Darius McCollum sentenced to psych ward

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A Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge has ruled that a 53-year-old man with Asperger’s Syndrome and a love of transit is suffering from a “dangerous mental disorder,” and ordered him locked up in a secure psychiatric facility for the foreseeable future.

Darius McCollum will now be “warehoused” alongside violent criminals for what will likely be the remainder of his life, defense attorney Sally Butler said through tears after judge Ruth Shillingford determined that McCollum’s penchant for swiping buses made him a danger to society.

Her decision came following months of hearings and McCollum’s guilty plea of “not responsible by mental disease or defect” in January.

Reading from her 70-page decision, Shillingford told the courtroom she’d designated McCollum a “track one” offender — the most dangerous assignation available — which will land him in a secure psychiatric institution indefinitely.

Butler fought for McCollum to be designated to “track three,” so he could receive services while remaining free.

“This Court is well aware that the law, as it now exists, appears to be aimed at or at least has been utilized with respect to those who have committed violent crimes or threatened to do so,” Shillingford read. “As such, this Court calls upon the legislature to consider looking at the overall track designations to address the issue raised by someone with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder as they interface with the criminal justice system.”

McCollum has been busted on at least 30 different occasions for taking over trains and buses across the city. A three-time felon, his last arrest was in Nov. 2015, when he nabbed an unattended Greyhound Bus as it idled outside Port Authority

The law is not set up to deal with people like him, but the sad fact is the law’s not gonna change. And so he’s just going to get eaten up by the system,” she said. “[Shilingford] says ‘oh, the legislature,’ but the legislature’s not going to do anything here.”

Butler added that McCollum, who stole his first bus at 15, won’t get adequate treatment in whatever facility he ends up, because psychiatric hospitals are meant to deal with people who suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, and not those with Asperger’s.

“I’m worried no matter what,” Butler continued, her eyes welling with tears. “He’s in with dangerous criminals and he’s just not dangerous. He can’t even protect himself. He’s very child-like. And it’s just disappointed. It’s a dangerous place for him, both from the staff, and from the inmates. It doesn’t fit who he is.”

“He’s scared,” she added.

He was previously held at Kirby, but was treated so poorly there — medical charts erroneously designated him as “female,” “psychotic,” and a “white Irish alcoholic” — that Shillingford ordered him moved to Rikers Island for his own safety.

McCollum will be evaluated periodically during his stay, but Butler, who has vowed an appeal, says the prospects aren’t great.

“Once you go there, you never come out,” she said Friday, shaking her head. “He’s gone.”