A man accused of threatening to kill Hamilton County Commissioner Curtis Adams will spend four months as the first patient in a new county rehabilitation program instead of serving jail time.
Jason Lee Vice, 32, was charged in February with civil rights intimidation, harassment and filing a false report after a man called Mr. Adams’ residence three times, promising to kill Mr. Adams and his wife before burning down their house.
Police found Mr. Vice’s phone number on an answering machine a day later, and he was arrested. Mr. Vice has been held at the Hamilton County Jail ever since.
Mr. Vice’s attorney, Chris Dixon, said his client went through a psychiatric evaluation at Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute and was found to be unstable.
During his stint in the East Ridge courtroom, Mr. Vice was calm, shuffling along in ankle shackles with orange-flip flops and nearly whispering his answers to Judge Arvin Reingold’s questions.
Later this week, Mr. Vice will report to an undisclosed county location to start the Bridge Project, which stipulates that “applicants must be stable on medication before being considered for the program,” according to a recent news release.
Mr. Vice is the first patient of the Bridge Project, which involves voluntarily living in a group home and is run through the Hamilton County public defender’s office.
“He’s a good person, a very kind person and I think he’s going to do very well,” Mr. Dixon said.
If Mr. Vice completes the program without incident, his case will be reopened on July 20, officials said. He will remain on a $225,000 bond while in the program.
Hamilton County Assistant District Attorney Darren Gibson said Mr. Vice’s post-rehabilitation fate could range from complete freedom to a jail sentence.
“We’ll know better in four months what the punishment should be or if it’s punishable at all,” Mr. Gibson said.
He said he could lean toward letting Mr. Vice free on the condition of good behavior since “his liberty is already constrained quite a bit” through compliance with the Bridge Project.
The man Mr. Vice is accused of threatening wasn’t so sure about that statement.
“I would be worried about it if he was loose, I’ll tell you that,” said Mr. Adams, contacted Tuesday after Mr. Vice’s hearing. “I don’t have any animosity against him. I just feel sorry for him, and I hope he gets the best kind of medical help to straighten him out.”