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[h1]Oft-jailed Lexington man may go to rehab[/h1] [h2]Lexington man has been arrested 1,300+ times
Lexington resident Henry Earl is scheduled to appear in Fayette District Court tomorrow -- as he has thousands of times before, answering to charges involving more than 1,300 arrests.
Between his stints in jail, Earl has in four decades become a homeless cult hero whose celebrity extends outside Kentucky. Several Web sites feature his plight and his drunken jail mug shots, and media outlets such as Newsweek and MSNBC have run stories about the 58-year-old.
[/h2]
Henry Earl often smiles in his booking photos.
Tomorrow, a Fayette District Court judge will give Earl an ultimatum:
Accept probation and clean himself up in treatment at the Hope Center in Lexington -- a four- to six-month, inpatient rehabilitation program -- or spend the next 90 days in jail, the maximum sentence for alcohol intoxication.
Judge Megan Thornton has said in court that she has few options for dealing with someone like Earl but wants to give him a chance.
"That's the only thing I can think of," she said from the bench after an Oct. 9 hearing. "Henry's my project. I'm taking him on."
Defense attorneys, homeless advocates, prosecutors and police all stress that, while Earl has gained notoriety, he is just one of many with the same struggle of addiction, the same shuttle in and out of jail.
"Every city has people like this," said Marlene Gordon, director of the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless. "There are people we see over and over again."
[h3]'Give him a shot'[/h3]
Earl has been arrested more than 1,300 times since 1970, mostly for alcohol intoxication, according to The Smoking Gun, a Web site that has followed his story for years. The Fayette County jail could only say Earl has been arrested more than 1,000 times since it computerized its records in 1992.
He has spent an average of nearly 250 days in jail each year since 1992.
"Obviously, jailing him is not going to help," said Stephen Gray McFayden, a Lexington attorney who is handling Earl's most recent case free of charge. "I don't have an answer as to what you do."
"We're all trying to put our collective heads together, find a workable solution and give him a shot," said First Assistant Fayette County Attorney Brian Mattone, whose office is also pushing treatment. "Our hope is that Earl will emerge from this milestone … and start his life over."
But whether Earl wants to start a new life is another question.
"It's his choice," said McFayden, who plans to take the case to trial if Earl does not choose to get help. "He's kind of scared of the treatment and doesn't know if he can complete it. … I believe he thinks he's too far gone."
[h3]'A public attraction'[/h3]
Earl's celebrity is an "only-in-America" phenomenon, fame achieved through repeated brushes with the law. He has his own Wikipedia page; was featured on MSNBC and the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show; has been the focus of songs, paintings and T-shirts; and has numerous Web sites that chronicle his life.
"Everybody's got a Henry Earl story in Lexington," said Drew Curtis, a Lexington native who runs a popular Web site called Fark.com, which he started in 1999 to share oddball photos and news stories with friends.
One of his most popular features has been the link to Earl's booking photos on the Fayette jail's Web site. After the jail's site repeatedly crashed from the crush of people accessing Earl's photos, Curtis said, officials politely asked him to kill the link.
"He went from being a nuisance to a public attraction," said Curtis, who considers Earl just another interesting case to feature.
But Gordon, director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said Web sites such as Fark.com take advantage of Earl and others like him. Citizens should be more concerned than amused, she said, if only because of the cost to the community each time he is arrested.
"I think it says it's OK behavior, that it is acceptable," Gordon said of the publicity Earl receives. "But it isn't, and it's costing everyone a lot of money."
[h3]'Classiest bum ever'[/h3]
In Lexington, many people know Earl as James Brown, a name he apparently gave himself in honor of the soul singer and a nod to the shuffle he performs in hopes of landing a free drink or spare change.
"He's really a harmless, harmless character," said Seth Bennett, general manager of a bar in downtown Lexington -- one of many that no longer allows Earl entry, in part because he won't leave.
Dressed in leisure suits, sports jackets and wingtip shoes, "He's probably the classiest bum ever," said Robin Feeney, who runs a downtown burger restaurant. "He's gotta look good. … He has absolutely nothing in life, but can put a smile on your face when you see him."
Ann Gutierrez, a public information officer for the Lexington Division of Police, said officers say Earl has asked to be arrested at times, maybe because of bad weather or because he recognized he was too drunk to get by on his own.
"In my mind, it's kind of sad," said Glenn Vencill, a public defender who has represented Earl at least 25 times. "It's a waste of a human life. … It's seems his goal in life is to get drunk because he doesn't have anything else."
Vencill noted that every time police bring Earl in, it takes an officer off the street and is an expense to taxpayers.
"It would be less expensive to the taxpayers to send him to Betty Ford than to go back and forth to jail here," he said.
[h3]'I like to drink'[/h3]
Earl declined to speak with The Courier-Journal for this story. But in past interviews he has said he started drinking when he was 18 and has shown little desire to clean himself up.
"I like to drink," he told Newsweek in a 2004 article titled, "Portraits of The Town Drunk. "Alcoholic, that's what I am. Every police (officer) knows me on the force. They see me drunk; they pick me up; I get five days. When I get out, I'm going to drink some more, to tell you the truth."
He told the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2005 that he has been homeless since 1969, when he lost his last job, busing tables and washing dishes, after showing up for work drunk.
Since then, he told the paper, he's never seriously tried to quit drinking, and probably never will.
"I'd like to slow down," he said. "Do I want to stop? Not really."
"He definitely likes the way he is living," attorney McFayden said. "He loves life. Just look at his jail photos -- mostly smiles."
[h3]Rooting for Earl[/h3]
Lexington officials have tried to get Earl help before, and he has sobered up at times through rehab programs. But it never sticks.
Earl has never been to the Hope Center, however, which is a nonprofit, live-in recovery program that can take as long as a year.
Heather Mitchell, the center's development director, said she did not know of Earl, and doesn't remember any other clients with such an extensive criminal history.
But she noted that 60 percent of the Hope Center's patients are still sober after a year.
"They have to want to help themselves," Mitchell said. "If you really don't want to be there, it's really not going to click."
In the Herald-Leader story, Earl said his goal was to get into the Hope Center, from which he said he'd been banned before for showing up drunk. He said then that he'd be willing to detox, if that's what it takes.
Prosecutors say they are rooting for Earl as tomorrow's decision looms, but several have doubts.
"Some prosecutors believe this is as good a time as any," said Mattone, the prosecutor. "Others believe he is being set up for failure."
McFayden said he wants to get Earl into treatment and is willing to continue working with him, looking for any family members and trying to get him into low-income housing and on disability.
"Henry can still turn the corner," McFayden said. "He can turn his life around."
