PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man accused of carving a swath of destruction through a Gales Addition neighborhood three months ago will undergo a second mental evaluation through Western State Hospital, a Clallam County Superior Court judge has ruled.
Clallam County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg requested the evaluation of Barry Swegle, 51, so Troberg could adequately prepare for a possible diminished-mental-capacity defense during Swegle’s jury trial.
“In order to adequately prepare for trial, the state will need an evaluation,” Troberg told Clallam County Superior Court Judge S. Brooke Taylor on Friday.
Swegle, who remained Saturday in the Clallam County jail in lieu of $1 million bail, stands accused of using a bulldozer he owned to damage or destroy four homes, several outbuildings, a boat, a pickup truck and a power pole May 10 along North Pioneer Road in Gales Addition, just east of Port Angeles.
According to court documents, Swegle has undergone one mental evaluation with Dr. Brian Grant, a clinical associate professor at the University of Washington in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the request of Karen Unger, Swegle’s assigned defense attorney.
During Friday’s hearing, Unger did not object to the second mental evaluation but did recommend that staff from Western State Hospital in Lakewood evaluate Swegle in Port Angeles, rather than Swegle go there, so as to avoid delaying the approaching trial date any further.
“I don’t know if we can direct them to come here, but we ought to give it a try, at least, because that will speed up the process,” Judge Taylor said.
On Aug. 2, Unger requested Swegle’s trial be delayed after it originally had been set for Aug. 12 so she could have time to review Grant’s mental evaluation report on Swegle.
At the Aug. 2 hearing, Taylor reset Swegle’s trial for Sept. 9.
Swegle is next set to appear in court for a hearing to review the second mental evaluation report Aug. 21 at 1 p.m.
Swegle has been charged with one count of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon — “to wit, a bulldozer” — and four counts of first-degree malicious mischief.
He has pleaded not guilty.
