MILFORD, Pa. (AP) - Prosecutors are seeking to bar a survivalist from using a possible insanity defense at his trial over the ambush shooting death of a state police trooper outside a rural barracks.
Eric Frein is charged in Pike County in the Pocono Mountains in the September 2014 shooting that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass outside the Blooming Grove barracks. Frein was arrested about 30 miles away after a 48-day manhunt.
District Attorney Ray Tonkin filed a motion April 1 saying defense attorneys are required by state law to notify prosecutors in advance if they plan to use a defense of insanity or mental infirmity. He said such notice needs to be filed at the time of pretrial motions so prosecutors can seek an independent examination of the defendant.
Tonkin said defense attorneys, who filed several pretrial motions in February and March, should be barred from presenting such a defense.
Defense attorney William Ruzzo told The Times-Tribune newspaper in Scranton on Monday that the defense is still consulting with a psychiatric expert and will file notice if appropriate once that consultation is complete.
The defense has asked the judge to move the trial or bring in a jury from another county due to extensive pretrial publicity about the case. Attorneys also seek to bar prosecutors from using statements Frein made to police following his arrest.
Frein was captured by U.S. marshals near an abandoned airplane hangar, ending a manhunt that had rattled the nerves of area residents. The quiet takedown of Frein, who kneeled and put his hands up when marshals approached him, ended weeks of tension and turmoil in the area, as authorities at times closed schools, canceled outdoor events and blockaded roads to pursue him. Residents grew weary of hearing helicopters overhead, while small businesses suffered mounting losses and town supervisors canceled a popular Halloween parade.
Frein has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
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