Newspaper: Latson Did Nothing Wrong

Stafford, Va. –– There is a renewed call to free a 19-year-old Reginald Neli Latson, in March was sentenced to serve two years in prison after he assaulted a police officer in 2010.

Latson, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, injured Stafford Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Calvary so badly he was forced to resign from the force, after Calvary had been called to North Stafford High School to investigate Latson as a suspicious person.

Calvary tried to get Latson to identify himself, but Latson beat the officer causing severe ankle injuries. 

For the beating, Latson was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison with all but two suspended.

The San Francisco Bay View, a black newspaper, is asking readers to sign a petition to free Laston saying he belongs in a treatment center and not in prison.

“This case has raised concerns about how law enforcement deals with the developmentally or mentally disabled. Latson had done nothing wrong and was completely within his rights to sit on the grass until the library opened, but was accosted by an officer who then proceeded to question, detain and arrest him, even after confirming he did not have a gun. Once it was established that he did not have a gun, Neli Latson should have been left alone,” the paper stated.

In addition to the sentencing for the assault on the law enforcement officer, Latson was also sentenced in March to serve seven months in prison on an unrelated assault.