Officials Scramble To Find Legal Path for Treating Catatonic Teen Amid Mental Health System Gaps

A Virgin Islands judge Tuesday said she lacked the authority to mandate involuntary medical and behavioral health treatment for 18-year-old Kyjauni Joseph, who was already found incompetent to stand trial in a separate matter two months ago.

According to documents filed in V.I. Superior Court, St. Croix district, Joseph has been diagnosed with developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, and catatonia due to a traumatic brain injury and has been in a catatonic state since his arrest for carrying a firearm last month. Magistrate Judge Yolan Brow Ross told Assistant Attorney General Chad Mitchell and Assistant Territorial Public Defender Leslie Davis that she was very concerned about Joseph’s health but couldn’t violate the law to care for him.

The Justice Department asked the court to approve involuntary treatment or medication last week after Brow Ross ordered the V.I. Corrections Bureau to transport Joseph to Schneider Regional Medical Center for neurological, medical, psychiatric and psychological evaluations in mid-April. On Tuesday, Mitchell noted the urgency of the motion, saying at one point that Joseph was not eating or drinking, and argued that the Behavioral Health Act authorized the court to determine whether involuntary treatment was necessary after committing a person to the custody of the Health Department for hospitalization.

“There’s the problem: I did not,” Brow Ross said, clarifying that she only ordered Joseph moved to SRMC. “I did not commit him.”

Joseph was arrested on April 9 after a Lorraine Village woman called 911 to report “that a mentally ill male was sitting on the couch outside of her apartment and that he was refusing to move, and she was afraid to leave her home,” according to an arrest report filed in V.I. Superior Court, St. Croix district. That call came one day after Joseph’s father called 911 to report that Joseph pulled a gun on him during an argument before running off. When police arrived to question Joseph, they noticed a Glock 9mm handgun loaded with seven rounds of live ammunition in the spot where he’d been sitting.