Prosecutor attempts suicide
Psychological test ordered for child sex attempt suspect
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Authorities will be giving an indicted Florida federal prosecutor a psychological assessment and keeping a close eye on him at the Milan federal prison after he attempted suicide Thursday morning at the Sanilac County Jail.
John David "Roy" Atchison, the prosecutor indicted on charges of flying from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, tried to hang himself at about 4 a.m. Thursday, Sanilac County Sheriff Virgil Strickler confirmed.
The suicide attempt came a little more than a day after Atchison asked a federal judge to take him off a suicide watch and assured her he would not try to harm himself.
Atchison tied a sheet around his neck, but the suicide attempt was discovered by sheriff's deputies before he had a chance to harm himself, Strickler said.
"One of the other inmates hollered that he was doing it," and jail deputies responded quickly, Strickler said.
Atchison, an assistant U.S. attorney in the northern district of Florida, was then moved from Sandusky, in Michigan's Thumb, to Milan, according to a court filing made Thursday.
"Obviously there are some mental health issues," Strickler said. "We're not equipped to deal with him up here."
U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts on Thursday set a Nov. 27 trial date for Atchison.
The most serious charge, crossing state lines to have sex with a child younger than 12, carries a 30-year minimum sentence upon conviction.
Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was arrested following an Internet sting run by the Macomb County Sheriff's Office and the FBI in which a sheriff's deputy posed as a mother looking for someone to have sex with her 5-year-old daughter.
Atchison was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday when he arrived with a Dora the Explorer doll and a gift of earrings for the child, Macomb Sheriff Mark Hackel said.
James C. Thomas of Detroit, Atchison's lawyer, had also asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia M. Morgan on Tuesday to lift the suicide watch on Atchison, based on what his client told him.
"We all operate on the best of intentions," Thomas said. "At the time, I thought it was the right decision. Apparently, it was a mistake.
"I feel as bad about it as anyone."