Findlay case shows gap in resources for mental health crises

FINDLAY — A Findlay family seeking emergency mental-health assistance for their son last December instead saw the situation escalate into a criminal case, highlighting ongoing gaps in crisis-response resources. Anthony Carles' family contacted the Family Resource Center the day after Christmas, hoping he could be transported for emergency psychiatric evaluation. FRC staff initiated a "pink-slip," the legal process that allows authorities to take someone into protective custody for evaluation when they pose a risk to themselves or others. Staff told police Carles was "agitated, delusional and paranoid," though not suicidal and was refusing transport to the hospital. Both agencies said they had previous interactions with Carles and his family. When Findlay police arrived at the Oakwood Avenue home, body-camera footage shows Carles shouting at police, attempting to re-enter the home and resisting officers' attempts to detain him. During a brief struggle, police say he grabbed an officer's crotch area and radio cord before officers used pain-compliance techniques and body weight to restrain him. One responding officer's report notes Carles also appeared to reach for an officer's weapon during the tussle. Carles, who described the episode as a "psychotic break," said he felt overwhelmed and unnecessarily restrained. He said he did not remember grabbing the officer but admitted to pulling on the radio cord. Despite experiencing delusions and hallucinations at the time, he said he did his best not to fight officers and pulled on the radio cord to keep from doing so. "I felt like I was fighting for my life, but I was trying my best not to fight back," he said. "I don't know why they had to hold me down so hard… These cops were out of line." He said he remembers feeling pulled in different directions by the responding officers while they tried to detain him. "They were like one and a half times my size, each of them," he said. "They were using way too much force. It made me feel scared." When asked to recall further details about the incident, Carles struggled. His brother, Bryatt Smith, said the family had watched Carles' mental state deteriorate for weeks and had attempted to seek help through probate court, which was closed for the holidays. Calling FRC, he said, was their last option. "We knew we had to do something," Smith said. "He just wasn't right … It was not good, what he was saying and doing." Smith said the family was frustrated by the outcome and believed Carles did not need criminal charges or time in jail. "(The police) went against medical advice," Smith said. "They said 'well, we're just going to take him to jail and let them deal with it' instead of taking him to the hospital, which is the entire reason they were there to begin with. If they wouldn't have shown up, eventually someone would have taken him to the hospital … They tried to pawn him off on someone else in my opinion; they did a good job of that and we're still dealing with the consequences." Smith said police were called to help, instead they hurt the situation and handed out consequences instead of care. He also reported that the decision to criminally charge his brother had detrimental emotional consequences for his family, specifically his mother, who he said, neither slept nor ate while Carles was in jail. Carles said he believes he was in jail for approximately eight days and did not receive any kind of mental health care until the end of his incarceration. From jail, he was transported to the hospital, where he received a bench warrant for missing a court date. "He didn't try to swing on anybody," Smith said. "He didn't try to punch anybody. He just resisted … He was never combative." Though not a criminal arrest, a pink-slip is an arrest of sorts. Lt. Andrew Welch clarified that any kind of resistance to being transported to the hospital during a mental crisis means being handcuffed. "I don't think that the moment the cuffs were put on him, there was going to be an opportunity to de-escalate with the cuffs," Welch said. "Unfortunately the cuffs were something that were pushed by him when he tried to go back in the house after we had been told that he had already been assaulting his mother. Obviously, the officer is not going to allow him back into the house because, whether in his right mind or not, he was causing physical harm to somebody." He said the officers' concern was that there could be weapons in the house, a risk officers are unwilling and unable to take. "I don't think (de-escalation) is an option once you get to the point where we have to detain him for our safety because you're not going to find many people that sit there (in handcuffs) and then just have a conversation," Welch said. "... We want to (de-escalate) every time. Sometimes it just doesn't work." According to police reports, Carles was arrested for obstruction after officers were told he had assaulted his mother while experiencing delusions and made claims about being "the king of France." Body-camera footage of the encounter captures him making further statements that appear disconnected from the situation. One detail not included in initial reports, perhaps because it was not known by officers at the time, was that Carles later said he had been detoxing from methamphetamine while also being high on THC during the encounter, a combination police say likely intensified the crisis. "When you have someone under the influence of narcotics, it completely changes their mental state," Captain Justin Hendren said, adding that the response to the crisis probably would not have changed had officers known of the intoxication. "Being high on one drug, coming off of another and being in a state of withdrawal, I imagine that's not a great cocktail." Officers must act on the information available at the moment and do not have time to determine the underlying cause of his behavior. They do not have the time to properly analyze situations. According to Welch, officers intentionally avoided more serious charges due to the circumstances, including assault of an officer which would have been a fourth-degree felony charge and would have meant up to 18 months in jail. He also could have been charged with resisting arrest. Obstruction, later reduced to disorderly conduct in court, was the "least of evils," Hendren said, allowing officers to briefly hold Carles in a secure environment. "We don't want to charge him with a violent crime and we certainly don't want to charge him with a felony," Hendren said. Across the nation, people experiencing mental health crises are funneled through the criminal justice system instead of given the care they need, a trend officials say is driven by a collapse in psychiatric infrastructure, a shortage of treatment beds and a lack of community-based services. Scholars argue that it reflects something deeper: a national pattern in which confinement replaces care. A 2024 article from The Bail Project says that up to 2 million people experiencing a mental health crisis are booked into jails and prisons. "Unable to advocate for themselves, many people end up languishing behind bars where they don't receive the treatment they need," the webpage said. But the situation is more complex than what can be seen at first glance and it becomes a lose-lose situation: the public may be frustrated by how situations, like Carles', are handled, but on the other hand, police are frustrated with their limited options for dealing with mental health crises. Carles' case reflects a broader systemic failure: a mental health system that was deinstitutionalized decades ago without adequate replacement infrastructure. "When officers see individuals cycle through repeated crises, despite repeated interaction with law enforcement, it can be emotionally exhausting and discouraging," Hendren said. "Professionally, officers want to protect the community and help people in crisis, but personally, it can be difficult to witness the same cycles continue over and over." Law enforcement officers are forced to function in a system that was never meant to handle these types of situations and repeated exposure can feel defeating. Six months later, Carles' family said he is receiving care and doing better, but believe the criminal repercussions could have been avoided. The decision to arrest with criminal charges was not made lightly, according to police, and only exemplifies the systemic issue that officers only have so many resources at their disposal. While Smith believes the criminal arrest reflects a lack of care from officers and a desire to "give him to somebody else to deal with," both Hendren and Welch said this was not the case, saying officers fully understood Carles did not need to be routed into the criminal justice system but without tenable alternatives, had little choice. Hendren reports that many officers would not be in law enforcement if they were not incredibly empathetic. Welch reiterates this, saying that Findlay police teaches officers to remember that a large majority of the incidents they encounter are someone's worst day. This wasn't always the case. In the last twenty years, the Findlay police and other local agencies have adopted crisis intervention training and have worked to give officers an understanding of how to properly deal with mental health crises. Findlay police policy instructs officers to treat individuals in crisis with respect and use arrest only as a last resort. Welch and Hendren agree that, in this case, officers had exhausted all other options. "We recognize the fact that they don't need incarceration, they need treatment," Hendren said. "If we can't (take them to the hospital) safely, we don't have any other options besides incarceration because we know they're safe and everybody around them is safe." "The biggest negative about the jail is that it does come with a criminal charge," Welch said, adding that across the nation, emotions get high and officers may use excessive force. That was not the case here, he believes, ultimately saying he is proud of his officers. In this scenario, officers could easily have "thrown haymakers" as soon as Carles started resisting, but they didn't. "We use the minimum amount of force necessary to control the situation," Hendren said. Body-camera footage corroborates this statement. Officers attempt to move Carles to a softer surface for comfort during detainment, try to reassure him that he's going to be okay while attempting to put him in a police vehicle, check on him while waiting for jail staff to take custody and avoid more serious criminal charges: proof they were doing the best they could with the provided circumstances and tools available. The choice between hospital transport and criminal charges often hinges on cooperation. Hospitals, Welch noted, sometimes refuse patients deemed "too uncooperative." Officers knew he didn't need a felony or even misdemeanor charge but with limited mental-health infrastructure, jail was the safest option as the only institution that has beds, staff and locked doors. The criminal charge was ultimately handed down due to concern for hospital staff's safety. Welch said that if Carles had been taken to the hospital and assaulted a nurse or doctor, he would have gotten a felony charge. Seemingly, everyone is frustrated by the failing system in situations, like Carles, where jail is the only option. It is possible that both sides are victims of a system that deinstitutionalized the mental health system without offering a fair replacement. In the Carles case, for example, Smith said he believed his brother's outcome occurred because police were tired of responding to Carles repeatedly but knew there were no viable options available to him. "They said they were tired of coming out here all the time and getting conflicting stories," Smith said. "They got tired of dealing with it essentially." Welch believes Carles' family may give pause the next time there is a crisis but that it's simply a situation with no easy answers and where no one wins. "(The family) had an expectation they feel we didn't meet," Welch said. "It'd probably be more of a last resort for them to call (police) again. But they will call us again and we'll take care of it because it's going to get to a point where they can't." Smith's inclinations are supported by the fact that a supervising officer at the scene later received informal counseling after making an inappropriate remark to a family member. A personnel report indicates the officer acknowledged the comment was wrong but was perhaps frustrated with repeated calls involving Carles and a lack of clear options for long-term care. On the other hand, the police must do what they can with the resources available to them. Welch said officers are being asked to do more with less, something that makes the job hard. Being faced with a situation where appropriate mental health facilities and treatment were unavailable to Carles, they responded in the only way possible: a way that ensured the safety of Carles, responding officers and everyone involved in the situation. Officers are not trained mental health professionals and yet, are increasingly being treated as such. "One of the biggest shortcomings is the lack of resource options," Hendren said. "As a result, emergency rooms and jails become 'treatment centers' because there aren't enough resources available … We emphasize that mental health calls can be some of the more challenging situations officers face." Ultimately, the family's ordeal underscores a deeper truth: when mental health systems fail, the burden falls on police and jails, institutions that were never designed to carry it, leaving people in crisis caught in a system that confines them instead of treating them. "We would be rich men if we knew how to solve the problem," Hendren said.