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Would it have been "competent" for the defendant to sit silently after the very same court had previously remanded her to a federal prison hospital on a Texas military base for seven months for a psychiatric evaluation and observation that was legally supposed to take no more than 120 days (according to federal law, 18 U.S.C. 4241)?
Would it have been competent of Lindauer to remain silent when dealing with a U.S. Attorney's office that had sought to physically forced her to take Haldol (an older generation antipsychotic, psychoactive medication that causes serious side effects, including symptoms of Parkinson's disease)?
How "competent" would Lindauer have been if she had trusted the criminal justice system when she knew that an internal report from the federal prison psychiatrist had recommended against involuntary medication and that this report had not been introduced into evidence by now-fired attorney Talkin and was only introduced into evidence by new defense counsel Shaughnessy?
Do we have some brave new world standard for trials, where defendants are deemed "incompetent to stand trial" when they defend themselves in the absence of defense counsel? Where's the "connection to reality" in that? Franz Kafka, please reply.
Kafka-esque? Without any doubt. The general attitude of the prosecutors and the judge reflect this line from "The Trial": "You see, everything belongs to the Court."
It is virtually unheard of for the prosecution to agree to a defendant seeking a delay of trial due to "incompetence." It's even rarer that the prosecution takes the lead in arguing that a defendant is incompetent when the defense argues for defendant's competence and demands a trial.
In fact, defense attorney Shaughnessy could find no reported federal or state criminal case in which the defendant, the defense attorney, and defense psychiatric experts attested to the defendant's competence to stand trial and the judge ruled that the defendant was incompetent to stand trial.
The Judge's Opinion on Incompetence to Stand Trial, and the Defense Motion for Reconsideration and Declaration by the Defendant
Judge Preska heard the testimony of Lindauer's defense expert on Sept. 11, 2008, psychiatrist Richard Ratner, M.D, of Washington, D.C. On Sept. 15, she heard the testimony of prosecution psychiatrist Stewart Kleinman, M.D. Immediately following that testimony, Preska ruled that Lindauer is "incompetent to stand trial."
Judge Preska based her ruling on the following argument:
"I think both of the medical experts have agreed that Ms. Lindauer does suffer from a mental disease or defect. The more operative question seems to be whether or not Ms. Lindauer has an appreciation of the proceedings against her and is adequately able to assist in her defense. I credit in general the testimony of Dr. Stewart Kleinman, M.D." Decision of Judge Preska, Sept. 15, 2008 ("Decision")
Defense attorney Shaughnessy responded in his Motion for Reconsideration. He pointed out that Preska was in fact wrong when she used "delusions and hallucinations" as proof that Lindauer was incompetent. The prison psychiatrist who observed her for seven months "admitted that over seven months of incarceration, staff observed no signs of hallucinations and no signs of hearing voices, nor any depression or bipolar disorder."
Shaughnessy cited evidence that "from March 2004 through March, 2005. Dr. Bruke Taddessah recorded that he observed "no signs of psychosis, no signs of mood disturbances, no delusional thinking and no depression. He wrote that there was no basis for psychiatric intervention." Motion for Reconsideration, ("Motion") p. 2
Treatment notes from her release from Carswell through the present show that there were no signs of a serious mental illness, including hallucinations and delusions. Exhibits, "Monthly Treatment Reports, pp. 5-10
"After her release from Carswell, records of her weekly meetings at Counseling Plus from September, 2006 to August, 2007 validate the earlier findings by Dr. Taddessah at Family Health Services. Lindauer was reported to suffer "Post Traumatic Stress caused by her experiences at Carswell" -- and nothing more." Motion, p. 4
The overall fallacy in the court decision and the assessment of Dr. Kleinman was summarized in this elegant paragraph, reflecting even more Kafka-esque thinking by the court, namely that Lindauer's defense, that she was a U.S. intelligence asset, is a sign that Lindauer is "incompetent to stand trial":
