Kentucky attorney asks judge to jail him with client until state evaluates defendant's competency

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Shelby County defense attorney made a "novel request" by asking a judge to jail him alongside his client until Kentucky's state-run psychiatric center gives the defendant a competency evaluation, which he has been waiting more than a year for.

In a motion filed Thursday, attorney Matt Pippin said his client, Jacob Gonzalez, would have already served out his maximum possible sentence if he had been convicted of the charges against him. But he is still waiting for an evaluation by the state to determine if he is fit to stand trial.

An official with the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange testified last year there was a statewide waiting list of more than 300 defendants with a wait time of a year or more — up from about eight weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic. The waiting list had been about 80 people before the pandemic.

While in custody, Gonzalez has been unable to receive medication or treatment, and Pippin wants to be placed in the same cell with Gonzalez "to make himself available to more aggressively address what has become an unconscionable circumstance for his client," according to the motion. "Defense counsel request the jail be ordered to house him in the same cell with his client."

Pippin is requesting work release during the day so he can continue to represent his clients. He also wants to be brought in front of the court on a weekly basis to report on Gonzalez' mental health condition.

Pippin will make the request to Shelby District Court Judge Laura Witt on Oct. 26, asking he be incarcerated on Nov. 9, according to the motion.

"The point is to try to ease my client's suffering," Pippin said in an interview Friday. "He is stuck and alone, and it has gone on long enough without any solution that it's become a moral issue. ... I don't know how to fix it but I know how to make it a little better in the short term. And if I was there with him, I know that I could at least make him more comfortable."

But Pippin also acknowledged he is hoping the state takes notice of what is happening with the continued competency delays for mentally ill defendants.

"If KCPC knows that I'm sitting there waiting on them too, then they may be able to make an accommodation (for Gonzalez)," he said. "I don't want to be incarcerated but I don't want this on my conscience anymore. And I do think that there is a better chance of this being expedited ... if there is some attention paid to it in any way. I do hope it spurs KCPC to figure something out."

Gonzalez was arrested last September and is facing charges of harassment, indecent exposure, fleeing or evading police and attempted sexual misconduct for allegedly attacking a woman in a park.

The maximum sentence he could face is a year in jail, which he has already served, Pippin said.

Pippin filed a motion for an evaluation at KCPC last September. The judge filed another motion in May.

"We need that evaluation to start anything productive for him," Pippin said. He said the judge has reached out to KCPC but it's still unclear when Gonzalez will be evaluated.

In August of last year, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell threatened to hold KCPC officials in contempt of court for repeatedly failing to follow orders to evaluate defendants on their competency to stand trial.

The inaction has left hundreds of criminal cases on hold across the state, with some defendants jailed indefinitely and victims unsure when they will get any resolution.

KCPC is the only facility in the state that can conduct mental competency evaluations for people charged with a felony, the most serious crimes.

Officials at the center have said employees aren't intentionally defying court orders. They claim there just isn't the necessary space and employees available.

To deal with the backlog, the psychiatric center has begun working with jails around the state to perform some evaluations through video conferences.

Earlier this year, Metro Department of Corrections Director Jerry Collins said the psychiatric center had begun working in Louisville and around the state to perform some evaluations through video conferences or sending psychiatrists to the facilities instead of waiting for space to open up at KCPC.

But while officials said the backlog has been greatly reduced in Louisville, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees KCPC, previously said there has only been a 10 percent reduction on the waitlist statewide.

Cabinet officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

This story may be updated.