Assistant Allen County Attorney Cyndi Hagenbuch (center) and Scottsville Police Chief Jeff Pearson listen Monday, April 18, 2016, during a community meeting to discuss long-term care home issues at the Allen County Public Library. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

SCOTTSVILLE — Local law enforcement, mental health professionals and state officials gathered Monday at the Allen County Public Library to discuss ways to improve safety and quality of living at personal care homes.

The meeting occurred against the backdrop of two homicides involving personal care home residents.

One incident, the death of 71-year-old Gary Glueck, occurred Feb. 25 at Scottsville Manor. 

Glueck’s roommate, a 35-year-old man who had legally changed his name to The Reverend, was accused of stabbing Glueck with a pen and strangling him with an electrical cord and was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The second incident is believed to have occurred Nov. 26 shortly after Stuart Hearell, a resident at Cornerstone Manor, went missing from the residence. 

Tommy Mulhall, a former Cornerstone resident, went to the Scottsville Police Department on Dec. 24 and claimed to have killed Hearell a month earlier. Authorities found Hearell’s body buried beside Mulhall’s trailer.

Mulhall has been charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Judges have ordered Mulhall and The Reverend, formerly known as Robert Allen Reynolds, to undergo psychiatric evaluations to determine their competency to stand trial.

On Feb. 29, Allen County Attorney Bill Hagenbuch and assistant County Attorney Cynthia Hagenbuch wrote a letter to the Western Enforcement Branch of Western State Hospital in Hopkinsville requested both personal care facilities be investigated and that residents there receive better protection.

On Monday, several local and state stakeholders convened in Scottsville for a discussion that Scottsville Police Department Chief Jeff Pearson said is crucial to help prevent additional tragedies.

“Any time you can start talking with all the professionals in the field, that is a positive,” Pearson said after the meeting.

Jeff Edwards, director of Kentucky Protection and Advocacy, which promotes the rights of those in the state with disabilities, said people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators themselves.

“Equating mental illness and violence is a slippery slope I’d like to avoid at all costs,” Edwards said.

Cornerstone Manor owner Jamie Vaught, answering a question from Bill Hagenbuch, said that many of the residents there have exhibited mental illness over the course of their lives.

Responding to a question from Pearson about what can be done to intervene before a patient or member of the public becomes a victim of violent crime, Vaught said that a resident who commits a violent act and lacks a guardian must be referred to another facility.

“Our population here is common to personal care homes that exist across the state,” Vaught said.

A number of state officials brought up regional mental health courts recently established in Jefferson, Fayette and Hardin counties as well as northern Kentucky as a possible solution to pursue locally.

The courts work similarly to drug courts in that defendants who meet certain criteria can have their cases diverted through a court-ordered plan that can include structured treatment, mental health assessments and other alternatives to incarceration.

Rita Ruggles, branch manager for the state Adult Mental Health and Recovery Services Branch, said that risk assessments can be helpful when personal care homes evaluate a resident for admission or placement with a roommate, though they are not perfect indicators of future behavior.

“The ability to predict violence by even a highly trained forensic psychiatrist is about 50/50,” Ruggles said.

Bill Hagenbuch said he has seen a familiar pattern emerge in which people cycle in and out of the justice system, tied to whether they are receiving treatment for a mental illness.

“What we see all the time are people that get help, get medication, do better and either they don’t like the side effects or feel like they don’t need (to take medication) anymore … and they get in trouble,” Hagenbuch said.

Ruggles said that legislative efforts to increase protections for those with mental illnesses included a bill that would have allowed judges to order assisted outpatient treatment rather than involuntary commitment for some in need who would otherwise refuse treatment.

Sponsored by Kentucky Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, the bill passed the House of Representatives this session of the General Assembly but stalled in the Kentucky Senate.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com