Sun Sentinel investigation spurs change in mental health court

Prosecutors have dropped cases against dozens of people who had been stuck for years in Broward County‘s troubled felony mental health court.

The action follows a Sun Sentinel investigation, Trapped, which found that people facing minor felonies in the court spent six times longer in the criminal justice system than those in regular court.

“I have seen some fairly dramatic changes,” said Judge Ari Porth, one of two judges assigned to the court. “It’s pretty encouraging, and I think that your series certainly had something to do with the changes we’re seeing.”

Mental health advocates, prosecutors and public defenders agree the county’s felony mental health court needs an overhaul.

The court started in 2003 to help mentally ill defendants get treatment and prepare them for trial, but instead many have languished, too sick to face justice yet never set free by prosecutors, the Sun Sentinel found. While prosecutors can drop charges at any time, the Broward State Attorney’s Office had been reluctant to do so.

“They’ve dropped a lot more [cases] in the last three months since the article came out than they’ve ever before,” said Chief Assistant Public Defender Owen McNamee.

Prosecutors say they expect to drop more cases given a pending change in Florida law. Florida requires that defendants deemed mentally incompetent, considered unable to go through a trial, testify or enter a plea, have their charges dropped after five consecutive years of incompetence. A new law that takes effect in July allows judges to dismiss charges after three years.

“We have to be cognizant first and foremost of the protection of the community that we serve,” said Assistant State Attorney Peter Holden, in charge of the felony trial unit. “We’re really looking at nonviolent cases and seeing if we can move the cases along.”

Deborah Tomasello, 51, was on track for an extended stay in felony mental health court before the State Attorney’s Office last month agreed to drop charges against her, five years after her arrest.

Tomasello said she struggled with anxiety and depression since she was 20, and it worsened when her father died of cancer in 2004. Looking back, Tomasello said his death was a major turning point in her mental health.

“I lost my mind,” she said. “He was my very best friend.”

In March 2011, while working as a salesperson, she was accused of using customer credit card information to pay for $6,000 in Publix gift cards, $900 in groceries and a nearly $800 puppy, among other items, according to arrest affidavits.

She was charged with third-degree grand theft, credit card fraud and criminal use of personal identification information. Two months after her arrest she was found incompetent to proceed.

Tomasello said she struggled to treat her anxiety and depression while in court and rotated through halfway houses and homelessness. She said she was required to attend competency classes, sometimes several times a week; court hearings every few months; and drug and alcohol meetings up to a three times a week.

She said she was terrified of doing something wrong to hurt her case.

“The anxiety is so bad, and then when you’re in court so much is expected of you,” she said.

In this parallel court system, mentally ill people deemed incapable of facing their charges are expected to follow requirements of defendants in regular court, as well as additional rules. That can be especially difficult for the mentally ill, and when they slip up, they face criminal punishment.

The situation is different in Broward’s pioneering misdemeanor mental health court, where the primary focus is on treatment, not criminal convictions.

The Sun Sentinel investigation focused on people facing the lowest-level felonies in mental health court. It found that these defendants on average spent three years in the court system, compared with six months for people with comparable charges in regular court.

Nearly a third spent five years or longer in the system without being found guilty, the Sun Sentinel found.

The new state law approved by Gov. Rick Scott last month could shorten those time frames. Scott vetoed a similar bill in 2013, but this version came with key changes: It allows judges to dismiss charges after three consecutive years of incompetence but does not require them to, and it specifically excludes cases involving certain violent crimes.

Mark Speiser, the other felony mental health court judge, pushed lawmakers for the change, which Broward State Attorney Michael Satz supported.

Holden, the assistant state attorney, said the new law is a reason prosecutors have dropped more cases in recent months. Of the dozens of cases dropped, as recommended by public defenders, many were on charges of possession of drugs, theft, or burglary.

Holden could not provide the precise number of cases the State Attorney’s Office has dropped early. He said prosecutors are making a concerted effort to find them in addition to considering cases recommended by defense attorneys.

“People decided three years it is,” he said. “So we’ll dismiss it after three years.”

shobbs@tribpub.com, 954-356-4520 or Twitter @bystephenhobbs