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A Marion County judge is at odds with state and federal officials over the fate of a homeless Marion County man accused of repeatedly masturbating in public.
The problem: the man, who is unnamed in today’s legal filings but whose identity WW confirmed using the description of his case history, is too mentally ill to stand trial for his alleged crimes. He’s been repeatedly hospitalized at the state-run psychiatric hospital, but his time there is up. The hospital has been discharging its patients early since 2022 in response to a growing waitlist for its limited number of beds.
He was discharged back to Marion County on Sep. 30. The question is: Where will he go next?
The state says he belongs in what’s known as an adult foster home, where he would be housed and receive ongoing legal skills training in the hope he’ll recover sufficient sanity to return to court. Judge Audrey J. Broyles says that’s not sufficient, and that after consulting with county officials she believes the man needs to be placed in a more secure, specialized facility.
Those specialized facilities, however, are in short supply. The state doesn’t have enough of basically every type of mental health treatment facility, but the problem is particularly acute for facilities designed to house higher-risk patients. The legislature has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars in spending in an effort to build more, but it’ll take years before the new investments come online.
So, in the meantime, the man is back at Oregon State Hospital, and continuing to cost the state around $40,000 each month. Broyle ordered him sent back on Sep. 30 to give the county time to hunt down a bed.
This has led to a flurry of legal filings this morning. The state now says it’s stuck with him.
“As a result, another person filled the defendant’s place at the adult foster home and there is no other currently identified placement available for him,” state attorneys wrote in an Oct. 7 legal filing submitted to federal Judge Michael Mosman.
The state is asking Mosman to enforce a series of recent court orders codifying the hospitals early-release policy, which limit the ability of counties to send criminal defendants to the state hospital. Broyles has previously called these orders “absurd,” and says they ignore the fact that there’s a shortage of community treatment services.
“The Oregon Department of Justice is evaluating whether to file a mandamus petition to the Oregon Supreme Court regarding Judge Broyles’ order and related actions,” the state attorneys wrote.