FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Daphne Duret
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH —
A 64-year-old Belle Glade community leader and clergyman is on suicide watch following his attempt to swallow a handful of pills Thursday after a jury convicted him of lewd and lascivious battery, promoting the sexual performance of a child and other charges that could land him in prison for up to 80 years.
The Rev. James Richard Harris’ suicide attempt punctuated a three-day trial in his case on charges that he molested a 15-year-old boy, directed him to perform lewd acts on camera and in a separate incident taped two teens having sex at his house.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies who tackled Harris in the Palm Beach County courtroom Thursday afternoon said that he told them that he would be “in heaven” by the day’s end.
Instead, Harris woke up Friday morning an inmate at the Palm Beach County Jail, where he is on a level of suicide watch so high that sheriff’s deputies thought it too risky to bring him to court Friday while defense attorney Christopher Haddad argued his claim that jurors in Harris’ trial this week should not have been allowed to view the videos in the case.
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