An inmate at the Island County Jail who assaulted and threatened staff members and refused to go to court will need to be transported to Western State Hospital for a competency evaluation, according to court documents.

While the jail often deals with aggressive or noncompliant inmates, it is rare for a defendant to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for an evaluation that normally takes place in the jail.

Police arrested 22-year-old Collin Reeves at the transit station in downtown Oak Harbor on Sept. 10 after he assaulted an Island Transit security person and then a police officer, according to an officer’s report. Prosecutors charged him in Island County Superior Court Sept. 13 with two counts of assault in the third degree, malicious mischief in the third degree and indecent exposure.

Judges have twice authorized motions allowing Reeves to appear at court hearings in restraints because of his aggressive behavior. Normally, defendants must be free from restraints in court because their appearances are considered prejudicial.

In one instance, Reeves allegedly reached through a cuff port in his cell and struck a corrections deputy. In another, he threatened to do indecent things to a deputy’s skull, according to court documents.

On Jan. 18, Reeves attacked a corrections deputy after being escorted from a shower back to his cell, according to a report on the incident. He continued fighting the deputies, who finally placed him in a full-body restraint and put him into a padded safety cell until he settled down.

On Jan. 21, Reeves fought deputies who were trying to take him to the video room in the jail for a court hearing. Reeves pulled away from a deputy and resisted going into the room, according to court documents. He kicked, scratched, spit at, tried to bite and threatened to kill deputies as they attempted to control him, a report on the incident states.

When Reeves again refused to go to court the next day, the judge signed an order for an expert at the Department of Social and Health Services to complete a competency evaluation of Reeves at the jail.

But when a mental health professional came to the jail, Reeves covered himself with a blanket and refused to talk. As a result, the evaluator determined that Reeves will need to be transported to the state mental hospital to be interviewed.