BANGOR, Maine — Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Thursday arrested a Bangor-area woman shot by a deputy last month in Carmel after she allegedly threatened people with a “homemade weapon” that resembled a medieval flail — a metal rod with two ropes attached that had railroad spikes tied to the ends.
Alexis Lannon, 20, was “taken into custody from Acadia [Hospital], at approximately 10:30 a.m.,” Assistant District Attorney Marianne Lynch told Superior Court Justice Ann Murray during an emergency competency hearing on Thursday afternoon at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said earlier this week that his office reviewed the case and issued a warrant charging Lannon with felony threatening with a dangerous weapon and misdemeanor criminal mischief. After being released from the hospital and arrested, Lannon was taken to Penobscot County Jail.
Murray appointed defense attorney Martha Harris to represent Lannon and ordered an emergency mental health examination based on a request by the attorney, who teleconferenced in for the hearing. Lannon did not attend the hearing.
“Based on the seriousness of her mental illness, the state does not have an objection,” Lynch said of the request to determine Lannon’s competency to stand trial.
The “examination is ordered if there is a question about the defendant’s competency to stand trial and or criminal responsibility,” Lynch said.
“She has a long, long-standing mental health history, and she also has intellectual [impairments],” Harris said, describing her client as a “high-functioning autistic” person.
Harris also said that Lannon has a previous history of suicide attempts, including two over the last weekend, which is “why it’s imperative that she be hospitalized.”
Lannon is accused of damaging property and threatening people on June 28 with her homemade weapon. Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Kari Kurth shot and wounded Lannon at the Route 2 scene when Lannon “advanced toward” her with the weapon, according to a statement released by the sheriff’s office.
The Maine attorney general’s office, which investigates all officer-involved shootings, is still reviewing the case, Tim Feeley, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in a Thursday email. Kurth remains on paid administrative leave.
Lannon was given the same mental health competency test about a year and a half ago for another crime, and she was deemed competent to stand trial in March 2014, Harris said during the Thursday hearing.
Lannon was arrested on criminal threatening and assault charges on July 21, 2013, in Winterport, according to a posting in the PenBay Pilot. The assault charge later was dismissed, the article states, and Lannon was sentenced to 40 hours of community service for criminal threatening.
Lannon is scheduled to make her first court appearance on Friday.