By James Halpin
The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — County prosecutors are seeking to limit a psychiatrist’s testimony at an upcoming hearing to determine whether a Nanticoke teen charged with attacking a man with a brick and stealing an ambulance will be tried as an adult.
In a filing Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Mamie Phillips argues that a report Kingston-based Dr. Richard Fischbein authored about his findings after assessing Destiny McNeil exceeds his expertise in some areas.
Phillips argues that the report indicates Fischbein plans to explain that the impact of McNeil’s actions on the victims is significant, although he has not evaluated them and is not qualified to offer expertise in the area of victim impact. Fischbein is similarly not qualified to discuss the impact on the community, and he incorrectly asserts in the report that “fortunately there was only one victim,” Phillips wrote.
Based on the report, prosecutors also believe Fischbein will testify about an insanity defense, she wrote. Such a theory would be improperly raised at a transfer hearing and should be reserved for trial, Phillips argues.
The filing seeks a hearing to determine the admissibility of the testimony Fischbein is expected to deliver at the transfer hearing, which is set for Tuesday.
McNeil, who was 17 at the time of the Sept. 4 incident, is charged as an adult with aggravated assault, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal trespass and fleeing police in connection with allegedly hitting a man on the back of the head with a brick in the 100 block of East State Street in Nanticoke before stealing a Trans-Med ambulance.
After leading police on a miles-long chase, McNeil was eventually forced off the road by a police cruiser in the foothills of Giant’s Despair in Laurel Run.
Her attorneys, Cheryl A. Sobeski-Reedy and John Donovan, are seeking to have her tried as a minor, arguing she has been diagnosed with a psychosis that has her suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations.
Copyright 2016 The Citizens’ Voice