Adams County defendants often forced to wait several months in jail before getting court-ordered mental health evaluations

QUINCY — Two cases in Adams County Circuit Court on Tuesday morning illustrated the problems local officials are having with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS).

Attorney Anthony Cameron filed a petition on July 12 on behalf of his client, Thomas Delcour of Payson, asking for Judge Tad Brenner to issue an order to show cause (a court order that requires a party to a case to explain something to the court) to IDHS. 

Delcour, 34, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, a Class X felony, for allegedly stabbing 77-year-old Dorothy Hankins 12 times with a knife on the morning of April 21. Dr. Frank Froman with Psychology Associates of Quincy said in a report about a mental fitness examination he conducted with Delcour in May that he wanted IDHS to back up his assertion of Delcour’s fitness before a treatment protocol is determined.

An order was filed May 30 for IDHS officials to pick up Delcour in Quincy and take him to the Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard Mental Health Center, formerly the McFarland Mental Health Center, in Springfield.

That pickup, however, hasn’t happened.

“(DHS) has wholly failed and omitted to attend to any of its obligations,” Cameron wrote in his petition. “From both direct personal knowledge and information gleaned from family members and facility staff, (Delcour) remains in the Adams County Jail without further evaluation for fitness and without any cognitive treatment. Moreover, no report of (mental health) facility selection … has been submitted to the court.

“(Delcour) is cognitively devolving. (I) have concerns that (Delcour’s) condition is progressive in nature and, without prompt intervention, he will be unable to be brought to sufficiently positive health and fitness to resolve the instant cause.” 

Brenner granted Cameron’s motion on Tuesday morning, ordering a “secretary designate” from DHS to appear in Adams County Court on July 30.

Moments later in Brenner’s courtroom, a similar case took the next step. Brenner filed on July 2 an order for IDHS to show cause in the case of Bruce Dyer of Quincy, with Tuesday, July 16 set for a hearing. 

Dyer, 52, was arrested Dec. 5 for failing to appear on a charge of failing to register as a violent offender against youths, as well as resisting arrest. He was arrested on March 13 for again failing to register as a violent offender against youths, possession of methamphetamine and resisting arrest. Brenner found Dyer unfit to stand trial on May 1 and for him to be placed in the custody of IDHS, but he remains in the Adams County Jail.

No secretary designate for IDHS or a representative from the Illinois Attorney General’s office appeared in Brenner’s courtroom on Tuesday, so he ruled IDHS in contempt of court. He directed the secretary designate to appear in court on July 24. 

Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Eyler says at least six cases are pending for someone in custody for whom fitness is an issue and they’re waiting to be transported to Springfield.

“(DHS) will sometimes come over here and meet with the people and perform their own evaluation, or sometimes they’ll just come and get them, take them to their facility, perform their evaluation and then make their recommendation,” Eyler said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one of those recommendations come back contrary to what (local) psychiatrists have recommended. Then (IDHS) makes a determination as to whether they believe, based upon all the information, that person can be restored to fitness within a 12-month period and if they can accept that person as a patient.”

The wait for those evaluations, however, is growing longer. Eyler said DHS is expected to transport those people within 90 days, but it rarely meets that deadline. He said it is not uncommon for a person to sit in the Adams County Jail for anywhere from three to seven months before they are transported to Springfield.

“The problem is this whole process came to a screeching halt in 2020 during COVID,” Eyler said. “The state shut down and refused to accept people. Counties, including Adams County, had a huge problem with the Department of Corrections accepting inmates. Even though that was eventually resolved, the fight to have individuals admitted into these mental health facilities was even harder. Those institutions have never gotten back to the standard of the process where they work. It is still an uphill battle after somebody is found unfit.”

A lack of beds, a lack of staff and a long waiting list typically are the reasons Eyler hears when IDHS can’t accept someone from Adams County.

Eyler said he’s “waiting for the day” for an Adams County judge to release a person deemed unfit to stand trial because of these delays.

“It is the state’s fault, but that doesn’t mean we should put a dangerous individual back out on the street to put other people in harm’s way,” he said.

Roy Sutton of Camp Point, who turns 82 next month, has been in the Adams County Jail since July 6, 2022, after his arrest. He is facing four felony sexual abuse charges. Froman was appointed on Jan. 3, 2023, to conduct a mental fitness evaluation, and Sutton’s mental fitness has since been debated several times in Adams County Circuit Court.

Attorney Jesse Gilsdorf filed a motion for Sutton’s release on June 20. 

IDHS finally transported Sutton to its Springfield facility on Monday.