Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student facing a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery in the beating of a school paraprofessional last February, has been transferred to the Flagler County jail, from the Duval Regional Detention center in Jacksonville, where he’d been held for the past six months.
The transfer took place on Aug. 22, the day of Depa’s 18th birthday, after he spent a few days in a Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Daytona Beach. The Flagler County jail does not have a wing for underage individuals. Depa, who is severely autistic, was charged as an adult. He will remain there as long as the case remains active. He is being held on $1 million bond.
Depa had been held mostly in solitary confinement at the 95-bed Jacksonville jail, a drab, one-floor structure off U.S. 1 near 8th Street, not far from downtown Jacksonville, where the youngest inmate is 10 and where–officially, anyway–juveniles aren’t supposed to be held longer than 21 days. Many are there for months because of backlogs. Depa’s case was different since he was charged as an adult, and the Duval jail was housing him as a courtesy to Flagler.
Depa was last in court before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in June, when Perkins found him competent to stand trial. An order was supposed to be forthcoming from that hearing. It has not been published. Depa waived his net pre-trial appearance in July. He is due in court again next week, on Sept. 9, for another pre-trial hearing. There has been little substantial movement in the case, other than intimations by his attorney, Kurt Teifke, that there would be negotiations with the prosecution on a possible resolution before trial.
Neither aside is eager to see the case go to trial: not only has the case drawn disproportionate attention (the video of the attack on the paraprofessional, Joan Naydich, circled global media after the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office released it), but there are some doubts, including from a psychologist who evaluated Depa, that he could sit through a trial uneventfully–or that either side, to say nothing of Matanzas High School and the school district, would have much to gain from a public trial.
Assistant State Attorney Tara Libby is prosecuting the case.
JC says
Autism shouldn’t be an excuse. I don’t want it use as a get out of jail free card. If you do the crime, you do the time period.
Eugene Lopes says
JC, there is nothing I can say that will open this closed and angry mind of yours, so I won’t try.
JC says
I know waaaay too many people who are Autistic in real life who keep using it as an excuse to commit crimes and not improving their lives in their 30s. You can be autistic and be a productive member of society. In my experience, every single person that I met who is on the spectrum at least knew what was right and what was wrong.
SM says
Autism is not an excuse. It is however an explanation as to why this child had an IEP that was not followed, resulting in a known trigger. Should Brendan be held accountable and placed in a safe place for both him and the public at large…yes. Are prison and solitary confinement going to aid in protecting society from having to face the failures of our systems that are supposed to protect the para and this student? Probably. Will it keep this from happening again or rehabilitate Brendan? Not likely. Until we are ready to acknowledge the special needs that some of us are born with and support them in their unique abilities we will continue to fill our courtrooms and jails and cost ourselves more than if we just provided adequate care in the first place. Go read the article by Brendan’s mom. If you don’t have experience with special needs…volunteer somewhere and experience just what living with autism means.
Geezer says
I have a bridge to sell you, it’s one of John Roebling’s designs.
Fran says
Why is there a 10 yr old in that jail?…. That’s the story I want to know
Rob says
I’m autistic, 68 years old, and a retired software engineer. Most autistics aren’t violent, instead people tell us we are unemotional and “too logical.” Today, a lot of violence is a learned behavior, sometimes built on a neurology, but mostly learned. I’m betting autism had little or nothing to do with his behavior.
abby normal says
I say mom needs to pay ALL of this poor teacher’s aide’s medical bills for allowing this kid to be in public, if she is using autism as an ‘excuse’ to get him out of jail. Autism or not, ADHD or not, this kid didn’t have ANY discipline growing up. And, she must have seen these tendencies or actions before, every time she told him no. So, to send him out into the world, always getting his way made him like this.
This is how so many kids are in his generation with parents afraid to tell their kids no. He just happened to be a giant and could do a LOT of physical harm to others. Parents afraid to tell their kids no and punishing them when they act out is teaching them to be a bully. Wake up parents!!
Just my opinion.