District Court Judge Fiti Sunia has ordered that a mentally challenged inmate be returned to the mental health facility at the LBJ Hospital rather than the Territorial Correctional Facility.
This is after the judge was told that there are 40 pending cases waiting in the queue to go through the court process.
District Court Judge Fiti Sunia was deciding on the living arrangement for Bernard Iakopo, who was charged in a public peace disturbance case a month ago.
Iakopo is mentally ill.
Sunia asked if the defendant would be staying with pre trial detainees.
He was told that Iakopo would be detained with defendants awaiting their cases, of which there were 40.
The judge was surprised when he heard the number 40 and said, “I did not know that we were that slow.”
Sunia ordered that the defendant be returned back to the hospital for two weeks because the living condition at TCF is too harsh for the mentally ill defendant.
Iakopo has been in and out of the court system and is well known to the judges, lawyers and court staff.
For the latest case, Iakopo was charged with public peace disturbance a month ago for making loud noises in front of a store in Fagaalu.
The store owners had trouble dealing with the defendant so they called the police for assistance.
When Iakopo was in court a week ago the court told him that he would be spending a week in the hospital under the supervision of LBJ Psychiatrist, Dr. Shifram Shifram.
Dr. Shifram told the court that the defendant does not follow instructions and keeps harassing the nurses.
Speaking to Iakopo, Judge Sunia told him “the TCF in not the place for you neither is the front of a store.”
But Iakopo interrupted and said, “this is the land of the free.”
The judge responded, “yes this is the land of the free but everytime we send you home you keep coming back.”
Sunia told the defendant the court doesn’t want to send him to TCF because the harsh living conditions would just make his health worse.
Instead he will be sent back to the hospital where he has one room all to himself instead of being housed with 40 people.
