Blaze Forrester of Mountain Home, who faces a number of charges for allegedly attacking people both inside and outside the Baxter County jail, is now accused of striking the jail nurse, who is almost six months pregnant.
In another development in the case, the Arkansas Department of Human Services has been given 72 hours to move Forrester to a facility staffed and equipped to give him the type of treatment he needs.
The 22-year-old Forrester appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to the new charges against him.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the newest case, the jail nurse was making rounds dispensing medications Oct. 25th when Forrester reached through the food service port in the cell door and struck the nurse in the right abdomen while grabbing at her clothing.
Forrester is alleged to have made statements such as “I hope your baby dies” and “I am going to kill your baby.” He is charged with second-degree battery and terroristic threatening stemming from the alleged attack on the nurse.
Forrester was found mentally not-fit-to-proceed in three cases pending against him prior to the time of the latest incident. He was ordered by the court into the custody of the Department of Human Services in April for detention and treatment.
Forrester has been sitting in the Baxter County jail since April waiting for DHS to move him into a more suitable facility to undergo the court-ordered psychiatric treatment.
Once the not-fit-to-proceed orders were issued, activity in the three existing cases against Forrester was suspended. The court ordered DHS to report on Forrester’s condition within 10 months of the order.
Fourteenth Judicial District Prosecutor David Ethredge says the county jail “is not the place to confine people with significant mental problems.” He said the fact Forrester has been in the local lockup for months waiting for DHS to move him to a more appropriate facility “is totally unacceptable. It represents a real threat to jail staff, other inmates and Forrester himself.”
A document filed Thursday gave DHS 72 hours from the date of the order to transfer Forrester to a facility equipped to give him the type treatment he needs. Circuit Judge Gordon Webb said DHS has made what he termed an improper response to his original court order issued in April. Judge Webb said counselors had been sent to the jail on a weekly basis to meet with Forrester, but he said that met his order in only a limited fashion.
The DHS backlog is only one problem facing the courts. A delay of from six to nine months in receiving test results on drugs sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for analysis is not unusual. In addition, inmates sentenced to prison are waiting for significant periods in the local jail for bed space to open in the chronically overcrowded state prison system.
Forrester’s troubles with the law began in late May last year when he attacked his grandfather after allegedly becoming angry when his older relative told him to put a shirt on before going outside. The grandfather said Forrester repeatedly punched him in the face and head. When the grandfather came to the Mountain Home Police Department to report the incident, he was bleeding from a cut over his left eye and left hand. The grandfather told investigators he did not believe Forrester was ever going to stop hitting him.
In early June last year, Forrester hit a male jailer at the detention center while he was being moved from one location to another for his own protection. According to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, inmates had threatened to beat Forrester for spitting on the floor. A stun gun was eventually used at one point in the effort to bring Forrester under control.
In mid-December last year, Forrester was arrested for attacking a female outside a local movie theater and less than a half hour later leaning into a vehicle waiting in line at the drive thru of a local fast food restaurant and striking the driver.
Charges against Forrester in the four cases now pending against him include battery, terroristic threatening and impairing the operation of a vital public facility.
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