Judge nixes abating red flag order

By Linda Cicoira

Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. of Accomack Circuit Court nixed a motion Thursday to abate a previous red flag order that denied a Chincoteague woman the right to bear arms.

Last September, 68-year-old Susan Deal Anderson asked an island police officer to hold onto her pistol, saying she might shoot her neighbors and then herself. She was taken to a hospital that day, where she was observed for several hours and evaluated.

About a month later, she asked for the gun back, and an Emergency Substantial Risk Order was issued. Her right to the weapon was denied for six months. That prohibition will not expire until late May.

Anderson, who has since found a psychiatrist, has the right to petition the court to dismiss the order sooner. She was represented by attorney John Hart on Thursday. She did not have counsel when she last appeared in court.

Anderson previously told authorities she suffers from depression and takes medication for the ailment. She denied wanting to kill anyone and said she felt like throwing the gun through a window and didn’t want to damage her property.

“I have no intent to shoot any person, including myself,” she said. “My anger was breaking glass … I wanted it out of the house … I don’t like any of my neighbors. I never thought of shooting them. He made that up,” she added regarding the officer.

“I think the police have helped you,” Judge Lewis said at the initial hearing. “They were following red flag laws,” he added. “We can’t wait for when something happens … I’m finding him (Lt. David Gladding) credible,” Judge Lewis said. “It’s more disturbing that you say that never happened. You pose a risk to yourself or others.”

Virginia’s red flag law allows police officers or a commonwealth’s attorney to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a substantial risk of harm to themselves or others.

This week, Lewis said that he wanted more information about her treatment and for Anderson to see the psychiatrist again before he could consider abating the order. “I want as much information as I can get … I don’t want to embarrass her … There were people who were very alarmed. There were very frightened people,” said the judge.

“She is in a different place than she was,” Hart said. “There is a part of her that you didn’t see last time. She’s worked for NASA as a program manager …. She had a perfect SAT score of 1500. She took courses at Harvard. There is a thin line with genius and mental health problems … She didn’t have a lawyer last time.”

“So, I realized I needed to address what happened,” Anderson told the judge Thursday. She said it took her a while to find a board-certified psychiatrist. “I’ve been working on that since October. I like him. I think he will be very effective.”

“She is making a good faith effort,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan told Lewis.

According to evidence presented in November, Anderson was unhappy with the HOA and had sent several members emails telling them not to trespass, or she would “act accordingly.”

Anderson said that meant she would call the police. She threatened them with lawsuits and caused some board members to resign, a remaining member told the court. Anderson admitted in November that the emails were “embarrassing. I just don’t want anything to do with them. Stay away. I can’t see anything that happened here that made me a threat. I don’t understand why it wasn’t over when I left the hospital.”