Darlene Wallace sits in court with one of her sons, Rally Wallace, her daughter-in-law and a nephew during Wednesday's hearing for Rodney Wallace.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Rodney Wallace is going home.
The farm mechanic from Toledo has been locked up at Western State Hospital for most of the past five years after he was accused of trying to run down his father and two deputies with a tractor near the family’s Mandy Road home.
Rodney Wallace
Wallace, then 37, was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity of second-degree assault and felony eluding for the July 2005 incident. He had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court, Judge Nelson Hunt heard from Wallace’s attorney who shared feedback from a private psychologist that his client is stable and from Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher who said he said he had concerns about Wallace being released to live with his parents.
“(I’m concerned) if Mr. Wallace doesn’t understand or empathize with his alleged victims and we’re putting him right back with them,” Meagher said.
Wallace’s lawyer Zenon Olbertz told the judge the community nurse from the psychiatric hospital would testify, if needed, that Wallace is not a substantial danger and does not represent a significant likelihood of committing criminal acts.
“He wants to be home with his parents, he wants to be working on the farm,” the Tacoma attorney said. “They want him home. They’re strong people, and they’re not going to put up with anything.”
Hunt granted a conditional release.
His mother Darlene Wallace, two of his brothers and other family members were in the Chehalis courtroom hoping that’s exactly what the judge would do.
“We all want him out, we’re glad he’ll be out,” his brother Rally Wallace said. “He’s paid his dues, or whatever, it’s time for him to be out.”
Under state law, the hospital could hold Rodney Wallace as long as the maximum time he would have gotten if convicted, which is 10 years, according to his attorney.
The terms of his release include meeting with a community mental health professional ever other week and with the hospital’s community nurse Kris Harkness every two weeks.
The agreement in early 2006 to dismiss the charges and plead insanity made by then-Lewis County Prosecutor Jeremy Randolph and Wallace’s court-appointed attorney came after Wallace was “sucker-punched” by another Lewis County Jail inmate and hospitalized with a broken eye socket and a swelling brain. Wallace settled with the county for $30,000.
On Wednesday, as Harkness prepared to drive him back to the Tacoma-area hospital to pack his belongings and Wallace exchanged hugs with his family, the Toledo man pulled a slip of paper from his suit jacket pocket.
It was inside the fortune cookie he got at lunch the day before at Western State, Wallace said. He read it aloud:
“Tomorrow will be lucky and memorable for you.”
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter