GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - In the year since Payton Mellema ignited a barn fire that killed 13 therapy horses near Lowell, efforts to get him into a court-approved treatment center have almost overwhelmed his mother.
There was a sense of urgency: Find a place that will take him or he’ll be locked up in prison.
“There is so little out there and when you do find a place, there’s a long waiting list,’’ Sheri Dewald said. “It has been like a full-time job.’’
Mellema pleaded guilty last fall to two felonies, including arson, for the April 8, 2017 fire in Lowell Township. Instead of prison, a plea agreement called for Mellema to spend five years on probation with the first three years at a secured mental health treatment facility.
If one could not be found by Monday, April 9, Mellema would go to prison for between three and 10 years. A Kent County judge on Friday extended the deadline until mid-May.
It has been an emotional ride for Dewald, who adopted Mellema as an infant.
“I haven’t touched my son since April. I have not seen his face in person since April,’’ she said in a recent interview.
Dewald said her son was diagnosed as a child with neurological issues, including dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. She initially avoided medication, preferring a holistic approach instead.
“We tried to go at it from an exercise point of view, from a nutritional point of view,’’ Dewald said. “By the time he was in fourth grade, it was decided that we needed to get a stimulant on board.’’
Finding the right medication was a matter of trial and error. Dewald said she tried several prescriptions, including Ritalin, Concerta and Vyvanse.
“Prior to him hitting puberty, it was pretty effective,’’ she said. “Going into 8th grade, that’s when the wheels fell off. All of that brain chemistry is changing; trying to keep his medication balanced is like shooting at a moving target.’’
Dewald said her son became more defiant and oppositional. Then she was told something no mother wants to hear.
“I distinctly remember the day that the therapist said to me: ‘Sheri, you might need to entertain the thought that your son can’t live in your home.’’’
The option, they decided, was therapeutic boarding school. Mellema attended schools in multiple locations, including Texas and New Hampshire.
Along the way, doctors diagnosed him as suffering from a condition called cerebral dysrhythmia, which Dewald described as a disturbance in the brain waves.
“It interrupts his processing, which causes frustration and confusion,’’ she explained. “You may have to repeat a question to him. Initially, you would get a vacant stare.’’
She also noticed aggressive behavior spurred by frustration. “Not towards people, but it wasn’t uncommon to see him pick up a chair and throw it,’’ Dewald said.
When Mellema became overwhelmed or frustrated, he fled. “You’d have to find him, bring him back to campus, try and deescalate and get him in a spot where he could begin to focus and learn,’’ Dewald said. “And that was no small talk.’’
He eventually earned his diploma in New Hampshire and returned to Michigan. Mellema was unable to hold jobs because of his neurological issues, Dewald said.
“It was the lack of structure,’’ she said. “He needs to be supervised 24/7.’’
With no job and time on his hands, trouble eventually followed. Mellema was prosecuted for breaking into a neighbor’s home in Lowell Township and taking a rifle. He was on probation for that offense when the fire started next door.
Mellema had earlier been banned from setting foot on the property housing The Barn for Equine Learning, located on Timpson Avenue north of 36th Street SE. Mellema once served as a volunteer. He’d been accused of entering the barn without permission and cutting pasture fences.
When Mellema emerged as a suspect in the fire, Dewald said she was stunned and devastated.
“I think initially, as a parent, you just don’t absorb that,’’ she said. “And a mom’s heart wants to believe that that is not something your child is capable of doing.’’
Dewald says her son’s arrest and prosecution opened her eyes to the glaring need for mental health services in the criminal justice system.
“It does not seem that there are the types of treatments and interventions and therapies within the criminal justice system that actually rehabilitate anyone with mental illness,’’ she said. “So that doesn’t create a lot of hope.
“The only rays of hope that I personally see right now is that so much of this is being brought to the public attention,’’ Dewald said. “The awareness is starting to begin. But we need to be doing so much more; contacting our legislators and letting them know this is a broken system that needs to be fixed.’’
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