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Apr 9, 2007 4:13 pm US/Eastern
Judge Orders Head Exam In Fake Firefighter Case
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Peter Braunstein's lawyer says he is not fit to stand trial because of injuries suffered while behind bars.
CBS
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Peter Braunstein is scheduled to go to trial on a multitude of charges stemming from an attack on Oct. 31, 2005. (File photo)
CBS
A judge ordered a medical examination of the injured head of a writer who is accused of posing as a firefighter and sexually abusing a woman on Halloween night 2005.
State Supreme Court Justice James Yates ordered the exam Monday after a four-day hearing on Peter Braunstein's condition. The judge noted that lawyers on both sides agree Braunstein is mentally fit for trial, but he wants to know whether three skull fractures and brain bleeding have left him physically unable to participate.
He cited a statute saying that if a judge believes a defendant is incapacitated and might not be able to assist in his own defense at trial, the judge must order an examination for the defendant. The examination will include psychological and medical tests.
Braunstein, 42, is accused of sexually abusing a 34-year-old former Women's Wear Daily co-worker in her Manhattan apartment for 13 hours starting Halloween night 2005.
He wore a firefighter's outfit and set a fire in the hallway outside the woman's apartment before banging on her door, prosecutors said. He was on the run for six weeks before being captured.
Braunstein was arrested Dec. 16, 2005, on the University of Memphis campus in Tennessee. He stabbed himself in the neck several times in an apparent suicide attempt as a campus policeman approached while pointing a gun at him.
He has pleaded not guilty to arson, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse and assault charges.
Braunstein's lawyer, Robert C. Gottlieb, says he will present trial evidence that his client was mentally ill at the time of the alleged attack on the woman and therefore should not be held criminally responsible for it.
During the hearing, Gottlieb asked that the trial be postponed. He said that Braunstein has severe headaches because of the head injuries and that the drugs he takes for pain, mood swings and high blood pressure leave him "zoned out."
Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal, who says jail guards reported Braunstein deliberately cracked his own skull on a cell sink, told the judge she found the headaches "suspect" and perhaps not as severe as the defendant claims.
The prosecutor also said the headaches might be stress-related, brought on by Braunstein's thoughts of his impending trial. She had a hospital neurologist testify this was possible and not enough to keep him from taking part in a trial. She asked that the trial start right away.
The judge said he had read news accounts of Braunstein's bleeding from the nose and ears in his jail cell, so he believed the most prudent course would be to order the examination as soon as possible.
He adjourned the case until Thursday.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
