"incompetent for trial, but not a danger to society"

[JonInMiddleGA]

As topical as I can be, there aren't many stories that actually prompt me to start a thread here (look it up). Then there's this one, which doesn't leave me so much outraged as bewildered.

Legally incompetent sex offender set free in Utah - Yahoo! News
PROVO, Utah – A Utah judge on Thursday ordered a convicted sex offender freed from a state hospital after the man was deemed incompetent for trial, but not a danger to society.

Prosecutors wanted Lonnie Hyrum Johnson to stay at the Utah State Hospital for continued treatment so he could eventually face the nearly two dozen counts against him of rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual assault of a child, but did not object to the judge's ruling.

"The constitution prohibits me from holding someone who has not been convicted and who cannot participate in their own defense," 4th District Judge James R. Taylor said.

Johnson was eligible to be freed as early as Thursday afternoon — privacy laws prevent hospital officials from commenting. Still, Johnson is not off the hook.

Taylor did not dismiss the case and ordered Johnson to meet with new psychiatric evaluators in October. A hearing on those findings is set for Nov. 17.
...
Johnson has a cognitive disorder, prosecutors said. He was charged in 2007 with 21 sexual assault charges. Authorities allege he had inappropriate contact with his stepdaughter and her cousin over five years beginning in 2001. Both alleged victims are now adults.

Taylor deemed Johnson incompetent for trial in 2008. Under Utah law, a defendant fits that condition if he suffers from mental illness, cannot understand the charges against him or is unable to participate in his own defense. For a civil commitment, a doctor must find that a person's mental illness makes him a danger to himself or others.

The court ordered doctors to attempt to restore Johnson's competency but about a month ago they said they had seen no improvement despite 2 1/2 years of treatment.

Taylor then said he believed it was unlikely Johnson would ever be able to stand trial. A civil commitment petition, which would have kept Johnson hospitalized, was also denied last week after three psychiatric evaluators said they did not believe he presented a danger to himself or the community.
...

[jeff061]

Yeah I saw that. Completely fucked up. I'm sure there will be a followup shortly.

[CU Tiger]

"incompetent to stand trial; but valueless to society"
Lead poisoning.

[MacroGuru]

When I was going through school I worked at the Utah State Hospital as a Psych Tech (aka Orderly).

There were definitely some pretty crazy areas to deal with. This guy would have been located on the Forensics Wing which is for the criminally insane, he wouldn't be allowed out in general pop due to his crimes. I refused to work the Forensics unit as the guys up there were either outright brutal and were known to attack for no reason.

But with judges in the state of Utah..this doesn't shock me.

[MacroGuru]

"Judge Taylor previously served on the Utah State Children’s Justice Advisory Board as a prosecution member, vice-chairman, and, after being appointed to the bench, as a judicial representative. "

So his ruling now puzzles me...

[Shepp]

This reminds me of what one of my old spuervisors always used to say: "We have a legal system not a justice system".

[EagleFan]

Wow, he needs to be met by a welcoming committee armed with baseball bats. The criminal does too...

[tarcone]

This is kind of like the above story.

hxxp://thegazette.com/2011/04/08/former-waterloo-teacher-convicted/



WATERLOO, Iowa – A former Waterloo teacher has been found guilty of coercing a 17-year-old student into partially undressing at the teacher’s home.

Members of a Black Hawk County jury announced they had reached a verdict in the state’s case against 53-year-old Larry David Twigg shortly before 1 p.m. Friday after beginning deliberations Thursday afternoon.

Twigg, who was let go from West High after the allegations surfaced in 2010, was convicted of all five counts of lascivious conduct with a minor. The charges are misdemeanors and carry up to one year in jail each. Sentencing will be at a later date.

The student testified that Twigg invited him to his home in December 2009 and January 2010 to make up class work and earn money. He said Twigg had him play a video game and remove an article of clothing every time he lost a life in the game. He also said Twigg spanked him, had him make snow angels in the yard wearing only his boxer shorts and poured chocolate syrup on him in the shower.

The defense argued that acts weren’t sexual and said Twigg suffered from problems following an earlier traffic accident that resulted in head injuries.

Dr. Thomas Gratzer, a Minnesota psychiatrist who specializes in treating sex offenders, told jurors that Twigg’s actions both seemed to confirm and contradict standard sex offender behavior.

“The most obvious thing would be that it’s sexual, that’s how you interpret it,” Gratzer said.

Twigg’s attorneys argued he didn’t have the mental capacity at the time of the incidents to have specific intentions of enticing the boy into some sort of sexual situation. That may have been caused by a car accident years ago that affected his impulse control and judgment.

Gratzer said he didn’t believe the accident caused any problems, calling any trauma “mild.”

Twigg suffered from psychosomatic complaints — illnesses that aren’t rooted in a physiological cause — he blamed on the accident. Instead, the problems are caused by him suppressing his emotions.

“That didn’t start with the head injury, but it’s an example of the process,” Gratzer said.

It could be why Twigg didn’t recognize the sexual nature and rationalized it as something else. Twigg told authorities his actions were intended to punish the boy for losing at a game or to work off class assignments.

Gratzer also called the explanation unusual.

“It’s bizarre for even someone who has seen thousands of sex offenders,” he said.

Twigg’s behavior didn’t seem consistent with sex offenders. He showed low overall sexual interest in testing, compared with hypersexuality in offenders. He also took an unusual step of crossing several personal boundaries with the boy but didn’t take the last final step.

“Usually, a sex offender doesn’t stop short of committing a sexual offense,” he said.

Assistant Black Hawk County Attorney Dustin Lies dismissed during closing arguments the idea that Twigg lacked mental capacity.

“I would submit to you that he was exactly himself that day,” Lies said.

Defense attorney James Metcalf said Twigg only began to understand what was going on when he sought counseling on his own accord after his arrest.

“I don’t think anyone did any psychiatric work on this case until Mr. Twigg started it,” Metcalf said.

Twigg was arrested a year ago on the charges and was fired from his teaching job.

[albionmoonlight]

I won't comment on the specific case, but there really isn't anything strange about being incompetent for trial but also not a danger to society.

To use the most obvious example, think of someone in a coma.

Now, I know that that is not the case Jon noted above, but I just wanted to make sure that people understood that, in certain cases, it is certainly possible to be unable to assist with your trial but also not dangerouscrazy.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

it is certainly possible to be unable to assist with your trial but also not dangerous crazy.

The issue is they didn't say he couldnt assist...they said he was unable to stand....menaing he can not be held accountable for his actions.

If you are not responsible for your actions pro or con, you are a dredge on society...and I vote you off the island.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

The issue is they didn't say he couldnt assist...they said he was unable to stand....menaing he can not be held accountable for his actions.

If you are not responsible for your actions pro or con, you are a dredge on society...and I vote you off the island.

Note to self: see lawyer first thing Monday morning to remove CUTiger from list of people with DNR consent.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

The issue is they didn't say he couldnt assist...they said he was unable to stand....menaing he can not be held accountable for his actions.

Well they kind of said both I believe, as the judge cited defendants ".... who cannot participate in their own defense".

[molson]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

The issue is they didn't say he couldnt assist...they said he was unable to stand....menaing he can not be held accountable for his actions.

If you are not responsible for your actions pro or con, you are a dredge on society...and I vote you off the island.

They haven't gotten to the "accountable for his actions" stage yet (i.e., an insanity defense), he's just too crazy to even be tried in the first place - but the criminal charges are still pending.

None of the current proceedings have anything to do with his crimes - someone can be totally sane, kill someone, but THEN go crazy, and be incompetent to stand trial. They wouldn't be able to use an insanity defense, because they were sane at the time of the murder, but you still can't try someone who's currently loopy (until you can drug him/treat him into some level of competency - with the medical professionals are often able to do.)

I'm still surprised to see him out though, that just doesn't happen very often. There's plenty of people just locked forever pending criminal charges that they'll never face, that they'll just never be competent enough to face. It's definitely unusual that a state's civil commitment laws wouldn't keep someone like that locked up forever - Utah is unique I guess.

He has prior criminal convictions, so I think an insanity defense might be tough for him to pull off - he'd have to show he was crazy enough at the specific times the events from these new charges took place - which might be tough to do since he was apparently sane enough at some point in life (not too long ago) to be convicted of other crimes.

[judicial clerk]

F me, news reports now say that this guy plans to move to Multnomah County, Oregon.

By my reading of these articles the weak link in the system is that the psychiatrists determined that his guy is not a threat to society so he no longer met the criteria to be incarcerated at the state mental hospital. I wonder if they would make they the same findings if the guy was going to be released to live around children the psychiatrists care about.

[molson]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

F me, news reports now say that this guy plans to move to Multnomah County, Oregon.

By my reading of these articles the weak link in the system is that the psychiatrists determined that his guy is not a threat to society so he no longer met the criteria to be incarcerated at the state mental hospital. I wonder if they would make they the same findings if the guy was going to be released to live around children the psychiatrists care about.

Seems like a gamble. Wouldn't Oregon have different (more normal) civil committment laws? Or at least different psychiarists to evaluate how dangerous he is?

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I'd stay in Utah if I were him.

[judicial clerk]

I am not an expert on the mental health system, but I don't know that there is a mechanism for this guy to get a fresh eval before a psych doctor until he acts out in an some antisocial way. I suppose somebody could initate a petition to have him civilly committed. My guess would be that it would be hard to convince a judge in Oregon to commit when the guy has already been deemed not a threat to himself or others by qualified psychiatrists.

I don't know if Utah's civil commitment standard is lax or if the psychiatrists just made an unusual determination in this case given the subject's prior behavior.