Anaheim : Psychiatric Evaluation Due in Barricade Case
A judge Thursday ordered a 45-year-old man who barricaded himself inside his Anaheim home for almost 24 hours and fired a rifle at police to be examined by a psychiatrist and psychologist.
Municipal Judge James O. Perez ordered the examinations of Frank Benjamin Kovaletz to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial.
Kovaletz has been charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, one count of false imprisonment and two counts of firing a gun in a home. He has not yet entered a plea.
On Aug. 25, Kovaletz’s father summoned police to the family’s home in the 1800 block of Tedmar Avenue. While his father was at the police station, Kovaletz apparently held his mother captive inside the house, but later released her unharmed.
In all, police said, Kovaletz fired about 24 rounds from a .22-caliber rifle he had recently bought, hitting nearby cars and houses.
Nearly 50 canisters of tear gas were fired into the Kovaletz home by police special weapons and tactics team members before Kovaletz was lured out of the house with a pack of cigarettes.
“On Oct. 7, we’ll have the reports and evaluate where we go from here,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Sturla said. “If he’s found to not be competent he would be then put in a mental hospital until the doctors certified he was competent, and then criminal proceedings would be reinstituted.”
Kovaletz is being held in County Jail.
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