Parents Agree to Counseling for Teen-Ager : Courts: The program could lead to theft charges being dropped against the retarded 19-year-old. A judge still must rule on admitting him.

The parents of a mentally retarded teen-ager who disappeared for several days after being arrested and released from Ventura County Jail on theft charges agreed Wednesday to have him placed in a special counseling program as an alternative to being prosecuted.

Attorney David L. Sanders said the family of Eric Schimmel, 19, of Frazier Park would like their son to receive special psychological counseling, a proposal advanced by the district attorney’s office as a way to move the case out of the courts.

The case gained notoriety and became an embarrassment to Ventura County law enforcement officials when Schimmel was released from jail earlier this month and allowed to wander away without his parents’ knowledge.

The counseling proposal was made last week by Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brenda C. Andrade, who said that if Schimmel successfully completed the program all misdemeanor charges against him for allegedly breaking into a van would be dismissed.

Wednesday’s agreement came during an arraignment hearing before Municipal Judge Art Gutierrez. He set a new hearing for Sept. 17 to give county probation officials time to assess whether Schimmel qualifies for counseling.

The judge will then rule on whether to allow the defendant to enter the program, a step toward removing Schimmel’s case from the criminal justice system.

“I think it’s a wise move by the district attorney to defuse the situation,” Sanders, a former Riverside County prosecutor, said after the hearing. “He could have lined up with the sheriff and played hardball.”

Andrade said later, however, that the decision to begin a process aimed at dismissing the charges had nothing to do with playing hardball.

She said it was the district attorney’s position, when it was suspected that Schimmel might have a disability problem, “to recommend that he be screened for psychological counseling.”

To be sure, she said, “there was a lot of heated publicity, but our position was based on what we’d do for anyone who had a disability problem. Our decision wasn’t based on publicity. We would recommend the same program for anyone with such a disability problem. And his attorney agreed with us.”

Schimmel was arrested Aug. 7 by sheriff’s deputies after he climbed into a neighbor’s van. He was booked on suspicion of vehicle tampering, loitering and petty theft and transported from the remote mountain community in which he lives to Ventura County Jail. An arrest report alleged that a bottle opener belonging to the van’s owner was found in his possession.

When Schimmel was released from jail on his own recognizance without his parents being notified, he became the subject of a widespread manhunt. He was found unharmed a few days later in Fillmore, about 20 miles from Ventura.

By that time, the district attorney’s office had announced that charges would be pursued against Schimmel. But the prosecutor did a subsequent about-face.

Andrade said it was almost impossible to tell from the arrest report whether Schimmel had a disability problem. Sheriff’s officials said they knew that Schimmel had a problem and handled him in a sensitive manner.

Schimmel appeared in court Wednesday with his brother, Jason, 15, and his mother and stepfather, Linda and Jeff Smith.

The 6-foot, 175-pound teen-ager, who wore a black Chicago Bulls cap and blue gym shorts, sat quietly on a bench next to his mother outside the courtroom until his case was called. He occasionally smiled and said a few words to his mother and brother.

Asked about his thoughts when he was released from jail, he said, “I was scared.”

Asked if he was scared Wednesday, he said, “No.”

His parents have said that when he was tested at age 16 by the state Board of Education, the results showed that he had the overall mentality of a 5-year-old.

Andrade said in an interview, however, that according to two county psychologists who studied the report, the data was insufficient to draw any conclusions about Schimmel’s intelligence.

She added that psychologists said he appeared to be “uncooperative” during the test, “therefore making any findings possibly invalid.”

If probation officials clear Schimmel for the counseling program, the charges will be suspended, Andrade said. Then he will be enrolled in the Tri-County Regional Center, a state-funded, nonprofit agency in Oxnard that counsels the mentally disabled.

He could be transferred from there to a similar agency in Bakersfield or north Los Angeles County, whichever is closer to his home, Andrade said.

“I want it to get over with,” Linda Smith said. “I’d like to see him in some type of job training.”

After the brief hearing, Sanders, a Santa Ana attorney, said he “would have been more satisfied” if the district attorney had simply dropped the charges without a caveat that his client first complete a counseling program.

Still, he said, he believes that it has worked out for the best since Schimmel’s parents wanted their son to have counseling and, under the plan, it would be accomplished at no cost to the family.

Andrade said she was “very happy, elated” that the Schimmel case appeared to be moving out of the criminal justice system and into the hands of health professionals.

As to why the district attorney did not want to immediately drop the misdemeanor charges, she said that “this way, he gets counseling and the public will have some assurance he will be properly supervised” until the program is completed.

Sanders said he “needs time to assess” the impact of Schimmel’s brief incarceration and the circumstances of his release from jail before deciding whether to file a lawsuit for damages against the county.