A Texas family is pleading for leniency in a criminal case involving their 17-year-old special needs son, who is facing charges as an adult for an alleged assault at his alternative school.
Brandon Brown told KTRK that his son, Peter, is 17 but suffers from mental and behavioral disabilities that reduce his mental state to that of a 12- to 13-year-old child.
On April 24, Peter was arrested at his alternative school and taken to the Brazoria County Jail, where he was booked on one count of assault of a public servant other than a peace officer or judge.
His bond was set at $100,000.
According to his parents, his charge stems from an attack on a teacher that happened in March. They believe that Peter was suffering a mental health crisis during the alleged assault.
“I don’t know how this came apart,” Brown said. “It’s scary for all parties involved. It’s scary for him and I know it was scary for the teacher.”
Peter’s parents tried getting more information on his arrest from local law enforcement, but said authorities couldn’t provide more details since the teen was charged as an adult.
The family states that Peter regularly gets in trouble at school, but the teen’s doctors have indicated that his mental disabilities contribute to those issues. His parents say he is admitted as an inpatient at mental health facilities every few months.
“He’s not a criminal at all. He don’t know the first thing about doing anything criminal. You know, he just has that mental problem and the doctors always said that he is going to, you know, have violent tendencies,” Brown said. “We’ve been working on that with him for all of his life.”
While they don’t deny that Peter should be held accountable for his actions, the teen’s parents believe that charging him as an adult and holding him in jail on a bond they can’t afford are steep punishments.
“He’s 17 with a low IQ, and a disability not knowing what type of trouble he’s in, not knowing where he’s at, not knowing what the judge was telling him,” Brown said. “He needs to be at home with his family.”
