A judge was preparing to release an Atlantic City man from jail Thursday — and then he spoke.
Anthony Mack, 37, is accused of burglary and petty harassment after he allegedly walked into his neighbor's bedroom Sunday partially unclothed.
He already had pending charges of lewdness and child endangerment for allegedly exposing himself and rubbing his genitals outside in front of the previous neighbor and her three children in 2021.
"The court is gravely concerned about the defendant's mental health," Judge Pam D'Arcy said during the hearing.
She did, however, find that conditions could be fashioned to allow for his release on the highest level of pretrial monitoring.
D'Arcy told Mack that within three days of his release, he would have to check in with Jewish Family Services for a mental health evaluation.
She then asked him whether he had somewhere else he could live.
"The defendant has a history of this sort of behavior toward residents of this address specifically," Assistant Prosecutor Paige Cramer had told the court earlier in the hearing.
Mack then told the judge that he owned the apartment, but also owns other houses.
"I'm gonna keep my job," he then said. "I'm not going to let people live around me."
"What's your job?" the judge asked.
"My job?" he asked. "I'm the owner of police. The owner of cops. ... The owner of feds. The owner of FBI. I don't know. I'm not dealing with that. I guess my mom is."
At that point, the judge stopped him.
"Judge, I think a competency order may be needed," defense attorney Raquel DeStefano then said.
The judge agreed.
She reversed her decision to release Mack, and ordered him detained pending a competency evaluation.
D'Arcy also told DeStefano that if she could find him a bed in a facility, the judge would transfer him there.
DeStefano said she had already reached out to the Jewish Family Services representative for the jail to have Mack placed on the list to be evaluated.
