NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered dozens of criminal cases in Davidson County were dropped because the person arrested was not mentally competent.
By law, a person arrested for a crime must understand the charges against him.
If a doctor determines the person is "not competent to stand trial" the criminal case cannot proceed.
That is what happened with Larry Brown, 67, who was arrested after attacking five nurses and a security guard in the St. Thomas Midtown parking garage in April of 2021.
Brown had a long criminal history with more than 100 arrests for mostly nonviolent misdemeanors. But the attacks on the nurses were violent felonies. Despite that, days after his arrest, a psychiatrist determined Brown was not competent to stand trial, and found his mental condition was "not likely to respond to treatment or improve with time."
So Davidson County Judge Melissa Blackburn said Brown's charges were dropped.
"He got released to the street, free to do whatever he wanted again. That is not acceptable," Judge Blackburn said.
Blackburn oversees Davidson County's Mental Health Court.
She was concerned that just two weeks after Brown's assault charges were dropped, he was arrested again.
This time at General Hospital after "refusing to leave."
Those new charges were also dropped.
"That was happening every single day with anyone deemed incompetent in Davidson County, "Judge Blackburn said.
Blackburn's office looked into the numbers and found that over the 18-month period from January 2020 - June 2021, 182 people in Davidson County had been declared not competent to stand trial.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates said: "182 sounds like a lot."
"It is a lot, so we have to figure out what to do with the 182," Judge Blackburn responded.
Blackburn's office determined one-third of those deemed incompetent to stand trial were homeless. And two-thirds were re-arrested within three months.
One of them was Thomas Harrell who has been arrested more than 150 times.
In September 2022, he went into the Palm Restaurant downtown and ordered a $358 meal. He then refused to pay. The restaurant manager told police it was not the first time, and that he "repeatedly orders large expensive meals" and does not pay.
Harrell was arrested, but he was found "not competent" and the charges were dismissed.
Both Harrell and Brown are homeless.
Their numerous arrests reveal the need for mental health help for the homeless community. In the months before Brown attacked the nurses at St. Thomas, he was arrested repeatedly at hospitals — for trespassing.
On Jan. 7, 2021, he was arrested at Centennial Hospital after "sitting inside hospital lobby refusing to leave."
On Jan. 31, 2021, at Centennial he had been "medically discharged" but refused to leave. He told officers "Just take me to jail then."
And two weeks before the St. Thomas attack, he was "medically cleared" from Centennial and said he'd "rather go to jail" than a homeless shelter.
Robin Nobling with Davidson County's National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) was surprised so many people were declared legally incompetent.
"With homeless people, we need more housing and specifically more mental health housing," Nobling said.
Judge Blackburn said thanks to a $600,000 dollar grant from Metro, people deemed to be mentally incompetent are no longer immediately released.
"We have set up an incompetency docket that deals specifically with those individuals," Judge Blackburn said.
She said some are able to get additional treatment. But the grant is only a fraction of what was requested, and Blackburn said they need more funding.
In Brown's case, he was sent to a state psychiatric hospital, but in May he was out and arrested again after refusing to leave Centennial Hospital.
"He picked up a new charge. It was a non-violent charge, but then he went back and spent some time at MTMHI (Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute)."
And just last month Thomas Harrell was arrested at Ruby Tuesday's after ordering nearly $70 of food and then refusing to pay.
But this time, he was found to be competent, and he remains in jail.
So far this year, 75 new people have been deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Those 75 have been arrested more than 260 times.
The court is trying to get them treatment, but the lack of available beds at the state psychiatric hospitals makes finding treatment difficult.
