Former University of Wisconsin football player Leonard J. Taylor, jailed after allegedly threatening to kill  Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and his family, was diagnosed with mental illnesses several years ago and spent time in the Mendota Mental Health Institute, court records show.

Taylor was sent to Mendota for treatment after being charged with stalking a woman in 2005, eventually being found guilty of misdemeanors for violating terms of a restraining order a 22-year-old woman had obtained against him.

Court records show Taylor had dated the woman for about three weeks and when she broke up with him he called her repeatedly, to the point where she obtained a restraining order.

He was sent to Mendota when his attorney raised issues of mental competence and while he was treated at the hospital for bi-polar and schizophrenia, records show.

He is now charged with making repeated calls to Alvarez's work phone where he left messages threatening to kill Alvarez and his family. Taylor's father is quoted in the criminal complaint as saying his son has not taken his medications for three months and refuses to go to a hospital for treatment.

When at Mendota in 2006, Dr. Erik Knudson wrote to the court that Taylor "continued to express beliefs that were grandiose and delusional in nature regarding his identity and interaction with celebrities."

Knudson said Taylor suffered "obvious symptoms of untreated mental illness," and referred to himself as "King of the Earth" and "Messiah Ben David."

At one point Taylor sent letters on a daily or weekly basis to the court, often rambling about war and peace and other social issues.