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This is a transcript of Nicole Flamer's (of "You Aut to Know!" on Blogtalk Radio) interview with Lisa Alexander, whose autistic son Neli Latson was arrested after being harassed by the police.

Nicole Flamer: Welcome. You're listening to You Aut to Know! radio—your source for autism news, views and research. I'm your host, Nicole Flamer. [I'm here?] every Sunday at 6:00 PM.

[Music]

Hello. Welcome to You Aut to Know! I'm your host, Nicole Flamer, and I wanna thank y'all for joining me today. Today is a special show. Originally I wasn't actually gonna have a guest today—I didn't have one scheduled, and I was just going to talk about something autism-related. But sometimes, as fate would have it, things are presented to you for a reason. It's the type of story or issue that you just can't ignore. You have to take note of it and you have to do something about it.

That's kind of what happened with this story today. I guess it was about two weeks ago, one of my Facebook friends sent me a link to a website called A Voice for Neli.com. I went to the website and I read it and I looked at the YouTube video. I was absolutely horrified by what I had read, and I reposted it on my profile page. I contacted a few of my friends who are advocates.

Just of a backup for new listeners: I am a mother of three children on the autism spectrum, and I'm also a special education and autism advocate. These are the types of issues that I pay attention to, because it's really [important?] to me personally and also professionally.

Back to the story: I contacted a few of my friends I knew who are advocates, who might have had some experience dealing with this type of situation to get some advice. Then, as what often happens, I left it alone and didn't think about it until last week, when I mentioned the website on my last show, in order for people to go and donate or provide resources to the family if they knew of any.

I think there's a reason for why this is being brought to my attention. I'm really thankful for Lisa Alexander to come on today and share her story with all of you, and she will be on in a few minutes. Lisa's gonna be on at around 6:15 and she's gonna share her story. Then we're gonna open up the phone lines for questions, comments and what have you. So if you have a question, please hold it until after she's done speaking, to give us a chance to get the story out.

Also, there's a chat room that you can access. You can also post your questions in the chat. You can also post your questions and comments in there, and I will read them to her when she joins us in a few minutes.

What I normally do is present autism news, views and resources, but I'm dedicating my show to the theme of autism and law enforcement and ways that we can prevent situations like this from happening, and also resources that are already available to families that you can access, and hopefully that you can give or find some in your community.

I wanted to read a little bit from an article, which was actually put out on June 1 in the Lakeland Times, and it is from investigative reporter Richard Moore. He actually detailed some of the incidents that are very similar to what happened with Neli. What prompted him to write the [article] was an incident in Florida that happened May 21. It says:

According to the Tybee Island Police Department incident report, a police officer tasered Clifford Grevemberg, a local 18-year-old with autism and a heart condition, after observing him "staggering back and forth" outside a restaurant and failing to gain any cooperation from him.

To the police, Grevemberg appeared to be "either intoxicated or on something."

If you skip down a little bit, the story also talks about people who have done research into this dilemma between law enforcement and autism. For those of you who don't know, autism is a developmental disorder. It's a spectrum disorder, so individuals can range from high-functioning to low-functioning, verbal to non-verbal, different types of social deficits—one hallmark of individuals with autism.

Most of us have had some encounters with the police, positive and negative. But if you can imagine with whatever type of functioning level being intimidated by an aggressive individual who wants information now or yesterday in some cases; who wants to search them; who wants answers to their questions quickly. An individual with autism might very well melt down, shut down, freak out, what have you.

So there are some people out there who are actually training law enforcement to handle these issues, but it's not enough. I myself have seen a number of these stories in the news this year alone—I can say, at least 10—where there have been very negative interactions between law enforcement and individuals with autism.

There was a story in LA which I mentioned on my show. [Moore's article] says:

In March, to cite but one instance, Los Angeles police shot and killed an unarmed autistic man after he approached two gang enforcement officers and appeared to remove something from his waistband, the Associated Press reported.

The officers reportedly encountered Stephen Eugene Washington while patrolling in their car. The 27-year-old was acting suspiciously and manipulating something in his waist area, the AP quoted police officials as saying.

When the officers tried to stop Washington to investigate, he quickly approached them and seemed to pull something from his waistband, the AP again reported police as saying.

Police shot and killed Washington. No weapon was found.

What the challenge is is that, as many of you well know, autism incidence (people being diagnosed) is on the rise. It's just jumped to 1 in 100, 1 in 99, 1 in 90, depending on what the source is. According to this article, they report:

If chance meetings between autistic persons and police officers can spin out of deadly control in an instant, and if such contacts occur at a rate seven times higher than in the general population, the potential social, economic and legal ramifications of the autism epidemic are enormous as today's autistic children grow up.

Autism rates have skyrocketed...Of course, much of the medical community and mainstream media continues to insist there is no autism epidemic - the numbers reflect better recognition by doctors and expanded diagnostic categories...

It says: "Eight percent of people with a diagnosis of autism (in the U.S.) are under the age of 18." That's the figure I was looking for. Let's just think about that: eighty percent of people with a diagnosis of autism are under the age of 18. [Anne] Daschel quotes [Thomas] Insel as saying, and she said he described it as "a huge wave that is moving through the system."

We're gonna see more of these things, and that's unfortunate. This is something that many parents talk about between themselves. I don't think that many people, whether the social service agencies, government officials, school districts are really ready for our children. They're not ready to necessarily educate them, and they're certainly not ready to meet them on the street in their autistic glory.

As a parent of three children on the autism spectrum, this scares me. I do have one wanderer who likes to get up and leave when she sees fit. I've also had one situation where I've had to call the police to find my son, who's left. It was a very positive interaction, but nonetheless scary, because I didn't know where he was. Had somebody tried to approach him, tried to ask him questions, he would have ignored them. He would've probably run away from them if they would've come up to him, and he probably would not have responded in a manner that was appropriate.

A police officer with training might say: "Hmm. This individual may have a developmental disability. They might have something wrong with them. Let me handle this differently, or let me do something differently." But as they get older, and one of the things about autism is you can't tell if somebody has autism by the way they look. You can tell from their behaviors in some ways, but they look like regular, typical children. You're not gonna be able to pick one out on the street. From a police officer's standpoint, when they see an individual who's non-repsondent and looks typical, they're gonna think they're being defiant and resisting arrest or resisting questioning, what have you.

That's what the focus is today. That's what I wanna focus on. When I bring Lisa on, she's gonna share her story about what happened to her son. I'm gonna set her up a little bit before she gets here. This is coming from the Huffington Post, and the reporter who wrote this is Ken Reibel. Some of the things I wanted to point out about this story is that they didn't find a weapon. It says: "No gun was found 'and subsequent investigation has indicated that that a gun was not actually seen by the reporting parties.' Yet, Neli is in a mental institution for 30 days, and I guess if it doesn't meet the standards of a judge, he might actually have to go to jail after all this is said and done. So that's the unfortunate thing about this. They've already admitted that they didn't even find the gun that he was suspiciously accused of having.

I wanna move on just a little bit to some preventative resources. In my area, which is in Chester County, Pennsylvania, we are very blessed to have an individual who I actually had on the show a couple of months ago, Sue Rzucidlo, who has an 18-year-old with autism. She and a police chief came up with the Premise Alert System. This is one way to prevent some of these interactions.

What the Premise Alert System is is a system where families can fill out a form and give it to the local authorities, stating: "In this household, there is an individual with a disability and this is how they react; this is how they communicate; these are the people that are involved with them—their case managers, their social workers, therapists, what have you. They put this information in a database, so when there's a call, something comes up that says: "Okay, this is part of the Premise Alert System. There's an individual in this house with autism, or there's an individual in this house with mental retardation" or what have you. So they're already knowledgeable when they go out to the scene that somebody there may resist, may not be cooperative.

She started working on this in 2004, and it's statewide. Local listeners, go check out papremisealert.com, and if you don't already have your child or individual with a disability signed up for it, go sign them up. This is one way to prevent some of these things.

Another way you could prevent situations like this from happening is take your child to the police station to meet who's in the area, who might be patrolling, who might see your child if your child should get lost or something. I have to admit, I haven't done this yet myself. But it's on my list of things to do—particularly with what happened to Neli.

I'm gonna hold off on this. My guest is on the line, and I'm gonna bring her up to share her story. This is Lisa Alexander; she's the mother of 18-year-old Neli who is on the autism spectrum who was arrested and detained by the [unknown] police. So I'm gonna bring her on.

[Music]

Hello, Lisa. Are you with us? Hello?

Lisa Alexander: Yes. Can you hear me?

Nicole Flamer: Yes, I can. Welcome to You Aut to Know! How are you doing?

Lisa Alexander: Thanks. I'm glad we got that little glitch worked out. I don't know what was going on there, because I could hear you very clearly. Obviously you couldn't hear me. How are you doing today, Nicole?

Nicole Flamer: I'm doing pretty good; how are you doing?

Lisa Alexander: I'm hanging in there. Thanks for having me on your show today.

Nicole Flamer: I appreciate you coming on. If you could, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family, and then tell us about what happened with Neli?

Lisa Alexander: Sure. We are a military family. My husband is retired from the military; he did it for 20 years. He's currently in Iraq as a defense contractor, so he's still serving his country even though he did 20-odd years. I myself was in the military for 11 years, so I know what it's like to be a public servant, what the responsibilities and the duties are that come along with that.

We've obviously lived in many different places, and we settled here in Stafford, Virginia in the end of 2003. We've been here for about 6 or 7 years now. Since we've been here, we've had a hard time getting [my son] the help and the services that he needs. He's always had to work a little extra hard and things like that, but we were still able to work with him when he was within those DOD schools. But now, once we came into Stafford County, it's just been a problem with getting him the help.

I didn't know that my son had Asperger's until he was 13 years old. We had been taking him to doctors and getting different evaluations. The one thing that was very popular back then was ADD/ADHD. I would read the things that came along with that. I'm like: "No, this is not my son." When someone finally mentioned Asperger's to me, I'm like: "What is that?" I had never heard of it. So I immediately went online, I did some research. When I actually read the characteristics of the children that had this, I started to cry. I realized that finally, at last, I knew what my son had. There was no denying that that was it.

It's been pretty much a struggle his entire life, but the adolescent years have been a little bit more trying than a typical adolescent. If you would like, that's pretty much all I have to share about our family. I do have a daughter that's 13 years old who's also in the Stafford County school system, but she's doing quite well because she's not on the spectrum. She doesn't have any other developmental issues or anything like that.

Nicole Flamer: Okay. Could you tell us a little bit about your website, A Voice for Neli, and what happened to get you started in this challenge?

Lisa Alexander: I started it because I felt as though what happened to my son that day on the morning of the 24 of June, that Monday morning, was a complete injustice. I stand up for other people when people have been wronged. It was almost a knee-jerk reaction for me to do what I did. It was almost done without thought, because this is something that I have to do. This is not a choice for me. I have to fight for my son's life. My son did not do this. Not only did he not do this.

There's some things that I'm going to reveal on your show, today, that I've not revealed before. I've been waiting on legal counsel, which is not gonna come to me any time soon. Everyone that I speak to, where they've arranged to send him, it's an [arrangement?] that I cannot afford. I'm just gonna put that out there. I can't afford $15,000-30,000, which are the figures that I've been quoted.

I've also been told that no one's really gonna take this case pro bono and that it doesn't matter how events led up to him being arrested and being charged with three [unknown] counts of assaulting an officer. The events leading up to that don't really matter. The only thing that matters is that he's in the penal system. So now he has to be defended against those charges, which I think is horrific. That says to me that the police are above the law, and that their character and behavior is not to be called into question. This is the legal system that we're working with.

Nicole Flamer: Lisa, let's just back up. We might have some listeners who aren't familiar with what happened to Neli. So what you can share, could you give us a synopsis of what happened on the day that he was arrested?

Lisa Alexander: Yeah, I'm gonna tell you everything. What happened on the day that he was arrested, I got up that morning, and Neli was not in the house. Like you mentioned, you had one child that was a wanderer. He did that from time to time, but this was rare. He hadn't done this in a long time. He got up before school and he went for a walk. So I wasn't immediately concerned, because I knew that Neli walks a lot and I knew that he would probably be back after he thought I had gone to work. Personally, I didn't go to work that day 'cause I had just started a two-month leave of absence that I had taken to spend some more time trying to find some better resources to help him.

At approximately 10:30 when Neli had not returned home, I thought it was a little bit odd. I called the police department looking to see if anything had happened to him. When I gave them his name, they said they did [unknown] him. He was in custody and they wouldn't tell me why he was there. So I was like: "Okay." I'm panicking, I was freaking out. I'm like: 'Can he have a phone call?" They said: "No, not at this time, because he's being interrogated by the police." I said: "Okay."

I kept calling back every few hours. I finally got a deputy on the phone that I said: "Can you make sure that he calls?" He's like: "Well, we're not allowed to tell them that they can call out." On the first call I told them that my son was autistic, the very first phone call that I made looking for him and they verified that he was there. I said: "My son is autistic. Please tell me what happened." They wouldn't tell me. Later on in the day, when I called to try to talk to my son, I begged the officer: "My son is autistic. He is not going to come and ask you for a phone call. Can you please just go and remind him and tell him that he can call home. That he's allowed to do that." So my son did call. It was a very short call. The only thing that I could make out that he said was: "I was attacked, Mommy. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." And then we were cut off.

Nicole Flamer: Now, Neli's functioning: He has Asperger's, but as far as communication and social skills, where does he function at.

Lisa Alexander: I don't know what low-functioning or high-functioning or medium-functioning is.

Nicole Flamer: Just his interaction with police. Does he understand that?

Lisa Alexander: He does; he does. I think he would be intimidated by the police. We have always instilled in him the fear of authority figures. There is a system in the world that we all have to follow the rules. Just like at school you have to follow the rules, and if you don't, in life there's repercussions for everything that you do. He's very respectful of law enforcement. But I guess you would put him at high-functioning then, if you wanna call it that.

Nicole Flamer: I guess I was just trying to get an understanding of his communication. I have children who are non-verbal, so I was just wondering. He can make a phone call and stuff, but would he be able to tell you what happened? Would he be able to understand or comprehend what was happening to him?

Lisa Alexander: Oh, yes. Absolutely, he would. He's a very factual type of child that used to read the dictionary when he was younger. He's very high-functioning, but his processing of some information is not good. That's where he struggles in school. In the fifth grade, he could read at a college level and he could spell every word. He's won spelling bees and stuff like that. But if you read a story and you asked him [to do] reading comprehension, he may have some issues there. I really don't wanna focus too much on his—

Nicole Flamer: No, exactly. I just wanna set the picture for what might've happened for everybody, that's all. No, I absolutely understand. It's not about his functioning level; it's about what happened. I'm with you on that.

Lisa Alexander: Yeah. When you talk to him, he does exhibit those all-too common social characteristics. He speaks in a very low voice. He almost doesn't move his lips. He talks like a ventriloquist. You have to continually remind him: "Hey, speak up. What did you say?" He talks very low and he doesn't make eye-contact a lot. He does try to avoid contact with people as much as possible. So that gives you some idea of where he's at. If you'd like me to continue—

Nicole Flamer: Please do.

Lisa Alexander: Like I said, when I called the jail and asked if I could come and see him, they said that I couldn't because he was being held in isolation in a special ward. I found out that night by a neighbor coming to my house asking me if I was okay. I'm like: "What do you mean, am I okay?" What does she mean? Of course I'm not okay, but how would she know I'm not okay? She alerted me to the fact that this was posted on the Internet. This is how I found out. I went on the Internet; I saw my son's picture.

Nicole Flamer: Lisa, hold on one second. There's a number of people in the chat room reporting that they don't have any sound.

Lisa Alexander: Okay.

[Technical difficulties are resolved]

Lisa Alexander: When I contacted the jail to come and visit him, they told me I could not, because he was in isolation. (Keep in mind that I had told them that he was autistic). However, his school counselor was able to get in and see him. She had talked to me prior to going there, and I asked her to see if he was visibly harmed. I'm not sure how many days after the fact this was that she actually went to see him. At this point, my life was a complete upside-down blur. I don't remember what day that was that she actually went in to see him. I do believe it was in the first week, though. She said she saw a couple of scratches, but visibly nothing else. She said she asked him if his body was hurting, and he said his ribs were hurting.

I was allowed to get a special visit with him. She was able to set up a set up a special visit with the superintendent of the [unknown] jail. Now, as much as I am appreciative of her and she is someone that I do consider an ally and an advocate for Neli, I am his mother. I'm glad that he was able to see a familiar face while he was in there, but I'm his mother. Why did I not have the right to see my son? That was very upsetting and unsettling for me.

When she set up that special visit, I went in to see my son. He was of course behind a plexiglass. He had two armed guards behind him. He was handcuffed, and he couldn't talk. He tried to talk to me and he could not verbalize anything. Of course, it was very disturbing to me, because my son has never been non-verbal. He was trying to talk, but he was in some sort of trauma which would not allow him to speak. [His speech was] garbled, and he was fighting trying to talk. It almost looked like some sort of neurological reaction was going on. But I'm not a medical physician, so I can't say what happened.

Nicole Flamer: Right.

Lisa Alexander: My son presented in crisis and was non-responsive, so an emergency treatment order for 30 days was ordered by the court, which then transfered him to [unknown] where he's currently residing, where he's been for the last week and a half or so. They've ordered a competency evaluation and a sanity at the time of the alleged offensive evaluation.

The day that Neli was transfered there, he wasn't allowed to have visitors until the very next day. Of course, I was there. It was the first time since the entire ordeal that I was allowed to really speak to my son; to touch my son; to hold him; to kiss him; to tell him that I love him and that everything was gonna be okay. Immediately when I read that he had a gun, I knew that that was a farce.

Nicole Flamer: Right.

Lisa Alexander: The way that the police department reacted based on a caller saying: "Someone may have a gun" to me was very overly sensationalized, overly dramatic. I just think that the key factor—and I hate to bring this up, but in fact I have to—was the fact that he was a young black man. He frequented the library all the time. It wouldn't be odd for him to be sitting there. I don't understand what makes him look suspicious, other than the color of his skin.

At this point, Nicole, I'm gonna talk for a while, because I want to give Neli's side of the story as to everything that happened. When he left the library, he said he didn't know anything. Now, all the listeners please keep in mind that my son has been locked away. He has not had any access to any news reports, any online [news], any anything. So he's locked away. I didn't tell him anything. I just said: "Son, what happened that day?"

He said: "Mom, I was sitting at the library, waiting for the library to open. When it didn't open, I just decided I was gonna go for a walk. I was gonna walk tot my friend's house." I don't even know who this friend is—maybe someone he met at the library. As far as I know, he doesn't have any friends. He said that he cut in through the woods on behind [unknown] high school, where he was accosted by the police.

Now, the police report states that my son for no apparent reason attacked the deputy at the scene of the school resources office—[that's?] what it says—and broke his ankle and he had to get ten stitches and emergency surgery and all of this, and this is the reason why he's been charged with all this stuff.

What in fact happened that day—and I obviously have to come out with all of this because the longer I hold this information in, it's hurting him. It's not helping him, and apparently no attorneys have stepped up to assist with this. My son said he was approached. When the deputy from the school approached him, he told him that he fit the description, and I am paraphrasing some of this. These are not his exact words. He told [Neli] that he fit the description of someone that was carrying a gun. [Neli] said: "Well, I'm not carrying a gun; I don't have a gun. I don't have any weapons." The officer then said that he would have to search him, and so he said: "Okay." He let the officer search him.

The officer searched him. No weapon was found on him. That was not reported. The officer began to verbally harass my son at that point. I wrote these things down that my son told me. Keep in mind, he has a very photographic memory and remembers details and statistics. Some of the things, I do not know the order of how these things were said to him. I'm not saying that this is the exact order in which it was said. I wasn't there. These are the comments that were made to my son.

The deputy said: "How is your mom? Did she find her baby-daddy yet? Don't worry, champ; she'll find him soon. Keep hope alive" and put his fist in the air. He said: "I bet your grandma still didn't find her baby-daddy yet. What is she? About 100 years old? Maybe she should call Tyrone and find out. Maybe you should go on Maury and find out who your daddy is. Your dad is probably sitting on the corner at the liquor store drinking. I have a dream" [crying]—

I'm so sorry. This part really hurts me. The officer said: "I have a dream that one day all little black boys and little black girls will know who their father is. I have a dream that one day all black fathers will stop running out on their whores to go rob a bank. I bet y'all are glad that Barack Obama is President now. You get to get free fried chicken. Now y'all can rob a bank and get away with it. Maybe now dogfighting will be legal. He should have went to jail longer.

"Barack Obama is gonna turn the White House into a strip club and call it the Nigger House. He is going to paint the White House black and put strippers on top of it. Don't get me wrong—I love me a black bitch every now and then, but that's not what the White House is about. Oh, I forget. It's called the Nigger House. How's a baboon gonna know how to run the White House? That's why it's called the White House, not the Baboon House. Boy, I remember the good old days when we were cracking the whips on your backs."

Those were some of the things that were said to him. My son stood there and took all this verbal abuse from him. He then asked my son for his name and my son said to him (this is where his Asperger's kicked in): "I don't have to tell you my name. You're a racist. I know my rights. You're harassing me." He turned to walk away from this officer. When he turned to walk away from this officer, this officer attacked him from behind and started choking him. My son was tasered; he was kicked by this man. He said he grabbed the taser and he threw the taser away when the man tasered him. My son said he tried to get away from him, but [the officer] grabbed him by his feet and pulled him back.

At that point, he pepper-sprayed my son. My son said: "I grabbed the pepper spray and I threw the pepper spray away, and that's when I ran." He said: "I ran off into the woods, and I just ran." A few minutes later, he heard the deputies and the dogs. They all caught up to him. He said he screamed out: "My eyes! My eyes! I can't see!" One of the deputies said: "Screw your eyes." They threw him down to the ground where they began to beat him. They began to kick my son like he was nothing. They spit on him, and they called him a "fucking nigger." As they were assaulting my son, he said: "I've done nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong." They said to him: "It doesn't matter. Welcome to Stafford County."

Nicole Flamer: Oh, no.

Lisa Alexander: Yes. After they handcuffed him, they threw him up against a tree very hard, and they said: "Oops," and started laughing. Then they started mocking him, saying: " 'Nigger's going to jail; nigger's going to jail.' Oh, yeah, you can make a rap song about that, like Snoop Dog."

He said that once they got him into the squad car, they used excessive force. He said it felt like they were trying to break his neck. They tried to close his ankles up in the door of the squad car to try and hurt him even further. [Sigh] Once he got to the station, they interrogated him and they tried to get him to confess to the fact that he had a weapon when he did not.

So they did not stop. There is clearly wrongdoing on their part, and I don't understand why they locked my son away from me for 11 days, to the point where he became so catatonic that he had to be transferred to a mental facility. He is not insane. He has autism. He's not insane. But they're trying to cover themselves by doing this—by locking him away. They knew on day one when they were questioning him that he was autistic. They knew that. So I guess they were gonna break him.

All of this is very, very malicious. The maliciousness started with the phone call—that individual. That's where it started, and it catapulted and continued on with the police department. Like I said before, I spent 11 years in the military and my husband retired from the military. We are the largest and the most powerful army in the world. We are expected to abide by the laws of the Geneva Convention when we face enemy combatants. We have such a thing called rules of engagement, when we engage enemy combatants.

As civilian citizens, as police officers in this nation, how are they allowed to [behave this way] when our soldiers over there losing their lives are required to approach with care and follow the rules? [Yet] our police officers are wreaking havoc on their own American citizens. It has to stop. That is why that website is up. That is why I will not stop until somebody hears my voice. Someone will hear Cornelius's voice, because it needs to be heard.

Nicole Flamer: Now, Lisa, Camille in the chat room said that there's been some one-sided media coverage as well.

Lisa Alexander: Absolutely. The media coverage was one-sided. The media basically took everything that the police told them and printed it. The media and the police report that's posted on the Stafford County website, they're almost identical. I think that there is some liability. I contacted WJLA, 7 On Your Side News, which is one of the stations that posted it on their website, along with a video.

They were supposed to come out and seek me and have an interview, so that I can tell our side of the story, tell who we are. They posted my personal address on the Internet. No privacy. Any nutjob can come to my house and want to exact revenge on this "nigger" who beat up this police officer, when those were not the things that happened that day. So they put our family in jeopardy by doing that.

There was no investigative reporting going on; they just basically took the words of the sheriff. There was no deductive reasoning; there was no critical thinking done on the part of the reporters. They just simply put pen to paper exactly what was told to them by the sheriff's department. That's very lazy reporting and shoddy investigation at best. It's just terrible. I am very, very outraged by all of this.

Nicole Flamer: Now, you retell these details to other people and you haven't been able to get legal representation?

Lisa Alexander: I have not recounted these details. This is the first time I have come out. I have told people that are very close to me, and I have told a couple attorneys some of this. I told one attorney all of this, and unfortunately, attorneys still need to make a living. So I don't know where to turn at this point. I'm just trying to get my fury out, in hopes that maybe someone will step up and provide some assistance to get my son released.

Nicole Flamer: Okay, Lisa. I'm gonna open up the lines for questions in the chat room. Right now there's a discussion talking about what we can do: if we can write our elected officials. Has anybody from your federal or state government come out to investigate this on a political level?

Lisa Alexander: No. Actually, the arresting officer came to my house the Thursday before last. It was three weeks after the incident to try to put me on tape recorder. I told him: "Thanks, but no thanks. Have a great day." [I thought:] "You're probably one of the deputies that was abusing my son."

We were having some difficulties getting connected, but I do have a person that is in the political arena that has a civil rights consulting firm out of Marietta, Georgia. His name is Mr. Mark Bell, and he has in fact contacted the congressmen's office, the Governor's office, and he's working that aspect of this for me. I had him on the phone with me but we were having difficulties and he got disconnected, so I was unable to have him on this chat with me. But he is on the line, I'm sure.

Nicole Flamer: If you wanna call in, Mark, there's room on the line. We do have another caller; I'm gonna bring him on.

Sharon daVanport: Hi, Nicole. This is Sharon with the Autism Women's Network.

Nicole Flamer: Hi, Sharon. Thanks for calling in.

Sharon daVanport: Lisa, I'm really sorry that this happened to your son. I'm over on Twitter and I've seen his story going around a lot. I was wondering: What are the official charges, and what are his court dates coming up? Is it already something that he's been arraigned for? What is going on legally right now?

Lisa Alexander: As far as I'm aware, he was arraigned the very next day after he was arrested. And I wrote the charges down somewhere. I don't have them handy, but it is on the police website if you go there. The charges are listed on there, but one was [unknown] an officer or something like that. The other one was dealing with assault.

What you have to realize is that as his mother, because he's 18 years old, I've been locked out. I've been completely locked out, and I'm in the process of looking into filing for guardianship for my son. I talked to him about it, and he doesn't have a problem with it, so that this will never happen again, where there was a situation where I need to be able to advocate for him but I can't, because they're saying: "He's 18 years old."

Sharon daVanport: That's really a shame. He needs you to advocate for him and needs that guidance, but yet legally, because he's 18 [you can't give it]. I know that I've been encouraged to do the same for my son because he's 17, to make sure that's in place.

Lisa Alexander: I encourage you to do that. Everyone listening, if you have a child that has autism or any sort of disability whatsoever, where you are concerned that they might have an issue, get them a medical ID bracelet, something I was gonna do but I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. It's one of those things that I'm upset with myself about. After hearing all the details, I'm not sure that that would've actually changed the events of that day, but I think it's definitely important. It's one step that we can do to help our kids out there in the world, and keep them safe.

Sharon daVanport: Did he get appointed a public defender?

Lisa Alexander: Yes, he did.

Sharon daVanport: I wonder if that public defender can help you.

Lisa Alexander: You have to understand: Where we live, everything grew up around it. It used to be all farmland, one lane in, one lane out. So you have the locals who've lived here for years, the ones that are born and bred. They're the ones that run the government. They run the courthouse; they run the police department; they run the school board, the Board of Education. I've had to make complaints before in the past at the Board of Education for things that I didn't feel were being done correctly with my son's IEP at school, and I didn't get the help that I needed. So we take things to the next level, my husband and I, and they're all protecting each other. It's an interwoven network.

Sharon daVanport: They close in on you, yeah.

Lisa Alexander: Oh, yeah. All the people that actually work in the county, they've been living here; they're the locals. The people that actually do the commuting...a lot of the people who live here now are transplants in the military, somehow were brought here through the military, through the Army. We have the Army, the Air Force, the Marine Corps. We have the FBI, we have all that. I live down the street from [unknown] Marine Corps base. So a lot of the people that live here and are commuting, they have other professional jobs outside of the area, but they live here. So the people that actually work here and run the government, run the county, are the people that were born and raised here, pretty much.

Nicole Flamer: Now, Lisa, Autism News Beat posted the charges. It's: "One count of malicious wounding of law enforcement officer; one count of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, and one count of knowingly disarming a police officer in performance of his official duties." Autism News Beat also posted the link to the police version in the chat room.

Lisa Alexander: Thank you. There you go. All that information's on my website, as well.

Nicole Flamer: What kind of resources or support do you need from the autism community—from us parents, from us individuals listening to you here? What can we do to support you, to help you?

Lisa Alexander: I don't know. I've never been in this situation before. I don't know what kind of help to ask for. People have been sending me names of people that probably can help me, and I've been making phone call after phone call. I've gotten a lot of great leads, but nothing has really panned out into anything official at this point.

To raise the signal on this, and to continue to put this out to as many outlets as possible, until it becomes national news, I think, is one of the biggest things that I could ask for at this point. People need to take notice that these things are happening. Like your said, our children that have disabilities are growing in numbers. When they become young adults, they're gonna end up in the penal system when that's not where they need to be.

Nicole Flamer: We have another caller coming in the switchboard.

Cynthia: Hi. How are you?

Nicole Flamer: Good. How are you?

Susie: I'm great. My name is Susie, and I'm calling from Florida, I'm a cousin of Lisa. I'm just calling to support her and for [every voice?] listening to know that she needs all the support and Neli needs to come home to her. I'm very heartbroken, the family's heartbroken, and I'm just calling to support Lisa.

Nicole Flamer: Thank you, Susie.

Susie: Okay.

Lisa Alexander: Thank you.

Nicole Flamer: Lisa, that brings me to another point. How have you been doing? How are you dealing with all this, just on a mental level yourself, with your son away from you, and with all this controversy surrounding it? What are you doing for yourself? How are you handling all this?

Lisa Alexander: I really don't know how I'm handling all of this. I do the very best that I can. My days are spent online, trying to get the word out, making phone calls, driving to go see Neli a couple of times a week. He's two and a half hours away from me. I usually spend two, two and a half hours down there with him, so that's a full day that I'm gone. My mom was here with me for about a week, but she had to return back to work. She'll be back on Wednesday.

Outside of that, no one in the community has offered or come to help. I've actually lost a couple of friends who stopped talking to me for no apparent reason. I have one very good friend who doesn't live in the area that has been bringing food. I normally cook and we've been eating out and ordering stuff, my daughter and I. She brought food and everything for us, and flowers. I don't have a large social circle, because we are transplants to the area. We've been here for six years, but other than the people that my kids played sports with, I don't have a lot of friends in this area. They're scattered all over the place. So I'm just handling it the best way that I can. I have some bad moments, but I do have to be strong for my son. I have to. I have no other choice.

Nicole Flamer: Could you tell us about the petition that you have up?

Lisa Alexander: Yes. A very good friend suggested it to me just to show these news stations and these reporters. I'm one voice, but that petition has been signed by over 1100 people now. People from all over the world are now speaking out against this, and I think that's a good way to show...I sent a link to the petition, as well as a link to the Huffington Post article, a link to the Essence article, a link to Neli's website to all these media outlets when I'm requesting them to please pick up the story. It gives it more power, it gives it more strength, and it also gives people the opportunity to stand up for something. I'm very grateful for everyone that has signed that petition.

A lot of the comments that I've read on the petition, as well as a lot of the comments that I've read on Neli's blog, as well as the e-mails I've gotten, it's heartbreaking, some of the stuff that people are concerned about. This is obviously hitting very close to home for a lot of people, because people are actually moved by this. There are so many children out there that are somewhere on the spectrum, and one day, they're gonna be 18 years old.

Nicole Flamer: Right. I had posted it on the Autism Speaks social network, and there were some parents who were starting to write some letters to the police department. But it really sounds like you need funds, and you need someone to get involved, who's willing to take this to heart. So I implore the community that's listening: if you have resources or you know of resources. They can donate on your website, correct?

Lisa Alexander: Yes. Actually, there have been a lot of donations so far, and I wanna thank everyone that has done it. I know that some people are not able to donate, and that is completely fine. You can donate in other ways with your time, just by spreading the word around. I wanna thank everyone who has donated so far monetarily. We're up to $925, and I think that's not too bad. Like I said on the website, if for some reason someone takes this case pro bono and it spawns off into something else, then that fund that has been donated to is gonna be donated to another organization. I don't know which one, but an organization that deals with with children and autism. So either way, the money's gonna go to something good. It's going to the autism cause.

Nicole Flamer: We have one minute remaining, so I just want you to put your information out there: your website, how they can contact you and anything else you wanna share in this last minute while you're still on the line.

Lisa Alexander: I just wanna ask everyone: Please, if you haven't already gone to my website, please go to www.avoiceforneli.com All of the information about everything else that's going on—the petition, the articles, everything is there. There are links to the police report; the video that I posted on YouTube when I first brought this story out. You can also contact me. There's a contact form on the navigation panel, that you can just click "Contact," put your information in and send me a note.

Please reach out to me. If you have any questions, or if there's any way that you can help. Again, thanks to everyone for all of the support that I've been getting. I really just want everyone to know that I'm very grateful, and I'm very grateful to you, Nicole, for giving me this platform to tell Neli's story. Thank you very much.

Nicole Flamer: Thank you for sharing the story. It is a very important cause that people need to be aware of, and I will post this and keep pushing it out as much as I can. If you wanna come back on the show, the platform is yours for updates or what have you. Feel free. You can always use this as a platform. Thank you for coming on, and I wish you blessings and good luck to you and Neli, and I will definitely be praying for you.

Lisa Alexander: Great. Thank you so much, and thanks to everyone for listening today. Have a good evening.

Nicole Flamer: Okay. Bye-bye.

Lisa Alexander: Bye-bye.

[End]