San Diego

A military judge ruled Thursday that a Navy doctor is competent to stand trial but cannot represent herself on charges that she shot two people during a police standoff last September in her barracks at the 32nd Street Naval Station.

Capt. Richard E. Reed, presiding over a preliminary court-martial hearing, based his ruling on a psychological examination of Lt. Cmdr. Ann Dalrymple, a former physician in the UC San Diego Medical Center’s neurosurgery residency program.

“His assessment of Lt. Cmdr. Dalrymple is that she is competent to stand trial and this court is willing to accept that conclusion at this time,” the judge said.

Dalrymple’s mental status has been a key issue in military court hearings since the incident in which a Navy psychiatrist and a police SWAT team member were wounded. At the time of the shooting, the Navy was attempting to remove Dalrymple from her dormitory at the base so she could undergo psychiatric testing.

In the court hearings, Reed had allowed Dalrymple to legally represent herself. But on Thursday he provided her a defense attorney, Lt. Mark Shurtleff. The judge decided not to let her continue to represent herself after observing her behavior at a March 4 hearing.

“She appeared disheveled, slumping in her chair, with her eyes closed and at one occasion put her feet on the counsel table,” Reed said. “She had to be forcibly removed from the courtroom on a litter and returned to the brig in an ambulance.”

The case is expected to be tried this summer.