Aug22
Dragged inmate to spend year in treatment program
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Dasyl Rios, the mentally ill inmate dragged through the Broward courthouse by her ankle shackles last month, will be released from jail and spend the next year in a residential treatment program after she resolved her pending criminal cases on Thursday.
In a plea deal accepted by Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, Rios, 28, pleaded no contest to a felony cocaine possession charge and misdemeanors stemming from two 2014 arrests.
She was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor while she lives at the non-lockdown treatment center, then will spend another two years on probation.
“It’s better than the alternative,” Rios’ mother Sylvia said after the hearing.
Rios, who has bi-polar disorder, could have been sentenced to prison for violating probation.
“She requested the ankle monitor,” said Marla Ferguson, Rios’ attorney. “She wants to complete the program.”