Man who led police on pursuit found incompetent to stand trial
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Guy Brand has been deemed not competent to stand trial by Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John Vavra on Monday afternoon.
Brand was arrested in May after a police pursuit where he struck a Richland Township police vehicle led to his arrest.
The vehicle Brand was driving was allegedly stolen in Virginia where he is from.
He is facing a felony charge of vehicular assault as well as resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply, receiving stolen property, and obstruction before it was required for Brand to have a competency evaluation from Heartland Behavioral Healthcare psychiatrist Timothy Kantz.
Kantz told the court on Monday that Brand is currently under his care and has been diagnosed with unspecified psychosis.
"It’s still unclear to what extent it may be due to substance use, or if there may be an element of bipolar disorder. But for the moment, it’s an unspecified psychotic disorder," Kantz said.
Belmont County Assistant Prosecutor Joshua Norman asked Kantz what led to his diagnosis of unspecified psychotic disorder.
Kantz replied that Brand's disorganized speech and paranoid delusional thinking.
"Disorganized speech is rapid hyperverbal speech, jumping from one topic to another, giving excessive detail, not being able to answer questions in a straightforward manner, and talking over others," Kantz said. "Delusional thinking involves everything from going back to when he was living in Virginia, believing that people were infiltrating his house, to paranoid thoughts about the legal system, about the medical system, that essentially lots of different people are kind of out to get him and conspiring against him."
Norman then asked what the treatment for the diagnosis would be.
Kantz replied that generally speaking, antipsychotic medication would be the first line of treatment.
He added that his plan is to start with Haloperidol.
"It’s a very common and generally very well tolerated antipsychotic medication. We don’t have any knowledge or information or records to indicate that Mr. Brand has been on any antipsychotic medication in the past," Kantz said. "Normally, that would guide decision making. Certainly, if someone had been on a medication that had been helpful, not been helpful, or had negative side effects, that could help guide it. But this is one that I’ll often start with and that’s often effective and tends to have minimal side effects."
He added that Haloperidol usually starts from two to five milligrams but can go up to from 20 to 40 milligrams daily.
There is also a long-acting injectable version that can be given once a month.
"I would plan on starting at the lower end, between two to five milligrams and make sure he tolerates it, and that there’s no negative side effects," Kantz said. Then see how he responds to it, and most likely increase it. I would not expect that the low dose would be enough to be effective, so I would plan to increase from there. But some patients do well on five or ten milligrams. Some need 20 milligrams, or even 30 or 40 milligrams daily."
He added that he would start by giving Brand oral tablets but if he declines it he could administer it by injecting it if the court allows.
Norman asked Kantz that based on his experience if he believes the medication is necessary.
Kantz replied that Brand currently is refusing treatment due to him not believing that he has any mental illness.
"He does not believe that he has any mental illness. He’s unwilling to take any medication, and has serious qualms and questions about his legal situation, and is not engaging in any significant way in work on competency restoration," Kantz said. "He pretty much just shuts down that conversation immediately. He will not discuss it. It does not seem possible to have a rational discussion about those treatment options because again, he believes that he does not have any mental illness and is not in need of any medic medication."
Vavra then made the decision to find that the state has met the necessary burden that Brand is currently not capable of standing trial. He then granted Heartland Behavioral Healthcare permission to involuntarily administer psychotropic medications and/or other medications to assist in the restoration process.
He added that the court believes that Brand is currently incompetent but believes his competence can be restored in time.