POLSON — Lake County District Court Judge Kim Christopher on Wednesday said she is keeping a 10-year-old boy in custody on $500,000 bond until he can receive a mental health evaluation that had been scheduled and missed three times in the past 14 months.

Isaiah Nasewytewa of St. Ignatius has been cited for disorderly conduct at school, violating the conditions of a deferred prosecution agreement (for his role in a 2012 burglary) and felony theft, according to court records.

Christopher did not back away from Nasewytewa’s unusually high bond, explaining that the court wants to maintain custody of the boy to ensure he receives a mental-health evaluation upon which future legal proceedings will be based.

Christopher had been wary of Nasewytewa’s family posting bond if the amount were lowered as public defender Steve Eschenbacher requested.

“Wouldn’t the family’s money be better spent on Isaiah than on a bondsman?” Christopher asked Dorinda Buck, the youth’s grandmother.

Buck, Nasewytewa’s “off and on” legal guardian for the past two years,  pushed for her grandson’s release. Buck promised to guarantee his attendance at all necessary psychiatric appointments, even offering to risk jail time for contempt of court if Nasewytewa fails to show up for testing.

Eschenbacher said the state was using the criminal justice system to deal with a mental-health issue.

But Christopher and prosecutors would not budge.

Deputy County Attorney J. Cory Allen said one of the primary reasons the court had set such a high bond was the “track record of Isaiah missing appointments with Sunburst Mental Health Services],” noting that he had been absent from nine of his past 15 appointments.

Christopher observed that three previous neuropsychological appointments had been missed.

The boy was living with an aunt in Washington state the first time, his father failed to complete the necessary paperwork for the second appointment last September and it was unclear who was his legal guardian when a third appointment was missed in January, the judge was told.

The boy was removed from his father’s care by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Child Protective Services for reasons that weren’t disclosed in court, and his grandmother became his legal guardian sometime in January.

Other witnesses stressed the importance of following through with the evaluation soon.

Brandy Couture, a service coordinator case manager for Sunburst, echoed concern over Nasewytewa’s past attendance record and said testing is essential “so that we can fully assess his therapeutic needs.”

Barbara Monaco, a juvenile probation officer who has been involved with the case since the beginning, testified that the staff at the Reintegrating Youthful Offenders Correctional Facility in Galen told her the boy was doing fine there.  

Monaco supported the recommendation to keep the defendant in custody to guarantee the evaluation is completed.

Christopher agreed.

“All I’ve heard today is more reasons for why that’s necessary,” Christopher said, expressing her desire to have the evaluation handled within the next two weeks.

Allen said Nasewytewa’s troubled history includes “constant” episodes of violent behavior in school. The young defendant also faces theft and burglary charges that Christopher indicated would be felonies “if he were an adult.”

Buck defended her grandson, saying that Nasewytewa describes many of the  school incidents as “play fighting” with his friends. Buck also suggested that he has been the victim of emotional trauma, since the separation of his parents coincided with “the time this burst of burglary happened.”

Members of Nasewytewa’s family were visibly distraught throughout the afternoon’s proceedings. Before the hearing, several of the youth’s cousins picketed outside the courtroom to protest his “unfair” custody, and Nasewytewa and Buck shared a long hug following the emotional ordeal.

Nasewytewa is expected to remain in custody until at least May 23. At that point, upon the expected completion of his evaluation, the court will be able to determine how best to proceed in his case.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.