There is no freedom in the foreseeable future for Jermain Taylor, who's been behind bars for almost a week, under a judge's ruling Tuesday that allows the North Little Rock boxer to leave jail only to enter a hospital where he must remain locked down.
But Taylor's future does hold a court-ordered mental examination that includes brain scans, which could require a stay at the State Hospital. The exam is to determine whether Taylor was in his right mind at the time of the crimes he is accused of and whether he is competent to stand trial.
Chief deputy prosecuting attorney John Johnson requested the examination.
"We believe he is a danger to himself and others," the prosecutor told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson, who ordered the neurological exam with the consent of Taylor's attorneys.
Hubert Alexander, a lawyer for Taylor, said he didn't want to disclose the facility that Taylor will check into or where it's located. He told reporters after the hearing that his client needs a thorough examination.
"Everybody is saying this isn't the Jermain Taylor they know," the lawyer said. "We're trying to figure out who in the heck it is."
Taylor's lawyers also hope to get the former Olympic athlete into a drug-rehabilitation program run by former Razorback football player Muskie Harris once Taylor completes his hospital stay, but the judge said Taylor would have to return to court Feb. 10 and report on his progress before the judge would let him leave jail to enroll. Harris joined Taylor and his lawyers at Tuesday's hearing.
The judge said that if he did release Taylor from jail, the 36-year-old father of six would have to agree to wear an ankle monitor and submit to regular drug testing.
Taylor's 15-minute court appearance Tuesday was the result of his most recent run-in with law enforcement officers, his Jan. 19 arrest by Little Rock police over accusations that he had threatened a Little Rock couple and their three children during the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade while shooting a gun outside the red-brick gym Taylor owns at the corner of Wolfe and Wright streets.
At the time, he was free on $25,000 bond on charges of first-degree battery and aggravated assault based on accusations that he had shot his cousin and threatened another man with a gun outside his Vintage Drive home in August.
Police charged him last week with five counts of aggravated assault and three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor. He also was charged with marijuana possession after police said they found a leafy green substance on him.
Taylor spent the night in jail before posting $50,000 bond on the new charges. He returned to the jail the next day after the judge revoked his $10,000 bond on a complaint from prosecutors, who argued his new charges were grounds to return him to jail.
Taylor, wearing a blue jail uniform, was guarded during Tuesday's proceeding by five sheriff's deputies, all sergeants, and he was handcuffed with his hands chained to his waist. His feet also were chained together. He did not address the court.
Records show his health has been at issue in court before.
About a month before he was arrested on charges of shooting his cousin, another Pulaski County circuit judge, ruling in a dispute over child support involving Taylor, described him as a "professional boxer in the twilight of his career."
"It is evident that a boxer of 35 years old, who has a concussion, suffers from short-term memory and brain-bleed leading to treatment at the Mayo Clinic, is at the end of his productive career as a boxer," Judge Vann Smith wrote in July. "Mr. Taylor's career as a professional boxer is almost over if not over and ... any income derived from professional boxing will be insignificant."
The judge wrote that Taylor's financial prospects appeared limited.
"This situation is different from a person who has a job and loses that job but has the skill, education and experience to obtain other employment," Smith wrote. "In this case, Mr. Taylor's career is boxing and unless he is able to parlay his boxing career into management or some other related field in the boxing community, it is doubtful that he will derive much income from boxing in the future."
The judge's findings were based on concessions both Taylor and his lawyers made in testimony and in court briefs that the decline of his career is linked to his health problems.
The filing shows that Taylor has suffered "career-threatening injuries," among them a fractured hand in 2004, two concussions and bleeding in his brain in 2010.
Taylor, his wife and his longtime accountant all testified that Taylor has short-term memory loss. As an example of his memory difficulties, his lawyers pointed out that in a January 2014 hearing, Taylor could not remember what city he had fought in the previous month even though it was his only professional bout of 2013.
"Mr. Taylor has undergone CT scans, MRIs and even sought medical opinions and treatment at the Mayo Clinic," the February brief from Taylor's lawyer states. "Simply put, Mr. Taylor's career as a professional boxer will not return to the pinnacle he once experienced due to a number of factors, including undisputed neurological issues that are ongoing."
Taylor has fought since the judge's ruling. In October, he regained a middleweight championship he had not won in seven years by unanimously defeating a 40-year-old opponent in Biloxi, Miss.
But a fractured rib that Taylor suffered earlier this month, about three days before his arrest, resulted in the cancellation of his first title defense. His trainer said Taylor needed about six weeks to recuperate from the injury.
But the judge's findings also throw some light on Taylor's finances, at least how they stood last summer, before his first arrest. In his six pages of findings, the judge wrote that Taylor's gross earnings averaged $402,545 a year in 2011 and 2012, with a net of $260,812, resulting in a monthly income of $21,734.
But in 2013, Taylor was shown to have earned $17,021 with a net monthly income of $1,347.
He had purchased five houses for his family and friends, numerous automobiles and "other luxury items" while paying $3,000 per month for private school tuition at Pulaski Academy for three children, the judge noted.
The judge found that Taylor had more than $1 million in debts with $160,000 owed in state and federal taxes and another $93,000 owed for his Cadillac and camper.
Taylor's 5,000-square-foot home has a first mortgage for $495,000, and he has a line of credit that he relied on to pay his expenses. Taylor was making interest-only payments on the second and third mortgages, the judge wrote, describing Taylor as "generous to a fault" with all of his children.
"It is obvious that once the equity in his home is exhausted, he will have no appreciable income to draw upon to pay all of his expenses," the judge's findings state.
Taylor's wife of 12 years, Erica Taylor, filed for divorce in March, reporting at the time that the couple had separated about a year earlier. Court records show the couple, who have four children together, have agreed to the terms of the divorce, which is to be finalized in July.
Metro on 01/28/2015