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THIS sad tale shows how retards today are given free reign to rape, murder, molest little kids - and they Law does nothing!
Sickening! Lock them ALL up and throw away the key, that's what I say!
Sickening! Lock them ALL up and throw away the key, that's what I say!
Rape case raises mental health questions
When a 24-year-old Gastonia man was arrested for rape last month, it was the most serious crime he had ever been charged with. But it wasn’t the first time someone accused him of an assault that had sexual overtones. At times in the past, police say questions about the man’s mental competency have played a part in him not facing charges. And the case has raised concerns about whether a person’s diminished mental health can provide more leeway with the legal system.
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Before the attractive woman in her 20s had even finished moving in, an elderly neighbor warned her to be on guard.
About a month before, the older woman had reported to Gastonia Police that she was assaulted by a male neighbor in her home on Rogers Avenue. She never pressed charges because of questions about whether the suspect would be mentally competent to stand trial.
But while the older woman hoped that 23-year-old Darrell Matthew Gore would receive therapy, she still remembered the look in his eyes Sept. 3, when she told police that he entered her house uninvited and grabbed her. So when she saw the young woman outside one day in late October, she stopped by.
“I thought I ought to let her know to be aware,” said the older woman, whose name is being withheld because she said the experience humiliated and traumatized her. “I told her to be very cautious of her surroundings. I told her I was the person in the neighborhood the boy had come in on.
“She said she’d already heard about him.”
About 10:36 p.m. on Nov. 24, less than three weeks after the young woman had moved in, police responded to her home after she made a harrowing 911 call about a home invasion — a recording that included her screams and loud sounds of a commotion. Officers arrived to find Gore, of 2418 Rogers Ave., coming out of her home, according to police.
Inside, officers discovered a violent scene. The bedroom door was mangled, with a gaping hole punched or kicked through it, and a single bullet hole from where police say the woman futilely fired a .22-caliber pistol in self-defense. She had also stabbed Gore, police said, though the wound was superficial.
Gore, who police said did not know the woman, was charged with second-degree rape and first-degree burglary.
Gore, now in Gaston County Jail under a $750,000 bond, lives in a rented home on Rogers Avenue with his parents and other family members. A man there who identified himself as Gore’s father declined comment last week. Gore’s attorney, Gaston County public defender Samantha Reichbach, also declined comment.
But neighbors say the Nov. 24 incident was the latest incident in a pattern of disturbing behavior over the last two years. Police reports confirm that he has been accused of several offenses in the past — at least two of them sexual in nature — though charges have always been dropped or never filed.
Home invasion
A 41-year-resident of the neighborhood, the older woman said she often saw Gore around since his family moved in across the street in 2007. She said hello from time to time, but didn’t know him well. When he once offered to rake some leaves in her yard for free, she thanked him and declined.
A fence surrounds the woman’s property and the chain-link gate across her driveway is normally locked. But it was open just after 9 a.m. Sept. 5, when her cousin was doing some home repairs in an inside hallway.
The woman walked down her driveway to get the morning paper. She noticed Gore walking in her direction down the road, but figured he was headed home. She went back inside.
Her cousin was using a nail gun, and the power cord running outside the house prevented the woman from fully shutting her storm door after she came through. She briefly stopped in front of her kitchen stove, then heard the door moving behind her, and told police she turned to see Gore standing right in front of her.
His pants were around his ankles, and he was not wearing underwear, she said.
“Just as I turned, he grabbed my shoulders. His face was right up on me,” she said. “It just shocked me. I couldn’t believe it was even happening.”
She immediately screamed her cousin’s name. Gore fled to his home, according to a police report, and was chased by the cousin as the woman called 911.
The woman said police told her there was only so much they could do because of Gore’s mental disability. She was told she could pursue a misdemeanor simple assault charge, but decided against it.
“What I told police was I wanted his family to see that he got the help he needed,” she said.
Charges, but no convictions
Gastonia Police Sgt. Mike Lari said it isn’t common for suspects to not be charged with a crime because they are mentally incompetent.
“But if that happens, there are usually other processes in place to get the person help, or to put them in a place such as an institution so they can’t continue to do this,” he said.
Gore was charged with injury to real property and assault on a female in 2007, but the charges were dismissed because there was no prosecution witness. He was charged with second-degree trespassing and disorderly conduct in February of this year, but the charges again were dismissed, according to a North Carolina criminal records check.
On Nov. 26, 2007, a female patient at Gaston Memorial Hospital told police that Gore came into her hospital room and began to touch and rub her body. As she tried to get away, Gore restrained her and held the door closed to detain her, according to a Gastonia police report.
Gore pulled her toward the bathroom, but the woman was able to get free and scream for help, according to the report. As hospital employees arrived, Gore ran from the room, the report stated.
Police investigated the incident as a reported felony kidnapping and misdemeanor simple assault. But he was never charged, in part because of his mental competency, Lari said.
Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said he can’t recall if any staff members from his office were consulted about that incident. But upon reviewing the information from the basic police report last week, Bell said there was apparently not enough evidence to justify charges.
“There’s just not enough here to prosecute,” he said.
Evaluating mental competency
If there are doubts about the mental competency of someone who has been charged with a crime, an attorney or judge can request a court order for the person to receive a mental health evaluation at a state facility such as Broughton Hospital in Morganton. That would typically happen only after someone is charged with a felony, said Mark Van Sciver, spokesman for the N.C. Division of Mental Health.
It is unclear if Gore has gone through this process.
A competent person understands the nature and extent of their acts, can distinguish right from wrong, and can assist their attorney in their defense. Competency must exist at the time a crime is committed, Bell said.
A person who has low intelligence or is mentally handicapped can still be found mentally competent, Bell said.
A mental competency evaluation can last 24 hours to two weeks, Van Sciver said. If the person is deemed competent, they go back to the judicial system to face any outstanding charges. If deemed incompetent, they remain at the hospital until competency can be restored, Van Sciver said.
When police encounter a person who exhibits mental health issues, that person may be admitted to a psychiatric treatment facility such as the one at Gaston Memorial Hospital. But competency hearings are not typically ordered for people in those situations, and if the alleged crime does not suggest the person is a danger to society, they are often released without facing charges, Bell said.
A person diagnosed with schizophrenia who steals a steak from a grocery store, for example, would likely not be charged with shoplifting due to questions of mental competency, and the minor level of the offense, Bell said.
“We’d have to dismiss the case because we can’t prosecute them,” said Bell. “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled you cannot hold someone simply because they’re mentally ill.”
Bell said it’s a gray area of sorts. Someone with a mental illness who has repeated run-ins with law enforcement, but who is not endangering society and is not facing felony charges, would not be held at a state or private hospital.
“If there’s reason to believe they’re a danger to the public, they’re not released,” he said.
‘It terrifies me’
The elderly woman said dealing with what she experienced Sept. 5 was an emotional struggle.
“I felt so violated and dirty,” she said. “I didn’t even go to church the next day.”
She is brought to tears now when she thinks about the incident, and wonders what might have happened if she’d been alone.
“It terrifies me,” she said. “It was that look in his eyes. It still haunts me.”
When she heard about the reported assault against the younger woman last month, the older woman said her heart sank even further.
“I just cannot imagine what she’s going through,” she said. “I pray for her. That’s all I can do.”
She feels a mixture of anger and pity for Gore.
“I pray for him,” she said. “And I pray for that family.”
When a 24-year-old Gastonia man was arrested for rape last month, it was the most serious crime he had ever been charged with. But it wasn’t the first time someone accused him of an assault that had sexual overtones. At times in the past, police say questions about the man’s mental competency have played a part in him not facing charges. And the case has raised concerns about whether a person’s diminished mental health can provide more leeway with the legal system.
_________________
Before the attractive woman in her 20s had even finished moving in, an elderly neighbor warned her to be on guard.
About a month before, the older woman had reported to Gastonia Police that she was assaulted by a male neighbor in her home on Rogers Avenue. She never pressed charges because of questions about whether the suspect would be mentally competent to stand trial.
But while the older woman hoped that 23-year-old Darrell Matthew Gore would receive therapy, she still remembered the look in his eyes Sept. 3, when she told police that he entered her house uninvited and grabbed her. So when she saw the young woman outside one day in late October, she stopped by.
“I thought I ought to let her know to be aware,” said the older woman, whose name is being withheld because she said the experience humiliated and traumatized her. “I told her to be very cautious of her surroundings. I told her I was the person in the neighborhood the boy had come in on.
“She said she’d already heard about him.”
About 10:36 p.m. on Nov. 24, less than three weeks after the young woman had moved in, police responded to her home after she made a harrowing 911 call about a home invasion — a recording that included her screams and loud sounds of a commotion. Officers arrived to find Gore, of 2418 Rogers Ave., coming out of her home, according to police.
Inside, officers discovered a violent scene. The bedroom door was mangled, with a gaping hole punched or kicked through it, and a single bullet hole from where police say the woman futilely fired a .22-caliber pistol in self-defense. She had also stabbed Gore, police said, though the wound was superficial.
Gore, who police said did not know the woman, was charged with second-degree rape and first-degree burglary.
Gore, now in Gaston County Jail under a $750,000 bond, lives in a rented home on Rogers Avenue with his parents and other family members. A man there who identified himself as Gore’s father declined comment last week. Gore’s attorney, Gaston County public defender Samantha Reichbach, also declined comment.
But neighbors say the Nov. 24 incident was the latest incident in a pattern of disturbing behavior over the last two years. Police reports confirm that he has been accused of several offenses in the past — at least two of them sexual in nature — though charges have always been dropped or never filed.
Home invasion
A 41-year-resident of the neighborhood, the older woman said she often saw Gore around since his family moved in across the street in 2007. She said hello from time to time, but didn’t know him well. When he once offered to rake some leaves in her yard for free, she thanked him and declined.
A fence surrounds the woman’s property and the chain-link gate across her driveway is normally locked. But it was open just after 9 a.m. Sept. 5, when her cousin was doing some home repairs in an inside hallway.
The woman walked down her driveway to get the morning paper. She noticed Gore walking in her direction down the road, but figured he was headed home. She went back inside.
Her cousin was using a nail gun, and the power cord running outside the house prevented the woman from fully shutting her storm door after she came through. She briefly stopped in front of her kitchen stove, then heard the door moving behind her, and told police she turned to see Gore standing right in front of her.
His pants were around his ankles, and he was not wearing underwear, she said.
“Just as I turned, he grabbed my shoulders. His face was right up on me,” she said. “It just shocked me. I couldn’t believe it was even happening.”
She immediately screamed her cousin’s name. Gore fled to his home, according to a police report, and was chased by the cousin as the woman called 911.
The woman said police told her there was only so much they could do because of Gore’s mental disability. She was told she could pursue a misdemeanor simple assault charge, but decided against it.
“What I told police was I wanted his family to see that he got the help he needed,” she said.
Charges, but no convictions
Gastonia Police Sgt. Mike Lari said it isn’t common for suspects to not be charged with a crime because they are mentally incompetent.
“But if that happens, there are usually other processes in place to get the person help, or to put them in a place such as an institution so they can’t continue to do this,” he said.
Gore was charged with injury to real property and assault on a female in 2007, but the charges were dismissed because there was no prosecution witness. He was charged with second-degree trespassing and disorderly conduct in February of this year, but the charges again were dismissed, according to a North Carolina criminal records check.
On Nov. 26, 2007, a female patient at Gaston Memorial Hospital told police that Gore came into her hospital room and began to touch and rub her body. As she tried to get away, Gore restrained her and held the door closed to detain her, according to a Gastonia police report.
Gore pulled her toward the bathroom, but the woman was able to get free and scream for help, according to the report. As hospital employees arrived, Gore ran from the room, the report stated.
Police investigated the incident as a reported felony kidnapping and misdemeanor simple assault. But he was never charged, in part because of his mental competency, Lari said.
Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said he can’t recall if any staff members from his office were consulted about that incident. But upon reviewing the information from the basic police report last week, Bell said there was apparently not enough evidence to justify charges.
“There’s just not enough here to prosecute,” he said.
Evaluating mental competency
If there are doubts about the mental competency of someone who has been charged with a crime, an attorney or judge can request a court order for the person to receive a mental health evaluation at a state facility such as Broughton Hospital in Morganton. That would typically happen only after someone is charged with a felony, said Mark Van Sciver, spokesman for the N.C. Division of Mental Health.
It is unclear if Gore has gone through this process.
A competent person understands the nature and extent of their acts, can distinguish right from wrong, and can assist their attorney in their defense. Competency must exist at the time a crime is committed, Bell said.
A person who has low intelligence or is mentally handicapped can still be found mentally competent, Bell said.
A mental competency evaluation can last 24 hours to two weeks, Van Sciver said. If the person is deemed competent, they go back to the judicial system to face any outstanding charges. If deemed incompetent, they remain at the hospital until competency can be restored, Van Sciver said.
When police encounter a person who exhibits mental health issues, that person may be admitted to a psychiatric treatment facility such as the one at Gaston Memorial Hospital. But competency hearings are not typically ordered for people in those situations, and if the alleged crime does not suggest the person is a danger to society, they are often released without facing charges, Bell said.
A person diagnosed with schizophrenia who steals a steak from a grocery store, for example, would likely not be charged with shoplifting due to questions of mental competency, and the minor level of the offense, Bell said.
“We’d have to dismiss the case because we can’t prosecute them,” said Bell. “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled you cannot hold someone simply because they’re mentally ill.”
Bell said it’s a gray area of sorts. Someone with a mental illness who has repeated run-ins with law enforcement, but who is not endangering society and is not facing felony charges, would not be held at a state or private hospital.
“If there’s reason to believe they’re a danger to the public, they’re not released,” he said.
‘It terrifies me’
The elderly woman said dealing with what she experienced Sept. 5 was an emotional struggle.
“I felt so violated and dirty,” she said. “I didn’t even go to church the next day.”
She is brought to tears now when she thinks about the incident, and wonders what might have happened if she’d been alone.
“It terrifies me,” she said. “It was that look in his eyes. It still haunts me.”
When she heard about the reported assault against the younger woman last month, the older woman said her heart sank even further.
“I just cannot imagine what she’s going through,” she said. “I pray for her. That’s all I can do.”
She feels a mixture of anger and pity for Gore.
“I pray for him,” she said. “And I pray for that family.”
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