(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County judge has granted a forced medication order requested by a state psychiatrist to treat a Cushing ex-convict found mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges he assaulted three men at Simpson’s Chiropractic Clinic in Cushing two years ago.
William Ray Doherty Jr., 42, was committed to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita “for competency treatment and training on Feb. 26, 2014,” after a Payne County jury found him incompetent to stand trial, senior staff psychiatrist Joseph Errico noted in a letter to the judge.
“Upon admission, Mr. Doherty was prescribed Risperdal 1 mg twice daily. He has been refusing to take this medication and as a result his psychosis-related behaviors have worsened.
“Specifically, he has become increasingly more paranoid to the point of accusing staff and security officers of conspiring against him and taking property from his room.
“Mr. Doherty has made statements to staff threatening to harm others by stating ‘that when he got out, he would go county by county, state by state, and take out all the corrupt state offices and personnel.’
“He went on to state that he would ‘dig a hole and bury them in it,’ implying that he would kill them. These statements also put our staff and other consumers in danger due to his increasing paranoia and conversations of harm to others.
“Due to Mr. Doherty’s increased agitation, paranoia, threats and his refusal to willingly accept medical intervention, it is my clinical opinion that without medication, Mr. Doherty will increasingly become more violent, therefore being a danger to himself or those around him.
“Mr. Doherty will continue to be provided therapeutic groups, training and counseling on the importance of medication, so that hopefully he will become med-compliant at some point on his own,” the psychiatrist wrote in a letter to the judge on March 14.
After a March 24 hearing, Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler granted the psychiatrist’s request and noted that Doherty “is not competent to consent or refuse treatment including medication necessary to restore him to competency.”
The judge found that “medication including psychotropic drugs is necessary to render the defendant competent to stand trial within a reasonable period of time, the treatment plan proposed is medically appropriate and is in the best interest of the defendant in light of his condition.”
The judge also found “the proposed treatment plan and its side effects will not adversely impact the defendant’s right to a fair trial on the pending charges, that a less intrusive treatment plan would not likely achieve the goal of restoring the defendant to competency to stand trial within a reasonable period of time and that involuntarily administered medical treatment including medication furthers the important governmental interest of bringing the defendant to trial on serious criminal charges.”
“It is therefore ordered that the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the defendant’s attending physician are authorized to treat the defendant as necessary to restore him to legal competency without the defendant’s consent, which may include, but is not limited to the use of medication including psychotropic medication,” the judge ruled.
A jury trial for Doherty had been postponed last October for the third time while he underwent his third mental evaluation, court records show.
Doherty had previously been found mentally incompetent by a Payne County jury in 2012 during a competency trial before Special District Judge Katherine Thomas, who then ordered he undergo mental health treatment at the Vinita facility.
After more than two months of treatment, Doherty was then found mentally competent, but his trial scheduled for last summer was subsequently postponed while he underwent another mental evaluation, court records show.
Doherty has been accused of choking a male massage therapist and brandishing a knife at two male patrons when they attempted to intervene on May 23, 2012, at Simpson’s Chiropractic and Physical Therapy Center in Cushing.
Doherty — who was arrested about 15 minutes after alleged attacks and has remained in custody — was also charged with obstructing then-Cushing Police Chief Terry Brannon and Officer Bill McCarty by failing to remain seated in a vehicle and shouting profanities at the officers.
At the time, Doherty — who had been released from prison six years ago — was living in Cushing with his father, who sought an emergency protective order against his son in 2012 while Doherty was undergoing mental treatment at the Vinita facility.
According to state Department of Corrections records, Doherty had been released from prison in 2008 after serving one and one-half years of a five and one-half year sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon in McClain County in 2003.
Doherty had been given a 10-year prison term in 1996 in Cleveland County for grand larceny after a former felony conviction, of which he served about five years prior to his parole in 2001, DOC records show.
Doherty had been given a nine-year prison term in 1996 in Cleveland County for possession of LSD with intent to distribute, of which he served about three and one-half years, DOC records show.
Doherty had been placed on probation in 1990 in Cleveland County for second-degree burglary, which was later changed to a five-year prison term, of which he served about two years, DOC records show.
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