Chiropractor charged with poisoning wife released on bond
By Eric Fleischauer
For the Enquirer
A chiropractor from Hartselle charged with attempting to kill his wife by poisoning her has been released from jail on a $500,000 bond.
Brian Thomas Mann, 33, of Coleman Street Northwest, was released from the Morgan County Jail this past Wednesday, five days after his arrest.
Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott set numerous conditions on Mann’s release:
- He is to be supervised by Morgan County Community Corrections.
- He is to wear a GPS monitor.
- He must remain in his home from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day.
- He is to be drug-screened at least eight times per month.
- He must surrender all firearms to the Hartselle Police Department.
- He is to have no alcohol on his person, in his vehicle, in his residence or in his place of employment.
- He must surrender his passport to the Hartselle Police Department.
- He must have no contact with the victim.
The Alabama State Board of Chiropractic Examiners lists Mann as being a chiropractor at Advanced Chiropractic LLC in Decatur, a corporation he established.
Mann’s wife on March 10 filed a complaint for divorce in which she alleged she was hospitalized at UAB Hospital on Jan. 18 with a diagnosis of lead poisoning and remained hospitalized through March 3.
On May 19, the wife amended her divorce complaint to say that Mann “perpetrated acts of assault upon her person … by intentionally causing her to unwittingly ingest particles of lead.”
On Aug. 23, Elliott halted the divorce proceedings “pending the completion of the criminal investigation.”
Mann’s wife’s lawyer is Jerry Knight of Decatur, a former Morgan County assistant district attorney. On Tuesday, Knight filed a motion to allow the divorce proceedings to continue.
Mann’s divorce lawyer, Christopher Weston of Huntsville, filed a response Thursday claiming that the wife is using the divorce case to obtain information for the Hartselle Police Department to use in prosecuting Mann.
Weston argued that recent discovery requests by the wife show “cooperation between the opposing party in this matter and the Hartselle Police Department,” and that the wife and her lawyer are “attempting to establish motive for her allegations, and that the information in the specific questions (asked in the divorce case) could only have been obtained from the search warrants previously issued to the Hartselle Police Department.”
In written questions submitted July 14 to Mann by Knight, Mann was asked to describe the contents of “the dietary supplement you provided to your wife during the late summer of 2021 through the winter of 2021-2022.”
Also in the divorce case, Knight requested that Mann admit certain alleged facts. Among them was that for several months prior to her hospitalization, he provided his wife with capsules that he claimed were vitamins that “would strengthen her immune system,” and that she ingested the capsules.
Mann was also asked to admit that he held five life insurance policies payable upon his wife’s death that collectively had death benefits of $1.3 million. He was additionally asked to admit that on Dec. 4 he applied for two different $750,000 life insurance policies payable upon his wife’s death, both of which were denied. He was further asked to admit that the only life insurance payable to his wife upon his death was for $52,000.
Mann’s lawyer argued in his brief that allowing the wife to obtain information on life insurance policies “would show glaring deficiencies in the implied circumstantial case of the State … . The submission of this knowledge to the Plaintiff, as part of a broader civil matter, could allow the State access to strong defense materials of the Defendant” that the prosecutors could not otherwise obtain in the criminal case.
Requiring Mann to produce information in the divorce case, his lawyer argued, “would provide the State of Alabama’s prosecution team with additional significant insight into the failing of their premature criminal charges.”
Elliott has scheduled an Oct. 27 hearing on whether to allow the divorce case to proceed.
According to court records, Mann also hired Weston to represent him in the criminal case. Mann’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Mann is also a defendant in a malpractice lawsuit filed in November 2020 by a patient who claimed he performed chiropractic manipulation of her that caused her to immediately suffer from severe back pain, incontinence and an inability to walk. The patient alleged she was hospitalized and now has a permanent, debilitating back condition.
Mann denied the claims.
