and had never shown any violent tendencies. Boyd tried to plead guilty in court to the felonies, because she was afraid to risk a jury trial and the prospect of going to prison and possibly losing her state benefits. Judge Michael Gardner, during the first plea hearing, asked Boyd if she’d kicked and spat and done the things she’d been accused of, and she said she did, but when Gardner asked Boyd whether she intended to injure the officer, she said no. She admitted to having coming into contact with them, but it was not her intent to injure them. Gardner said he could not accept her guilty plea, and extended the case.

Finally in November, she was able to plead guilty before a judge, but to misdemeanors, not felonies.

“I am, um, truly sorry that all of this happened,” Boyd said. “I wish I could take everything back. ... I think it’s just a big mistake ... on my part.”

Yes, Boyd made mistakes, but she was not the only one in this whole ordeal. Boyd understands that taking her medicine is vital to making sure she stays calm and steady. She had been off her medicine for months, after trying to navigate insurance issues after moving to Missouri from Tennessee.

But others made mistakes, too.

The responding officer, Jonathan Ortmann, did not handle the situation well. He escalated the situation upon arrival. Ortmann had not yet participated in the Crisis Intervention Training that teaches officers how to deal with mentally ill people. Boyd’s story was told by Southeast Missourian reporter Tyler Graef, and it emerged at the same time the Southeast Missourian was tackling many issues about mental illness. Graef pointed out other instances in the region where officers were able to diffuse much more dangerous situations by talking rather than responding physically. Boyd’s entire episode could have been avoided. This doesn’t mean that Ortmann is a bad cop; in fact, we think the opposite. Graef, coincidentally while covering other stories, observed Ortmann showcasing patience and common sense. We believe Ortmann did as he was trained to do at the time the incident happened. Someone was ordered to stop. She ran. He pursued. But to that point, as Boyd’s defense argued, she had not committed a crime. It’s unfortunate the incident happened. It didn’t need to. But we understand why it happened. It was a split-second decision based on his training at the time. We hope now that Ortmann, like many officers, has taken part in CIT training, he will be better equipped to handle such situations going forward. He seems like a good cop.

We are more perplexed, however, by the prosecution’s insistence on pushing for felony charges. Boyd had already served 39 days in jail. She had never caused any problems before. No one was seriously hurt. Given the mental illness factor of this particular case, prosecutors seemed unnecessarily aggressive. Gardner got it right at the first plea hearing, when he rejected Boyd’s guilty plea of felony charges, seeing through the absurdity of the charges.

Even until the end, prosecutors wanted Boyd to receive 90 days’ jail time under suspended execution of sentence, meaning she would be formally convicted but not serve the time unless she violated parole. Glaus argued for a suspended imposition of sentence, which would allow her to keep the conviction off her record as long as she met probation requirements. Gardner agreed, giving the SIS and probation.

Perhaps Boyd’s story more than all the others in the Southeast Missourian’s series on mental illness showed how difficult it is for a mentally ill person to navigate society.

Boyd’s mental illness has prevented her from working. She relies on disability and other benefits to live. She was having trouble getting her benefits arranged after moving from one state to the next. In the meantime, she stopped taking her medicine. She had trouble coping without it. When law enforcement was asked to help, she lost her mind, she was tackled, forced into an ambulance and then charged with three felonies. She was put in jail for almost six weeks, where she was not allowed to have all her medicine. The prosecutors insisted she was a felon. And finally, after 10 months, she was able to face a judge and admit publicly that she made a mistake.

“I really wish everything could have been less, but I do understand ... I wasn’t in a right state of mind,” Boyd said.

It was noble of her to say that she understood the consequences of her actions and admit she erred.

But there were mistakes made by the other side, too, mistakes that will probably not be reconciled with an apology of any kind.

We hope that Boyd, the police force and the prosecution all can take some lessons from this ordeal. If nothing else, the story shed light on how our justice system handles people with mental illness.

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