Rabbi Moskowitz’s Attacker Seeks Incompetency Ruling

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lakewoodThe Asbury Park Press reports:
Defense attorneys are seeking to have a 38-year-old Lakewood man declared incompetent to stand trial on charges that he attempted to murder a rabbi in a baseball-bat attack in Lakewood in 2007. Attorneys Glenn Kassman and Kevin Young are seeking to have Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson declare Lee Tucker of Ventura Drive incompetent to stand trial on charges of attempted murder and weapons possession.

In a hearing before Hodgson on Thursday, Dr. Daniel Greenfield, a psychiatrist, testified that Tucker is incompetent due to a long history of psychiatric commitments dating to 1996 for serious disorders that include schizophrenia.

Another psychiatrist, Dr. Timothy Michals, testified for the state that Tucker is competent to stand trial and faked mental illness during an exam.

The hearing is scheduled to continue on May 28.

Tucker is accused in the baseball bat attack on Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz in Lakewood on Oct. 9, 2007. Moskowitz, then 53 and a third-grade teacher at Lakewood Cheder School, was severely beaten while he was walking to synagogue to pray.

Tucker was arrested on Oct. 24, 2007, a day after he was released from a stay at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow.

The assault received widespread attention, including a news conference to announce a $25,000 reward for information posted by the Anti-Defamation League and the Vaad, Lakewood’s council of Jewish Orthodox leaders.

{APP/Matzav.com Newscenter}

 


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