VALDOSTA — Questions were raised after a Valdosta man was charged with  multiple offenses Sunday and walked away from a state hospital Monday,  without the knowledge of law enforcement officials.

Carl Laroque, 31, was arrested and charged with battery, terroristic threats to injure a person, non -forced burglary, theft and criminal damage to private property in an incident early Sunday morning, said Valdosta Police Commander Brian Childress. Laroque was transported to the Lowndes County Jail where the intake officer signed the VPD paperwork to accept the inmate, Childress said.

When the suspect was arrested, he made comments to the Valdosta Police  patrolman that he would harm himself, Childress said in an interview Thursday.

The officer relayed this information to the booking clerk at the sheriff’s office. The patrol officer left the suspect there and requested a mental evaluation, said the commander. A short time later, the jail nurse called the VPD back and requested that the officer return and take the inmate to South Georgia Medical Center to be evaluated due to “his state of mind.”

Childress said the patrol officer went back to the jail, picked up the suspect and took him to the hospital. While the patrolman waited, the doctor performed an evaluation and determined that the suspect needed to go to Southwestern Hospital in Thomasville for further mental evaluation. The doctor then issued a 10-13 order of commitment.

Childress said the patrolman called the sheriff’s office to let

personnel know they needed to transport the suspect to the state hospital. A deputy responded, and the inmate was transported.

All of this occurred on Sunday. The following day, Laroque called a detective at the police department and asked what he was supposed to do because the state hospital released him without further instruction.

The suspect was back in Valdosta. He was asked if he bonded out, and he replied he had not. After being advised to turn himself in, Laroque did just that.

The Times interviewed both the sheriff’s office and the police department about how the man was able to walk out of the state hospital and end up back in Valdosta where he was arrested just one day prior without anyone knowing.

The following statement was provided by Cmdr. Childress:

“Mr. Laroque was arrested on state charges, and as is in any other case, he was transported to the Lowndes County Jail to be housed. The Lowndes County Jail houses all of our arrestees, with or without a warrant. Once Mr. Laroque was taken to the county jail on April 22, he was turned over to the county jail personnel, and we advised them that Mr. Laroque made threats he may harm himself. Once turned over to the county jail, our officer left and jail personnel had custody of him. At no time did the intake personnel at the county jail advise our officer they were refusing Mr. Laroque.

“The county jail contacted us a short time later on April 22nd and advised us we needed to take Mr. Laroque to the hospital for evaluation because of threats he made to himself. Our officer then transported Mr. Laroque to the South Georgia Medical Center where, after evaluation by a doctor, a 10-13 order was issued by that doctor to commit Mr. Laroque to Georgia Southwestern for a psychiatric evaluation. We then contacted the sheriff’s office who responded to the hospital, again took custody of Mr. Laroque from our officer, and the deputy transported Mr. Laroque to Southwestern. Again, at no time did the sheriff’s office advise our officers they were refusing custody. From that point on, Mr. Laroque was in the custody of the sheriff’s office, and we were not told differently.”

  Childress stressed that the police department wants to be clear they are not accusing anyone of fault in this case, but they followed the same procedures they always have.

“We have a good relationship with the sheriff’s office and hope to continue that,” the commander added.

In response to the Times questions regarding the incident, Lowndes County Sheriff Prine said:

“If Valdosta Police Department arrest a person, until we get that warrant, we hold the inmate as a VPD prisoner. After the warrant is signed, that person becomes the states. Our intake nurse felt Mr. Laroque was suicidal and that’s when the patrol officer was called back out here to pick the man up and take him to South Georgia Medical for evaluation. He was a VPD inmate, we only housed him, because at that time, we had no warrant signed by a judge. It was our duty to pick up the inmate and transport him to Southwestern Hospital, but that’s all we did. VPD gave us no paperwork whatsoever, so we just transported him. He is now ours because we have a signed warrant. I called the county attorney, Jim Elliott, just to ensure we handled things correctly. He said under the law, we did.”

Prine also said he believes the agencies have a good working relationship and is not trying to harm that in any way.

The Times also contacted Southwestern Hospital to inquire about its policies and procedures involving inmates. The hospital’s public relations person referred The Times reporter to risk management, who in turn referred the reporter back to public relations. The information requested was not provided by press time. Public relations did say direct information concerning a patient could not be released under the law. The Times was seeking information on the protocol for accepting and releasing an inmate, and whether arresting personnel are contacted or if the hospital routinely lets inmates walk free.

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