A Bloomington man was arrested and charged with raping a paralyzed woman in November 2016 in the 2200 block of North Walnut Street.
Austin Bishop told police he hadn’t taken his medication for a mental illness for several days before the assault and blamed the missed medication for his actions. Bishop has been in and out of various mental health institutions since 2009 and has received varying mental health diagnoses.
A hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Three doctors have submitted mental health evaluations to the court. Two of the three, Rebecca Mueller and Anne Leach, testified in August. Frederick Nolen will testify Tuesday.
Mueller said in August she did not consider Bishop competent to stand trial because she considered him to be “actively psychotic.”
She defines someone who is “actively psychotic” as having experienced auditory or visual hallucinations or states of delusion up to two weeks prior to her evaluation in July 2018.
Bishop told Mueller about ongoing conversations in his head, visual hallucinations of a green zombie he called "Solomon Grundy" and an alternate personality he referred to as “Mr. Hyde,” she said.
“I think that does affect his ability to be connected to reality,” Mueller said.
Prosecutor Joshua Radicke pointed out that Solomon Grundy and Mr. Hyde are both names of fictional characters. He asked Mueller if that makes her question the truthfulness of Bishop’s reports.
Mueller said she was not concerned about the possibility of Bishop exaggerating or lying about his symptoms because of his documented prior history of mental illness, she said.
Leach, the second psychiatrist who testified, previously treated Bishop at Centerstone, a mental health care center in Bloomington. In her evaluation, she found Bishop competent to stand trial, she said.
He was able to recount details of the assault, identify his attorney and explain his charges, Leach said. In addition, in the six to seven times she’s met with Bishop for treatment and for this evaluation, she doesn’t believe he has ever been actively hallucinating or dissociating, she said.
“I wouldn’t have any concerns about competency at any point that I’ve seen him,” she said.
The third evaluation and testimony from Dr. Frederick Nolen on Tuesday will enable Judge Marc Kellams to make a decision on Bishop’s competency.
