A violent storm rolled through downtown Mobile last Tuesday, arriving with enough thunder and driving rain to mask the cries of a woman being attacked inside the RSA Tower parking garage. Voters were still making their way to the polls for Election Day when the assault happened, and by the time the weather cleared, a very different kind of storm had begun to build around how the man accused of the attack had been moving in and out of the local judicial and mental health systems for years without ever being stopped.
The man charged in the attack, Douglas Dunson Jr., has a criminal history that stretches back decades. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1996 and was not released until sometime in 2016. Within a year of getting out, he was already being arrested repeatedly, and efforts were made to have him evaluated for commitment after he beat a female cousin with a brick. That case sent him to EastPointe Hospital in Daphne for treatment from September through November of last year. Once released, though, the pattern of arrests resumed almost immediately, including several charges of indecent exposure connected to repeated incidents of public exposure downtown earlier this year.
The case has drawn attention to a bond and release policy the city put in place last year, intended to keep people accused of nonviolent offenses from sitting in jail for weeks or months simply because they could not afford to post bond. Under that policy, municipal judges have been permitted to release nonviolent defendants on their own recognizance, a practice meant to ease jail overcrowding and prevent poorer defendants from facing what amounts to extended detention over an inability to pay. City officials say the policy was never intended to become a revolving door for people who repeatedly fail to appear for scheduled court dates, and records show Dunson was released on his own recognizance at least 11 times since last May, plus four additional releases ordered directly by judges.
The last two of those judicial releases were signed off by Karlos Finley, who is currently the Democratic nominee for a Circuit Judge seat in this November’s general election. Finley has said he was simply applying the law as written, and has pointed out that police officers and alleged victims did not sign formal complaints against Dunson in connection with the exposure incidents, which limited what the court could act on. City officials, for their part, maintain that Dunson’s pattern of repeated arrests and missed court dates should have made him ineligible for release on his own recognizance in the first place.
Records also show that on multiple occasions, jail staff requested a mental health evaluation for Dunson, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, only for him to be released before the evaluation could be scheduled and completed. Documentation from his time in custody describes behavior including throwing feces at guards and talking about God and exorcists, yet no emergency evaluation was requested in response, and Dunson was released after the standard 48-hour holding period expired each time.
The case has renewed longstanding concerns about how the region handles people who cycle repeatedly through homelessness, untreated mental illness and the criminal justice system. Alabama closed Searcy Hospital, the regional state psychiatric facility that once served Mobile and the surrounding counties, roughly eight years ago, leaving far fewer long-term placement options for people who need sustained psychiatric care but do not necessarily meet the threshold for permanent commitment. Short-term hospital stays and group home placements, mental health advocates say, are often not enough to stabilize people with serious, chronic mental illness, and the gap in long-term care options has left jails and municipal courts to manage cases that were once handled by the state hospital system.
Local officials and advocates say the case underscores a need for better coordination between the Mobile County jail, local police and the courts when a person with serious, ongoing mental illness becomes a repeat presence in the system. When jail staff have made multiple attempts to have someone evaluated and the person is released before the scheduled evaluation date, advocates argue there should be a clearer process for either requesting an emergency evaluation or flagging the pattern for judges handling future release decisions. Similarly, when someone appears in municipal court repeatedly on similar charges, some officials say judges and police should have better visibility into that history before decisions are made about bond or release.
The attack remains under investigation, and Dunson has not been convicted of the charges against him. But the scrutiny of his case has already prompted broader conversations among city officials, court officials and mental health advocates about whether current policies and communication channels are adequate for handling repeat offenders who also have serious untreated mental illness. Advocates say the goal of any changes should be twofold: protecting public safety while also connecting people with the sustained treatment they need, rather than cycling them through short jail stays and brief hospital admissions that rarely address the underlying illness. How an unsigned complaint let him walk Details that emerged in early June filled in exactly how Dunson came to be free in the run-up to the RSA Tower attack. He was first arrested Friday, May 25, after he allegedly exposed himself at the intersection of Dauphin and Conception streets in front of a downtown crowd. But when he appeared before Municipal Judge Karlos Finley on Monday, May 28, the complaint — the sworn document laying out the allegations — still lacked the witness’s signature. Without a sworn complaint, Finley gave Dunson a late-June court date and ordered him released on his own recognizance, which jail records show happened that same day.
Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said the witness who should have signed the complaint was a Mobile police officer whose normal days off fell on Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend, while the magistrate worked only limited holiday hours. The officer finally signed the complaint on Friday, June 1 — by which point Dunson had already been freed, and had even been booked back into Mobile Metro Jail on May 31 in connection with a separate May 17 incident in which he was seen wandering naked in the parking deck at 505 Government Street, according to court records.
It remained unclear why Dunson was released again on June 3, given that a sworn complaint had been signed three days earlier. Charlie Graddick, the Mobile Municipal Court administrator and a former circuit judge, said the officer “should have signed it as soon as he arrested him,” and noted that with a warrantless arrest a judge retains discretion to weigh whether a defendant is a threat and hold them rather than release them. Graddick said he was reviewing what steps the courts could take to ensure complaints are signed promptly.
At Dunson’s first court appearance on the beating and attempted rape charges, Judge Jill Phillips found him to be a danger to society and ordered him held without bond.
Mobile’s downtown area has been the focus of renewed investment in recent years, with new residential developments, restaurants and entertainment venues opening across the central business district. The growth has brought more residents and visitors to the area but has also raised questions about how the city manages public safety and mental health crises.
Mental health services in Mobile County are provided through a combination of public agencies, private providers and nonprofit organizations. The capacity of the local mental health system has been a recurring topic of concern, particularly as it relates to crisis intervention and involuntary commitment proceedings.
Incidents in downtown areas that involve individuals experiencing mental health crises often involve coordination between police, fire-rescue, mental health providers and the courts. The effectiveness of those responses has been the subject of ongoing review in Mobile and in similar cities across the country.
Local governments and community partners are working through the implications of the situation, and several follow-up meetings have been scheduled for the coming weeks. Members of the public who want to weigh in on the matter can find the meeting dates on city and county websites, and written comments can be submitted through the standard channels used by the relevant agencies. Local news outlets will continue to cover the story as it develops.
Across south Alabama, similar issues are being addressed in other communities, and the lessons learned here are likely to inform how those communities approach their own challenges. Local officials have indicated they are in regular contact with counterparts in neighboring cities and counties, and they expect to share best practices as the situation continues to evolve.
The agencies involved in the matter have committed to keeping the public informed as the work progresses, and residents who want to receive updates directly can sign up for email or text alerts through the relevant city or county websites. Local community organizations have also agreed to share information as it becomes available, and several have scheduled public forums in the coming weeks to give residents a chance to ask questions of the officials involved.
For background, readers can consult the official websites of the relevant agencies, the local newspapers that have covered the story, and the public-meeting archives that document the prior deliberations on related topics. The combination of those resources should give residents a thorough understanding of how the current situation developed and how the agencies and elected officials are approaching the decisions that remain.