SPECIAL REPORT: THE ROTATING CAROUSEL

Part Two: Court Dockets Expose Multi-Year Institutional Negligence in VIPD Taser Arrest of Mental Health Patient

By JOHN McCARTHY / St. Croix Sun Investigative Reporter

ST. THOMAS — When Magistrate Judge Simone M. VanHolten-Turnbull reviewed the criminal charges against Janelle E. Jackson on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, it took the court less than ten minutes to throw the entire case out. Across all four counts—including aggravated assault on an officer and delaying and obstructing justice—the judge checked a single, definitive box: "Probable cause not found." Jackson was ordered immediately released, and her bail was wiped out entirely.

To the public, the violent encounter on May 22, 2026, at the Tutu Park Mall bus stop—where a Virgin Islands Police Department officer engaged in a physical melee that included closed-fist chest strikes, an attempted leg sweep, a failed baton deployment, and multiple "drive-stun" Taser shocks—looked like an isolated incident of rapid escalation against a psychiatric patient.

But an investigation by The St. Croix Sun, utilizing a direct-to-dockets review of Superior Court records, reveals a far more damning truth. Janelle Jackson is caught in an unbroken, multi-year loop of systemic institutional failure. The government has known about her condition for at least three years, has openly admitted in open court that she requires psychiatric treatment rather than criminal prosecution, and yet continues to use the police force as a primary healthcare provider.

The Paper Trail of Prior Knowledge

The baseline failure of the VIPD's current defense rests on a single document from three years ago. In an initial Probable Cause Fact Sheet filed on July 17, 2023 (ST-2023-CR-00247), Officer Patricia Charles described responding to a minor property disturbance in Estate Bovoni. In the very first sentence of the investigation narrative, Officer Charles explicitly labeled Jackson as a "well-known mental patient."

The 2023 arrest followed an almost identical operational profile to the 2026 Tutu Park Mall incident. When police attempted to force Jackson into a squad car, the situation violently deteriorated. In 2023, high-ranking VIPD leadership—including former Police Commissioner Ray Martinez—was on the scene to personally restrain her, resulting in Jackson being remanded to the Bureau of Corrections on felony assault charges after spitting on an officer.

This archive document strips the territory of any claim of ignorance. The VIPD has possessed definitive, documented knowledge of Jackson’s severe psychiatric crisis since at least July 2023. Yet, on May 22, 2026, when Officer Ja'Ida Turnbull encountered Jackson sitting peacefully and smoking a cigarette at a bus stop—after employees at the adjacent Mail Plus establishment explicitly stated they had not requested police assistance—the officer unilaterally chose to initiate a forced detention.

Rather than deploying a trained Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) or mental health professionals, the state defaulted directly to physical combat.

The Institutional Admission: Healthcare vs. Handcuffs

Once a psychiatric patient is forced into the territorial criminal track, the system inherently gridlocks. Throughout late 2023 and early 2024, Jackson’s initial case ground to a complete halt as prosecutors and defense attorneys bickered over standard bureaucratic logistics.

A newly uncovered order signed by Superior Court Judge Sigrid M. Tejo on January 24, 2024, reveals that a critical competency hearing had to be legally derailed and denied simply because the prosecution failed to provide basic logistical information. Judge Tejo wrote:

"The Motion lacks any information as to whether Dr. Prince can appear by Zoom. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that the People's Motion is DENIED..."

While the government spent weeks shuffling paperwork over a digital video link for the territory’s examining psychologist, Jackson remained trapped in the criminal web.

But the definitive "smoking gun" of institutional hypocrisy occurred on January 29, 2024. In a subsequent order signed by Judge Tejo on February 5, 2024, the court explicitly documented an agreement between Assistant Attorney General Zachary D. Gaynor and Assistant Territorial Public Defender Frederick A. Johnson, Jr.:

"The parties further advised the Court of their efforts in arranging outpatient treatment for Defendant and that a competency hearing may not be necessary."

This single line exposes the core of the crisis. More than two years ago, the executive branch—through the Attorney General’s office—formally acknowledged that Jackson did not belong in a prison cell. The state explicitly admitted that the only proper resolution to her conduct was structured, outpatient psychiatric care.

The Ghost Dismissal

Because the territory has historically failed to build, fund, and maintain the comprehensive mental health infrastructure repeatedly promised by political leaders, the "arrangement" for outpatient care collapsed.

For the next seven months, the case languished. By July 15, 2024, unable to resolve the medical crisis through legal means, the court remanded Jackson to a standard jail cell at the Bureau of Corrections. By August, both the prosecution and defense were frantically filing motions to bury her psychological evaluations "Under Seal," hiding the reality of her legal incompetence from public view.

Finally, on September 16, 2024, the government surrendered. Unable to legally try a defendant who doctors repeatedly deemed mentally incompetent, Judge Tejo signed an Order of Dismissal Without Prejudice.

The state exonerated her $\$1,000.00$ bail bond to her surety, Angelique S. Jackson, ordered the Clerk of Court to hand back her surrendered passport and identification, and closed the file.

But the state provided no medical hand-off. There was no judicial transition to a territorial health agency, and no follow-through on the outpatient care discussed months earlier. The state simply washed its hands, opened the door, and left a vulnerable citizen completely on her own.

The Reset of the Loop

Twenty months later, the carousel completed its rotation. On May 22, 2026, Janelle Jackson was left completely unassisted at the Tutu Park Mall bus stop. The VIPD arrived, treated her psychiatric vulnerability as a criminal threat, utilized strikes and Tasers, and watched as a doctor admitted her to a behavior unit for six days.

The second she was discharged, police officers were waiting at the hospital door to arrest her and restart the exact same criminal track that evaporated in 2024.

Magistrate Judge VanHolten-Turnbull’s dismissal of the charges on Friday stopped the current legal bleeding, but it did nothing to fix the systemic wound. The Superior Court dockets prove that until the territorial government delivers on its hollow promises of comprehensive mental health reform, the VIPD will continue to use Tasers to manage healthcare crises, and the streets will remain the only outpatient ward available.