Colorado Springs, Colo.
Robert Lewis Dear Jr., 58, will be sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo to be treated for a delusional disorder — one revolving around his fears of an FBI conspiracy, 4th Judicial District Chief Judge Gilbert Martinez ruled Wednesday.
Only when Martinez finds Dear restored to competency would the prosecution resume — a process that could take weeks, months or even years.
The decision comes after months of questions about Dear’s mental fitness as he faces 179 counts in the Nov. 27 attack at Colorado Springs’ lone Planned Parenthood clinic, which left three people dead and nine others wounded.
Specifically, the issue revolved around whether Dear understood court proceedings and could assist in his own defense.
He underwent a monthlong evaluation in late January and early February, where two state psychologists diagnosed him with a delusional disorder that even incorporated Hollywood A-list celebrities.
The condition is characterized by firmly held beliefs that are unchangeable — even in the presence of evidence to the contrary.
It is separate from schizophrenia, because symptoms for delusional disorder do not include hallucinations.
The condition is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, which is considered an authority on psychiatric diagnosis.
For Dear, those delusions revolve around fears that FBI agents had harassed, tailed and spied on him for decades.
He said the conspiracy began when he telephoned a radio program after the deadly 1993 standoff in Waco, Texas, and referred to the agency as the “Federal Bureau of Incineration.”
He also said he isn’t alone — having joined Jay Leno, Robin Williams and Joan Rivers in facing what he claims are recriminations for speaking out against President Obama.
That Dear incorporated his public defenders into those delusions proved most troubling, because it affected his ability to aid in his defense, testified Thomas Gray, a psychologist who evaluated Dear earlier this year at the Pueblo hospital.