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03-19-2005, 04:10 AM
By Jeff Zent, The Forum
Published Friday, March 18, 2005
A clinical psychologist said a 23-year-old Fargo man accused of sexual assault should remain hospitalized because he is mentally ill and a risk to the public.
Matthew Wade Weinbar, 23, will remain at the North Dakota State Hospital for at least another year, a judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling was based on a mental evaluation completed by clinical psychologist Sandra Owens, who testified Thursday via videoconference.
In December, a judge found Weinbar not criminally responsible in the sexual assault of a woman at his apartment last June 21. Weinbar could be held at the State Hospital for as many as 20 years.
Last summer Fargo police responded to an emergency call to the apartment, where they found Weinbar naked and bloody. Court records say he had tumbled out the window of his second-story apartment.
A woman had already left the apartment and called police from a nearby parking lot. The woman reported that she was sexually assaulted, records show.
On Thursday, East Central District Judge Frank Racek said Weinbar's confinement will be reviewed in one year.
Weinbar attended the hearing, but said nothing while attorneys Racek and Owens discussed his mental state and custody.
Owens said Weinbar has suggested he doesn't need medicine that may keep him from becoming psychotic.
Hospital officials also once found him intoxicated from drinking four bottles of Robitussin cough medicine, Owens said.
"That tells me he's not ready to leave that facility," she said.
Weinbar is being held in low-security housing on the State Hospital grounds. If his condition improves, he could be moved to a community home such as Fargo's Dakota Prairie where he would still be monitored, Owens said.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...47§ion=News (http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=86247§ion=News)
Published Friday, March 18, 2005
A clinical psychologist said a 23-year-old Fargo man accused of sexual assault should remain hospitalized because he is mentally ill and a risk to the public.
Matthew Wade Weinbar, 23, will remain at the North Dakota State Hospital for at least another year, a judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling was based on a mental evaluation completed by clinical psychologist Sandra Owens, who testified Thursday via videoconference.
In December, a judge found Weinbar not criminally responsible in the sexual assault of a woman at his apartment last June 21. Weinbar could be held at the State Hospital for as many as 20 years.
Last summer Fargo police responded to an emergency call to the apartment, where they found Weinbar naked and bloody. Court records say he had tumbled out the window of his second-story apartment.
A woman had already left the apartment and called police from a nearby parking lot. The woman reported that she was sexually assaulted, records show.
On Thursday, East Central District Judge Frank Racek said Weinbar's confinement will be reviewed in one year.
Weinbar attended the hearing, but said nothing while attorneys Racek and Owens discussed his mental state and custody.
Owens said Weinbar has suggested he doesn't need medicine that may keep him from becoming psychotic.
Hospital officials also once found him intoxicated from drinking four bottles of Robitussin cough medicine, Owens said.
"That tells me he's not ready to leave that facility," she said.
Weinbar is being held in low-security housing on the State Hospital grounds. If his condition improves, he could be moved to a community home such as Fargo's Dakota Prairie where he would still be monitored, Owens said.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...47§ion=News (http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=86247§ion=News)