‘I didn’t know if I was going to get out’
One man’s ordeal in secretive court process to determine competency
PROVIDENCE — Noel Dandy has been on an odyssey since last May, taking him from the Warwick Motel 6 to the Rhode Island State Psychiatric Hospital, where he was kept for five months and 23 days — a full month longer than he should have after a doctor declared him competent.
And it started when a police officer asked him his date of birth.
Dandy was on his way to work security at the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church when the officer stopped him outside the Motel 6, where he was living in a shelter run by OpenDoors. There was a warrant out for his arrest — on a previous assault charge — and Dandy was taken into custody.
That case was ultimately dismissed, but Dandy was kept at the Adult Correctional Institutions on a warrant for a separate 2021 case, where he was accused of biting a man at Crossroads Rhode Island. Dandy insists it was self-defense and that the other man had grabbed him by his face.
The legal trouble thrust Dandy into a system and process that is kept largely out of the public eye, where people can be held, and even given medication, without their consent.
“I was terrified,” Dandy, 54, recalled. “I didn’t know if I was going to get out of there.”
‘There’s something wrong with you’
Over the course of the Crossroads case, Superior Court Judge Richard Raspallo had ordered Dandy to undergo a competency evaluation after he went against his then-lawyer’s wishes and pressed to go to trial and clear his name.
“The judge just looked at me and said, ‘There’s something wrong with you. You’re going for an eval,’” Dandy recalled.
He was released, but when he missed the date to appear for his evaluation, a warrant was issued, leading to his being held without bail in May for violating the terms of his release.
Within weeks, Dandy, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury years
earlier in a car crash, was deemed incompetent to stand trial by Dr. Barry Wall at the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. He was taken to the Rhode Island State Psychiatric Hospital by order of Superior Court Magistrate John F. McBurney III. Orders are usually entered with the agreement of the defense lawyer and prosecutor.
“We don’t do it off the cuff,” District Court Judge Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer said in a recent interview.
The hospital treats psychiatric and court-ordered forensic patients and, in some cases, works to restore their competency through treatment and education so they can participate in their own defense.
They told Dandy he was schizophrenic, delusional and heard voices, he said. His criminal case was continued to December for a six-month review.
In the months that followed, Dandy says he lost everything: his hotel room at the shelter, clothing, earbuds, protein powder, hygiene products and other belongings. He also lost his job at the Mathewson Street church, where he’d been bringing in $473 a week.
Supporters: ‘It just feels like he’s being railroaded because he is poor’
Private health care, confidentiality and public safety concerns largely keep the systems and legal processes around incompetency away from the public eye.
When an individual is deemed incompetent, it is based on the understanding that they are “likely to imperil the peace and safety of the people of the state” or themselves.
It left Dandy’s supporters from Mathewson Street church with less contact with him than they would’ve liked. They worried about how he would manage his diabetes, which he regulated through a vegetarian diet and exercise.
“Noel began helping, and we ended up hiring him,” said the Rev. Duane Clinker, a longtime pastor at the church. “He was gentle, appropriate and trainable. We could leave him in the building alone.”
The church, in downtown Providence, provides refuge, meals and bathrooms to Rhode Islanders in need. On Sunday mornings, it holds a “friendship breakfast” and prayer service that draws hundreds.
“It just feels like he’s being railroaded because he is poor,” Clinker said.
Pamela Poniatowski, an organizer for the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign, wondered whether Dandy’s appearance – he’s 6-foot-3 and wears his hair in dreadlocks – contributed to his case’s trajectory.
“They’re writing the narrative they want to put forth,” Poniatowski said.
‘Am I allowed to object?’
During Dandy’s hospitalization, he also became engaged in a separate, confidential civil certification calendar in state District Court.
The calendar takes place behind closed doors, either on the Pastore Complex campus or at Butler Hospital, and the records are confidential.
In August, District Court Judge Melissa DuBose issued an order substituting the judgment of the court for that of Dandy, based on a petition from a psychiatrist, Dr. Pedro F. Tactacan. In doing so, it empowered the court to allow doctors to administer medications without Dandy’s consent.
“I said, ‘Am I allowed to object? Am I allowed to appeal?’ Not one time did I appear before this judge,” Dandy recounted.
According to Pfeiffer, such orders – referred to as petitions for instructions – come after detailed testimony from state mental health providers and input from the Office of the Mental Health Advocate, which represents patients on the civil certification calendar. The patients are often given a chance to speak and consult with their advocate.
“I think we all take that very, very seriously,” Pfeiffer said.
Dandy says he was strapped down and injected with an antipsychotic drug. Clinker and his other backers worried anew about that medication’s interactions with his diabetes care.
“It made me sluggish, slow,” said Dandy, who continues to take the drug as part of his treatment plan but is working with his provider in hopes of getting off it.
The Mental Health Advocate’s Office declined to speak about the specifics of Dandy’s case, due to confidentiality.
Dandy says he was never previously diagnosed with schizophrenia
Dandy admits being aggravated during his initial evaluation based on questions he perceived as stupid and demeaning. He was furious about being arrested in the first place, believing his words and actions were being viewed without context. He wanted to set the record straight.
“I was getting sarcastic,” he said. “I wasn’t being nice.”
He said he had never previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia but has occasionally experienced depression, particularly after he had a son while in high school who was adopted.
Other patients wondered why he was there, he said.
“Most of them absolutely belong there. I couldn’t find anyone like me,” said Dandy, who communicated mostly with staff during his stay.
He reflected on the people who visit the Mathewson Street church, many of whom lack housing and have untreated mental health needs.
“I know a hundred people who could use this bed,” Dandy recalled telling the hospital staff.
Supporters fight for Dandy’s release
On Oct. 25, Superior Court Magistrate McBurney issued an order declaring Dandy competent, based on a Sept. 29 report from Dr. Ruby Lee of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
At 5 p.m. that same day, Dandy was released to the state Department of Corrections and freed on bail to Clinker and his other supporters.
“I was very emotional,” Dandy said. “I was filled with tears. If no one was on my side, I’d still be there.”
He credits his Mathewson Street supporters with helping him win his freedom, particularly Clinker.
“He has a really big mouth,” Dandy said. “He knows how to complain.”