NASHVILLE, Tn. (WTVF-TV) — We recently told you about Johnson Lloyd, the man with a history of mental health issues who is accused of violently attacking a hotel clerk.
Not only has Lloyd been arrested repeatedly, but doctors have repeatedly found him to be mentally incompetent.
So what do you do with someone like this, to help him and protect the public?
Well, there are safety nets for people like this, but NewsChannel 5 Investigates found, they don't always work. And sometimes people like Lloyd fall through the cracks.
Johnson Lloyd was arrested in Bowling Green last December after police say he brutally attacked and raped a hotel employee.
"He obviously was in some type of dire episode, and needed immediate assistance," Davidson County General Sessions Judge Melissa Blackburn surmised.
It was the latest in a series of arrests that began in Maryland in 2017, continued when he came to Tennessee in 2022, and resumed when he was released from jail a year later.
"And it just got worse and worse," Blackburn said.
Judge Blackburn, who oversees Metro's Mental Health Court as well as what's known as the incompetency docket, told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that there are programs in place to help the mentally ill who wind up in the criminal justice system — but as Johnson Lloyd's case shows, the system doesn't always work.
"Is this a disconnect between the criminal justice system the mental health system?" we asked her.
"Absolutely, there’s no question," the judge replied.
Lloyd was arrested for armed robbery and assault in Maryland and diagnosed with schizophrenia, so doctors said he should not be held criminally responsible for his crimes. He was sent to a mental hospital where he spent five years, and then was moved to a group home where he could be supervised and continue to receive medication and treatment.
But Lloyd fled to Tennessee and wound up in the Metro jail after he stole a woman's purse and was charged with burglary.
"Was the court aware of his history?" we wondered.
"No," Judge Blackburn said.
She said the court system here had no idea of Lloyd's mental health struggles, his diagnosis, or that he'd been institutionalized previously instead of being sent to jail.
"Is there not a system where, you know, if someone is deemed incompetent, then the word can be spread to other jurisdictions?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked the judge.
"There is nothing," she stated, adding, "That would be wonderful to be able to see that he had been found incompetent in Maryland...but we had no way of knowing. and he didn’t tell anyone."
So Lloyd spent nearly a year in the Metro Jail, and during that time, he had another mental evaluation which, like Maryland, determined Lloyd was not mentally competent to stand trial.
"It has also been determined that Mr. Lloyd is never likely to become competent," Blackburn read from the state's report.
But unlike Maryland, doctors in Tennessee felt Lloyd did not meet the standards to be committed to a mental institution. And, the state did not recommend any sort of follow-up with a mental health provider.
So Lloyd was, as Judge Blackburn likes to put it, released to the streets.
"It frustrates me because I know we could do better," she shared.
Judge Blackburn said Metro has special programs for people like Lloyd like the Mental Health Court, where people with mental health challenges can be directed after they're arrested and get not only medication and treatment, but help taking the next steps when they're released from jail, like finding housing and ongoing support.
"Why was he (Lloyd) not in the Mental Health Court?" we asked.
"I don’t know. That is something that his attorney, a judge, a DA, his family, any of those could request, that the charges come over to the Mental Health Court," she said.
"So someone has to speak up and no one spoke up for him?" we inquired.
"No," the judge replied.
"Do you think things would’ve been different if someone had spoken up and said, 'This man needs the Mental Health Court and mental health help?'" we asked.
"Very possibly," Judge Blackburn answered.
There is also a separate incompetency docket for people like Lloyd who are deemed mentally incompetent. While the law requires charges against those who are mentally incompetent to be dropped, in this court, individuals are not immediately then released from jail. Instead, they can get additional treatment and they don't leave until they have a support system in place.
"But where was the incompetency docket for Johnson Lloyd?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.
"Well, unfortunately, he had a felony (charge) and we are not able to provide services for individuals with felonies," the judge explained.
Judge Blackburn said this was yet another missed opportunity, that prosecutors could have dropped Lloyd's felony burglary charge down to a misdemeanor so he would have then been eligible for the program and its services.
Instead, it appears he went directly from jail to the Greyhound bus station and with no money, somehow caught a bus out of town. But less than an hour later, he got off in Portland, Tennessee where he had the first of multiple run-ins with police over the next two days until he was arrested for the rape and attack in Bowling Green.
"We have to do a better job of ensuring that when those individuals are released and are deemed incompetent that we have a plan in place...and we know where they’re going and that they’re safe. We can’t just release those individuals to the street," Judge Blackburn stated.
Tennessee state lawmakers are now considering a bill that would require those who are charged with a felony and found to be mentally incompetent to be committed to a mental health facility. The legislation is almost through the Senate and is close in the House.
That bill is being referred to as Jillian's Law in honor of Jillian Ludwig, the Belmont University student who was shot and killed last November while walking in the park. The man accused of pulling the trigger had previously been deemed mentally incompetent after another incident with a gun and then was released from jail.
PREVIOUS RELATED REPORTING:
Who dropped the ball? The case of a mentally incompetent man released from jail and arrested again for a violent attack
