In Virginia assault case, anxious parents recognize 'dark side of autism'

Theresa Vargas:

When a Stafford County jury this month found an autistic teenager guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer and recommended that he spend 101/2 years in prison, a woman in the second row sobbed.

It wasn't the defendant's mother. She wouldn't cry until she reached her car. It was Teresa Champion.

Champion had sat through the trial for days and couldn't help drawing parallels between the defendant, Reginald "Neli" Latson, 19, and her son James, a 17-year-old with autism.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 14, 2011 1:48 AM
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