Clarification: Mr. Closser was sentenced to 90 days but was given credit for three days already served and 87 days were suspended.
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A man who grabbed a child at an area hospital after reportedly mistaking him as his son was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail but received credit for time served.
Clayton G. Closser, 38, of Lyle entered an “in re Barr” plea in Clark County Superior Court to disorderly conduct in connection with the March 6 incident at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center. The plea allows a defendant to plead guilty to a lesser related charge he didn’t commit in order to avoid conviction for a greater offense.
Closser appeared for the hearing out of custody.
His attorney, Jack Green, told the court that his client was suffering from hallucinations at the time of the incident due to alcohol withdrawal and a bad reaction from an anti-seizure medication. He described the incident as “truly a freak situation.”
Closser checked himself into a mental health and addiction treatment facility March 1 and was undergoing the detox process when he was sent to the hospital because of complications. He was subsequently discharged but was sent back to the hospital when his issues persisted, Green explained.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies were called about 8:15 p.m. to the hospital at 2211 N.E. 139th St. for a possible attempted kidnapping. The grandmother of an 8-year-old boy reported that a man in the emergency room grabbed her grandson. The man, later identified as Closser, repeatedly told the boy to tell people he was his son, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
The grandmother told Closser multiple times to let go of her grandson, but he wouldn’t, the affidavit said. Several nurses and people in the ER intervened and yelled at Closser to let go of the boy and get away from him. The tearful boy told deputies that Closser grabbed his chest and was almost hugging him, according to court records.
Green told the court Closser was embracing the boy and let go when he told him to.
In an interview with deputies, a nurse said she found Closser in the hospital parking lot before the incident acting strange and brought him into the ER. Deputies later learned that Closser was dropped off at the hospital by the treatment provider because he was hallucinating and needed a psychiatric evaluation, according to court documents.
Closser told a deputy he believed his son was stuck under a vehicle in the parking lot but then later saw him in the ER, the affidavit states.
He has been maintaining his sobriety since the incident, his attorney said, and apologized for what happened.
