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Ex-NBA player not competent to stand trial for area assault

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 1:06 PM Thursday, May 28, 2009

Kirk Snyder, an ex-NBA player facing felonious assault and aggravated burglary charges, has been found not competent to stand trial and a Warren County judge has ordered he be force fed.

Snyder, 25, is accused of breaking in a home and assaulting a man on March 30 near his residence in the Beacon Hill Townhouses in Deerfield Twp.

A Warren County grand jury indicted him on aggravated burglary and felonious assault charges, both felonies, He was also charged with a misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly attacking another inmate at the Warren County Jail after his arrest.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson found Snyder unable to stand trial this week following a competency hearing. He also has ruled, at the request of Dr. Anthony Whitaker at Summit Behavioral Healthcare, that Snyder be force fed.

“The defendant has in fact rejected all medications and nutrition that has been offered him to the point that the defendant had to be hospitalized on two occasions...,” Bronson wrote. “All other possible methods have been attempted without success, thereby making forced medication and nutrition the least intrusive method remaining.”

Snyder’s attorney, Hal Arenstein, could not be reached for comment, but he had filed documents in court saying his client is not guilty by reason of insanity and he is not competent to stand trial.

A psychologist and clinical director from the Psychiatry and Law Institute at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine distinguished the difference between competency and the insanity defense Snyder has claimed.

“They are totally separate legal constructs,” Dr. Scott Bresler said. “Competency has to do with what a person’s mental state is at a given moment in time in the present. Insanity has to do with the person’s mental state at the time of the crime.”

Competence to stand trial, he said, means the person understands the charges against him, who all the key players in the case are and that the person can participate in and assist his lawyer in his own defense.

At about 3:40 a.m. March 30, Snyder’s neighbor told police she heard glass breaking downstairs in her townhouse. When she got up to investigate, she alleges Kennedy pushed her aside and ran to the upstairs bedroom, where he began to assault her sleeping husband, authorities said.

Snyder allegedly fled the scene, but an investigation and a canine track led police to his nearby residence, where he was taken into custody within minutes of the offense, sheriff deputies said.

He is being held on $500,000 bond.

Snyder led the University of Nevada to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in 2004. He was the 16th player taken in the 2004 NBA draft and played for several NBA teams before spending the past season in a pro league in China.

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