Daytona Beach, FL – The Van-In-Ocean mom will be allowed to leave a state mental hospital over 8 months after a Volusia County judge ordered her committed.
During a court hearing on Monday, 7th Circuit Judge Leah Case ruled that Ebony Wilkerson can go to a state-supervised treatment facility in Lake Wales, assuming she meets certain conditions.
Among those conditions are that Wilkerson must continue to seek psychiatric treatment for bipolar disorder and take her medicine as well as comply with all the rules of that facility.
Wilkerson will not be allowed to speak to her 4 children on the phone but will be allowed to write and receive letters from her kids as long as it goes through a therapist first.
Her legal team argued during Monday’s hearing to have Wilkerson either freed or placed in a less restrictive facility that was closer to her family in Volusia County, but Case shot that plan down because she felt Wilkerson still meets involuntary commitment criteria.
During her testimony at the hearing, the 34-year-old woman said she’d be willing to go to the Lake Wales facility and that she’s been taking Seroquel and Klonopin as part of the treatment plan to keep her mentally stable.
She also admitted to feeling better with those medications instead of a similar one she took nearly a decade ago that made her feel “dead”.
Another status hearing will be scheduled in a few months.
Wilkerson – a South Carolina resident – was initially arrested in March 2014 and charged with attempted murder and child abuse after driving a van with her 3 eldest kids inside into 4 feet of rough surf at Silver Beach.
Those charges were dropped by the 7th Circuit State Attorney’s Office last summer as part of a plea deal where Case ruled that Wilkerson was not guilty by reason of insanity on the child abuse charges.
The 7th Circuit Public Defender’s Office argued that Wilkerson’s actions at the time were due in part to her pregnancy, to not being in treatment and to years of alleged abuse from her husband.
Wilkerson gave birth to her 4th child while under state custody at Halifax Health Medical Center in May 2014. That child and the other 3 – ages 3, 9 and 10 at the time – are now with Wilkerson’s husband, who is also their father.
Wilkerson was forced into a South Florida psychiatric facility just before last Christmas after Case ruled that Wilkerson was too dangerous to remain free even after she posted bond and left Volusia County Jail following the birth.
Ebony Wilkerson (mugshot courtesy of Volusia County Jail)
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.