Local Court News, (Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND – Hall County District Judge Andrew Butler ordered on Aug. 21 for Kelli Lepler of Grand Island to take antipsychotic medication.
Lepler is currently being held at the Lincoln Regional Center and has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Lepler is accused of receiving $258,404 from 43 customers. The headstones were never installed through her business, Monument Advisors.
She is charged in Hall County District Court with 46 counts of theft by deception, of which 38 charges are felonies and eight charges are misdemeanors.
The purchases were made between Jan. 8, 2020, and Feb. 9, 2023.
Lepler will have the opportunity to voluntarily take the medication. If she refuses, Lincoln Regional Center staff is authorized to administer the medication involuntarily.
A review and status hearing is scheduled at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 1.
The prosecutor is Matthew Boyle. The defense attorney is Jessica Fauss, Deputy Hall County Public Defender.
Dr. Amy Barker of the Lincoln Regional Center is requesting that the medication be administered.
According to Butler’s order, “competency is likely to be restored with appropriate treatment.” Barker said that administration of the medication is essential to restoring Lepler’s competency. Alternative treatment methods have not been successful in restoring competency.
Lepler has raised two Constitutional claims. The first is the right to refuse medical treatment. The second is that administration of the medication would violate her religious beliefs.
“Nebraska law makes it clear that felony offenses constitute serious crimes,” Butler wrote.
Butler wrote that the administration of the medication is substantially likely to restore Lepler’s competency to stand trial and “is substantially unlikely to produce side effects that would significantly interfere with her ability to assist counsel in conducting a trial defense.”
The prescribed medication has a success rate of 50 percent or more in treating Lepler’s diagnosis of delusional disorder.
Butler wrote that Lepler did not provide sufficient evidence to substantiate her religious freedom claim.
Butler found that the “administration of the prescribed medication is medically appropriate and is in the defendant’s best interest.” The medication is recognized as a “first-line therapy for this condition and constitutes a standard medical intervention given her diagnosis.”
Butler wrote that administration of the medication “shall be discontinued if any negative side effects become apparent and outweigh its therapeutic benefit.”