Matthew FitzharrisRINGGOLD, GA. - After taking the witness stand and claiming "a whole lot of attorneys are out to hurt me," the Chattanooga lawyer who was arrested in July and charged with breaking into an elderly couple's house and threatening to kill them was deemed not competent to stand trial.
Matthew Jack Fitzharris has been ordered to complete a 90-day evaluation at the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities to find a recommended treatment, according to an order filed Sept. 8 in Catoosa County Superior Court. Until that's finished, Fitzharris won't be forced to answer any kind of criminal charge, no matter how serious.
Fitzharris was already examined and found "not to be competent" on July 20, records show. On July 12, police said, Fitzharris walked into the couple's home off Cloud Springs Road around 11 p.m., uninvited and carrying a blanket. After the homeowners asked him to go, Fitzharris initially refused, then left, but returned later. During his second unannounced visit, he ran out the back door, jumped on the roof, threw potted plants at the couple, and threatened to kill them until the husband shot him twice in the arm in self-defense, records show.
About a month after his evaluation, Fitzharris was released from the Catoosa County Jail to enter a private mental health facility. But after he refused entry, he was returned to the sheriff's department, records show.
When he took the stand Sept. 8, Fitzharris, who is on disabled status with the Tennessee State Bar, said he didn't have delusions.
"That's why I'm testifying, right?" he told his attorney, McCracken Poston. "There's a whole lot of attorneys who are out to hurt me in Chattanooga "
Fitzharris said one attorney tapped his phone, killed his close personal assistant, and killed the wife of a man Fitzharris was representing in Hamilton County Circuit Court.
Fitzharris didn't stop there.
During his cross examination with the prosecutor, Fitzharris said several Chattanooga attorneys and judges were conspiring against him: Johnny Houston, John Konvalinka, Lila Statom, Pamela O'Dwyer, and Neal Pinkston, the Hamilton County district attorney general.
Fitzharris said he suspected two other judges who made "extremely unreasonable rulings on cases," but never named them "just because I can't prove it for sure."
"General Pinkston does not know Matthew Fitzharris," Melydia Clewell, his spokeswoman, said in an email. "[Pinkston] has never conspired with anyone and has no knowledge of anyone wanting Mr. Fitzharris dead."
The other listed attorneys could not be reached for comment, but Poston said none of them were suspects in any kind of conspiracy or slaying. "Make that clear," he said.
Furthermore, Victor Miller, a spokesman for the Chattanooga Police Department, said the death of one of the alleged victims, Viva Addison, was never investigated as a homicide. Her Hamilton County Medical Examiner's Office autopsy report lists her cause of death as "natural."
Poston, who initially said Fitzharris appeared to be suffering from a psychiatric meltdown, said his client never recovered.
"He's still in that state," he said. "It's a very, very sad situation: A guy at the beginning of his career with a lot of promise I would hope that if I were having a crisis like that, that colleagues, judges, and other professionals would conduct an intervention. I wish that had happened with this young man."
According to Georgia news accounts, Fitzharris nearly struck multiple police officers with a newly purchased Jaguar at the 4A's Inn on Ringgold Road before fleeing that scene and breaking into the Cloud Springs Road home. The East Ridge Police Department then submitted warrants for numerous counts of reckless endangerment and one count of evading arrest.
Although the Times Free Press could not obtain the arrest report Thursday, Poston confirmed the charges.
Poston said he will represent Fitzharris in that case, too.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.