Stand Trial

MIAMI -- Two forensic psychology experts testified yesterday that Jose Padilla, who is alleged to be an al-Qaida accomplice,suffered mental damage during his 3 1/2 years in U.S. military custody and is unfit to stand trial on terrorism charges. Testing and evaluation of the 36-year-old former Chicago gang member revealed "strong indication of cognitive impairment" and a 98 percent probability of "brain injury," said Patricia Zapf, a clinical forensic psychologist and associate professor at City University of New York, who was called as a defense witness.

Linda R. Tripp's criminal trial on state wiretapping charges will be postponed until July.Tripp had been scheduled to stand trial Jan. 18, but Howard County Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure yesterday granted Tripp's request for postponement. Leasure set a trial date for July 10.Tripp's defense attorney said yesterday that he sought the delay to seek more time to file motions and attack the state's case."The amount of time required to litigate the outstanding issues is unknown," Joseph Murtha said.

A Howard County circuit judge has ordered authorities to conduct a psychiatric examination of the Columbia man accused of killing his wife and injuring his stepdaughter outside the courthouse in Ellicott City in March.Under the order, which was signed Tuesday and filed yesterday by Judge Diane O. Leasure, state psychologists will examine Tuse S. Liu, 49, to see if he is competent to stand trial and if he is criminally responsible for his actions.Liu is accused of fatally shooting his wife, So Shan Chan, 52, and wounding his stepdaughter, Wing Sau Wu, 26, on March 11 in the courthouse parking lot after a divorce hearing.

COL. MUAMMAR El Kadafi's emissary, Youssef Debri, met me in Cairo last year. He was in Egypt exploring the ramifications of Libya's surrendering two of its citizens to stand trial for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.In formal talks in New York, a U.N. official had managed to narrow the gap between Libya's concerns and the British-American proposal for a trial in the Netherlands, but important differences remained.Now Debri was in Cairo informally, to clarify Washington's terms with a well-connected, retired American diplomat, in the hope of ending Kadafi's equivocation.

A 65-year-old man who was arrested in 1992 for trying to hire someone to kill a circuit judge was convicted of the crime yesterday but was then found not criminally responsible and returned to a psychiatric hospital, the Baltimore prosecutor said.John Klauenberg was convicted of solicitation to murder after a three-day jury trial in Baltimore Circuit Court before Judge Mabel Houze Hubbard.City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said that three times between April 28 and May 6, 1992, Klauenberg offered money to an employee of an Erdman Avenue carwash to kill Baltimore County Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr. as the judge drove to the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he taught part time.

The Bethesda man accused of posing as a commercial jet pilot to bilk airline employees and childhood friends of thousands of dollars has been committed to a private psychiatric hospital.State doctors said Daniel Shykind, 31, is not dangerous and can be treated with drugs and therapy for delusional behavior.In November, Shykind was found incompetent to stand trial on fraud charges after he refused to help prepare his defense, claiming he was a secret agent under orders from the CIA.Montgomery Circuit Judge S. Michael Pincus ordered a state evaluation because of concerns that Shykind was armed when he was arrested, owned hollow-point ammunition and had retaliated against two of his 14 alleged victims.

BOSTON -- It is no wonder that we stumble so often when we're forced to decide whether someone is bad or (also) mad. After all, we barely speak the same language.The medical world talks about mental illness. But the law only talks about legal insanity. The public wonders whether some defendant is mad as a hatter. The judge only has to determine if a defendant is competent enough to stand trial.This is how it goes now in the case of Theodore Kaczynski who appears to be both certifiably nuts and legally competent.

A Howard County judge has postponed the capital murder trial of Smith Harper Dean III this month so mental health evaluations can be performed to determine the defendant's insanity and competency pleas, his lawyer said yesterday.Dean, 39, of Hampstead is charged with two counts of homicide in the shotgun slayings of Sharon Lee Mechalske, 38, of Hampstead and Kent Leonard Cullison, 30, an Arcadia mail carrier, in June 1997. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.Originally scheduled for June 15, Dean's trial was postponed NTC until Sept.

Doctors at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center have found Ruthann Aron "competent and responsible" to stand trial next month on charges she tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband and a Baltimore lawyer.The report was sent yesterday to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Paul A. McGuckian, prosecutors and the defense team, said Barry H. Helfand, Aron's lawyer.McGuckian ordered the 60-day psychiatric evaluation to determine if Aron would be able to take part in the trial and assist in her defense.

A 46-year-old Upperco man charged with raping his step-grandsons will be evaluated to determine whether he is competent to stand trial, a Carroll County Circuit Court judge decided yesterday.The man -- whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the two children -- also has been charged with assault with intent to murder because he is HIV-positive.The man is the first person Carroll prosecutors have charged with assault with intent to murder in a sexual abuse case. His case is one of a handful of such cases in Maryland.

Man to stand trial in drowning case A medical evaluator has found a Montgomery County man, accused of drowning his three children, competent to stand trial. Attorneys in the case have been proceeding with trial preparations, including a hearing to ensure prosecutors turned over all evidence against Mark Castillo to his attorney, according to court records. Castillo is charged with killing Anthony, 6; Austin, 4; and Athena, 2, in a bathtub at the Marriott Inner Harbor hotel in March 2008 during a custody and divorce battle.

A Pasadena man accused of shooting his mother to death is no longer refusing to take his psychiatric medicines and is now competent to stand trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys said in an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court hearing yesterday. The attorneys' determination follows a February report from doctors at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup that found that Zachary Thomas Neiman, 27, can assist in his defense. Neiman faces first-degree murder charges in the July 2006 slaying of his mother, Rae Bajus.

Prosecutors say he is guilty of a horrific crime that could send him to prison for life: raping a 62-year-old woman on the floor of a coin-operated laundry, then stealing $6 from her purse. But Anne Arundel County Judge Paul A. Hackner found Christopher Parr, 27, of Baltimore not competent to stand trial yesterday on charges of first-degree rape - or of assaulting jail employees on two occasions - in a case that illustrated the difficulties of prosecuting mentally ill criminal defendants.

Accused of killing his mother with two shotgun blasts as she sat on her sofa, Zachary Thomas Neiman says he wants his day in court. But he has refused to take medicine that prosecutors say would allow doctors to deem him mentally competent to stand trial. "Mr. Neiman has drawn a line in the sand and said, `This is how much medicine I'm taking,'" Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Alban said yesterday at a court hearing. "A lot of it lies with Mr. Neiman." Refusing treatment won't free the 26-year-old Pasadena man anytime soon, experts say. While a person charged with a crime can theoretically avoid trial - or prison - by being found mentally incompetent, that defendant will end up remaining in a state institution where psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, nurses and other experts will continually watch, test and re-evaluate him. "People aren't getting away with anything.

MIAMI -- Two forensic psychology experts testified yesterday that Jose Padilla, who is alleged to be an al-Qaida accomplice,suffered mental damage during his 3 1/2 years in U.S. military custody and is unfit to stand trial on terrorism charges. Testing and evaluation of the 36-year-old former Chicago gang member revealed "strong indication of cognitive impairment" and a 98 percent probability of "brain injury," said Patricia Zapf, a clinical forensic psychologist and associate professor at City University of New York, who was called as a defense witness.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- After defense assertions that terrorism suspect Jose Padilla is suffering from severe mental health problems, a federal judge in Miami agreed yesterday to order a psychiatric evaluation of the accused al-Qaida agent. The examination will be conducted in coming weeks by the Bureau of Prisons and marks the first step for U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in deciding whether Padilla, 36, is legally competent to stand trial, said two people involved in the case. Under federal law, criminal suspects must understand the nature and consequences of the case against them and be able to assist in their defense to proceed to trial.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Three more Marines were ordered yesterday to stand trial on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in the April shooting death of an Iraqi man. But Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding general of Marine Force Central Command, dropped a charge against the three that could have resulted in the death penalty. Mattis ordered Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson, Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington and Cpl. Trent Thomas to stand trial. He previously ordered Pfc. John Jodka, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate to court-martial, also after dropping the death penalty charge.

A double-murder trial is on hold in Baltimore County because the defendant, a former police officer with a state agency who is accused of killing two Baltimore City police officers, has been found incompetent to stand trial. An evaluation by state doctors found that Eugene Victor Perry Jr., 34, suffers from a mental disorder that makes him dangerous, court records show. He is being held at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a state psychiatric facility in Jessup, under an order by a Baltimore County circuit judge.

Citing what they said was "outrageous" conduct by the FBI, lawyers representing two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee urged a federal judge yesterday to dismiss spying charges against the defendants, who are due to stand trial next month. Attorneys for Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, who stand accused of discussing U.S. government secrets about Iran as part of their work for the lobby, said FBI agents acted improperly in their investigation of the case.

IT MAY SEEM backward, but it's true: Mentally ill adults who commit crimes get treated better in Maryland than children with equally severe problems who run afoul of the law. That's not good for kids, and it's not good for the rest of us who may be put at risk. The Maryland General Assembly is now considering legislation to fix this gaping hole in the law. Currently in Maryland, adults who cannot understand the criminal charges against them or cannot meaningfully consult with their lawyer are found to be incompetent and are required to receive treatment before facing trial.