BISMARCK -- A prolonged case involving a California woman who drove a stolen rental car to Bismarck and sat in jail for nearly 180 days for the crime -- drawing a judge’s ire for the delays -- was resolved within a matter of minutes Monday.
Jessica Tsao, 30, signed a plea agreement last week in which her felony theft charge was dropped to a misdemeanor. She also agreed to a deferred imposition of sentence, which means after a period of time if she doesn’t break any state, tribal or local laws then the charge will be dismissed and not go on her record.
Tsao was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia last year in California and drove to North Dakota around the time her father died.
Last summer, Tsao was arrested at the Ramada hotel in Bismarck after she failed to pay for her lunch. When police arrived, they ran her license plate and discovered she was driving a stolen rental car.
Tsao was taken to the Burleigh County Detention Center on Aug. 29, where she stayed until February awaiting a mental health evaluation, which her mother Snowy Zhou and her two lawyers, including Bismarck attorney Tom Dickson, said was imperative.
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A psychiatric evaluation was necessary to get Tsao back on her medication, her lawyers said.
Kent Morrow, Tsao's public defender, did not get her medical and criminal records to the state hospital in Jamestown before her first scheduled mental health evaluation Dec. 8.
The evaluation was delayed, and, by January, one still hadn't been performed. Another date was set for March 23.
In January, South Central District Judge James Hill condemned both the prosecutor's and Morrow's handling of Tsao's case as "unacceptable" and ordered a bond hearing.
"The defendant cannot continue to languish in the Burleigh County Detention Center without some end date,” Hill wrote in a court order.
Tsao was released on an unsecured bond in February after Hill ordered her to a "less confined setting" at West Central Human Service Center, where she currently resides.
Last month, Hill set a preliminary hearing date pending Tsao's accord to a lesser misdemeanor charge and alternative sentence.
On Monday, Morrow told Judge Hill that Tsao signed the plea agreement on Friday. All that was left to determine was how much restitution Tsao should pay for damage to the stolen rental car, according to Justin Schwarz, the prosecutor in the Tsao's case.
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"That would, obviously, put the situation at rest and Ms. Tsao can go about whatever she wishes to do, remain in North Dakota or whatever she wants to do," Hill said in court Monday.
