By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
TAMPA — Julious Threatts has a serious but temporary mental health problem and needs to go to a special treatment program in Pasco County, his attorney told a judge Tuesday.
Circuit Judge Daniel Perry postponed the sentencing of Threatts, a 21-year-old accused of posing as a 14-year-old to join a peewee football team, so he could apply for the program.
Deputies say Threatts used the alias Chad Jordan to join the Tampa Bay Youth Football League and to try to register at D.W. Webb Middle School.
His mental health issue was not discussed in court, but Threatts' mental health liaison said he found a facility in Pasco that could treat him — a residential home run by Gulf Coast Community Care.
It's a voluntary mental health program geared toward helping people with serious, persistent mental health problems function in society, said clinical director Daniel DeFrank in a phone interview.
In court Tuesday, Perry asked how Threatts had gotten a fake birth certificate he used to get on the team. His attorney said Threatts got it through the Internet.
Perry also reviewed an investigative file on Threatts that a prosecutor handed him. At a hearing last week, a prosecutor alluded to an ongoing investigation regarding Threatts, but, like last week, the details were not discussed in court.
The prosecutor simply told Perry that it was a felony investigation and it had been closed. No charges had been filed.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 3.