AUGUSTA, Maine — A state prosecutor is trying to use a controversial new law for the first time in the case of a Gardiner man accused of killing his father. The law allows the state to force defendants with mental illness to take medication so they can be put on trial.
If the judge doesn’t sign off, the case could be thrown out, according to legal experts.
CBS 13 first met Leroy Smith III in May 2014. Inside the Kennebec County Jail, Smith calmly detailed the vicious way he says he killed his own father in their Gardiner apartment.
“You told officers that you cut up your father’s body,” CBS 13’s Jon Chrisos said.
“I had to dispose of him somehow. I’m not sick in the head; I just wanted him gone,” Smith said.
A state psychiatrist sees things differently, concluding Smith has a delusional disorder.
Eight months after the CBS 13 interview, a judge found Smith incompetent to stand trial. He’s been at Riverview Psychiatric Center ever since.
“They threw me in a mental hospital for evaluation because I said I was God to them,” Smith said in May 2014.
In a new memo obtained by the CBS 13 I-Team, a nurse practitioner at Riverview wrote, “Mr. Smith … is unlikely to be restored to competency without the administration of psychiatric medication over his objection.”
“If you could restore that person’s competence, he would be tried and face criminal consequences,” Dan Wathen, former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said.
According to Maine law, if Smith isn’t competent, the case against him can’t move forward, Wathen said.
In a series of handwritten notes sent to the court, some on toilet paper, Smith continues to claim he’s God.
“I just want a fast trial and the dumb nonsense ended of waiting on one,” Smith said in one note.
The wait could soon be over.
Citing a new state law, Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman wants a judge to force Smith to take anti-psychotic drugs, so the case can move forward.
“The law now provides if certain conditions are met, involuntarily, the person can be medicated,” Wathen said.
Smith’s lawyers are objecting to the forced medication.
“The state is simply prohibited from treating Mr. Smith as a ‘guinea pig’ and experimenting with medications,” attorney Scott Hess wrote.
Hess did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Jenna Mehnert with the National Alliance on Mental Illness says she also opposes medication just for prosecution.
“At our heart of our concern is that we are medicating people with an illness simply so we can hold them accountable,” Mehnert told CBS 13 regarding the new law.
Legal experts say the state may be running out of time to bring the Smith murder case back to court. Maine law also says if a defendant won’t be competent in the “foreseeable future, the court shall dismiss all charges.”
“With every single case I’m always nervous,” Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said.
She isn’t prosecuting the Smith case, but she said the law is very clear.
“That’s a little frightening for me that the statute does allow for someone to be found incompetent, criminal charges dismissed, and person let go into the community,” Maloney said.
Wathen said if a person is still dangerous, a judge could order an involuntary commitment, but it’s not ideal.
“From society’s point of view, that’s a less secure way of dealing with the situation and a less just way of dealing with it,” Wathen said.
There will be a hearing on this medication over objection issue in two weeks. At that time, a judge is expected to decide if Smith should be medicated to try to get him competent for trial.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled more than a decade ago that the constitution allows the government to force medication for the purpose of restoring competency.
Many states have laws or policies in place consistent with that ruling, but Maine never had a process for providing forced medication until now.