Man accused of driving over monument found unfit for trial
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — A man charged with crashing his vehicle into Arkansas’ Ten Commandments display nearly three years after he was accused of destroying a monument at Oklahoma’s Capitol was found mentally unfit Thursday to go to trial.
A Pulaski County judge found Michael Tate Reed unfit to proceed based on a diagnosis by state doctors and ordered him to be held by the state hospital for further evaluation. Circuit Judge Chris Piazza set a September 2018 hearing on Reed’s mental status.
Reed faces a felony criminal mischief charge for destroying Arkansas’ privately funded Ten Commandments statue in late June, less than 24 hours after it had been installed outside the state Capitol. Reed was arrested in the 2014 destruction of Oklahoma’s Ten Commandments monument, but prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges in that case.
Reed’s relatives say he has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a chronic mental health condition characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and manic behavior.
“We met him in jail. He’s a very sick person, and this is the right outcome,” Robert Hodge, an attorney for Reed, told reporters after the hear- ing.
Reed did not speak during the brief hearing and hugged family members outside the courtroom afterward.
A video posted on Reed’s Facebook page appeared to show a live broadcast of the Arkansas monument’s destruction in late June, with a driver yelling “freedom!” as his vehicle crashed his vehicle into the display. The monument fell and broke into multiple pieces as it hit the ground.
In a 2015 email to the Tulsa World, Reed apologized for wrecking Oklahoma’s monument and said he suffered from delusions and heard voices.
Arkansas’ monument is a replica of a display at the Texas Capitol that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. After Oklahoma’s monument was destroyed in 2014, a replacement was erected but then ordered removed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which determined its location on state property violated a constitutional prohibition on the use of state funds to support a religion.
The sponsor of the 2015 law requiring Arkansas to allow the privately funded monument on Capitol grounds said a replacement has been made but has not said when it will be installed. A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said the display would have to go back before the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to review if it makes any changes or additions from the original display.