Castle found competent to stand trial

Knoxville, TN–Dr. Christopher Ellis Castle, a former Seymour physician facing more than 500 charges of distributing illegal narcotics, was found competent Friday to stand trial. Castle, along with a group of co-conspirators, allegedly used other people’s names on prescriptions to illegally obtain drugs from 1999 until February 21st of this year. Castle was initially charged with child pornography on October 19th, 2001, after the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department served search warrants on his home and office in Seymour. The SCSD was investigating a health fraud claim against Castle, as well as the drug allegations, when they happened upon allegedly pornographic images of children on a laptop computer screen. The computer was Dr. Castle’s property. According to court documents, the searches also turned up several guns, used syringes, partially burned marijuana cigarettes and some bottles of alcohol under his office desk. Castle had undergone a mental evaluation after his attorneys filed a motion, earlier in the year, suggesting that they would rely on an insanity defense in the drug case. Castle, 46, has been in custody in Knox County since his bond was revoked in February, when U.S. Magistrate Thomas Phillips determined that there was cause to believe Castle had violated his release conditions, for possessing a loaded gun and by downloading pornography. The child pornography charges were later dismissed on a motion filed by federal prosecutors. Drug charges had already been filed. Castle has entered a not-guilty plea; he faces a trial date, which is set for next June.