Chained Defendant Acquitted -- `Hannibal Lecter Chair' Was Hidden From Jury

When King County jurors sized up the defendant, Michael R. Gleason, all they saw was his head.

Gleason, who was on trial for first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon, sat at the defense table flanked by two attorneys and cloaked from his neck down in a flowing black tarp that covered his chair and pooled onto the floor.

Superior Court Judge Richard Ishikawa explained Gleason's odd presence to jurors by simply saying he was "incapacitated."

It was not until after jurors acquitted him last week that they learned Gleason was heavily manacled from his chest to his ankles in a special restraint chair the jail has begun using on people who may pose serious risks to others.

Now, talk at the courthouse is that Gleason's confinement in the chair - called the "Hannibal Lecter chair" by some after a similar device in the movie "Silence of the Lambs" - may have actually helped win his acquittal.

Deputy prosecutor James Konat said the verdict was the most shocking he has had in his nine years of trying cases. He said he heard from various sources that some jurors thought Gleason had been crippled in the incident for which he was tried.

"Not in a million years would I have dreamed that robe could cause sympathy for the defendant," said Konat.

But juror Andrew Resor said it didn't. The sight of Gleason caused jurors to speculate, but deliberations focused on the charge. He said prosecutors simply did not prove the element of the crime, that Gleason forcibly broke into the house armed with a bat.

"There were lots of red herrings and sad characters but I think we quickly sorted through the chaff," said Resor. "We weren't concerned with what was under his robe . . . "

Just before trial on the burglary charge, Gleason pleaded guilty to three counts of custodial assault involving attacks on correction officers. In return, prosecutors agreed not to file as many as nine more similar charges.

Jurors then acquitted Gleason, 32, of the burglary charge.

Konat alleged that on March 9, Gleason broke into the Kent home of a man who was living with Gleason's estranged wife. Gleason hit the man in the head and shoulder with a baseball bat before the other man, who armed himself with a bat when he saw Gleason coming, fought him off, the prosecutor said.

When police arrived they found the man's door broken down and the two men bloodied in the front yard. It was their third fight in a week.

Defense attorneys Eric Lindell and Jim Conroy contended Gleason could not have swung the bat inside the doorway, as prosecutors said.

Gleason was on his second set of attorneys because his first defense lawyer resigned. She said she did so after Gleason threatened her.

Gleason was sent to Western State Hospital for a 15-day mental evaluation. During his first day there he allegedly punched a staffer and was sent back to the jail the next day and pronounced fit to stand trial, his first attorney said.

Western State found Gleason has an "adjustment disorder dealing with anger" and recommended he be kept in shackles.

Lindell protested the use of the chair and the robe, saying it would prejudice the jury. But the chair may have been for his protection, too. People close to the case say Gleason also tried to hit his new attorneys.

Jail officials first came back with a bright yellow tarp. That was too much of an attention-getter, so a black tarp was used.

When Gleason testified, he remained seated at the defense table while one of his attorneys asked questions from the witness stand. Ishikawa waived the requirement that Gleason raise his right hand when he took the oath to tell the truth.

Ray Coleman, associate director of the jail, said he thought the chair has been used only two other times since it was purchased six months ago, but never with a tarp.

The "restraint chair" is a low-riding, hard-shelled wheelchair that enables corrections officers to strap the inmate's ankles, waist, chest and hands. The seat has reinforced lumbar support and is relatively comfortable but completely confining. Wrists are shackled to the sides of the chair. The chair is increasingly being used by police departments and jails to immobilize and transport unwilling detainees and avoid injuries.

Coleman said the chair, which cost about $700, is as much for the safety of the prisoner as for jail and court personnel. But both attorneys said Gleason had to be sprayed with Mace to even get him in the chair.

He was wheeled into court strapped inside the chair and wearing white jail coveralls with the words "Ultra Security Risk" on them. He has been in solitary confinement since April.

Konat said that since March, Gleason has attacked about a dozen corrections officers and several inmates. In one of the assaults, Gleason punched a corrections officer in the face while being handcuffed.

Gleason, previously convicted of assault and custodial assault in Pierce County, faces a sentencing range of a year to 16 months on his convictions in King County.