Judge: Dorothy June Brown must undergo psych evaluation

A federal judge ordered Dorothy June Brown to undergo an evaluation at a federal prison to determine whether she is competent to be retried on charges that she defrauded four charter schools she founded of $6.3 million.

Approving a prosecutor's motion, U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick ordered Brown, 77, to report Oct. 15 to a facility selected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for an examination that could take up to 30 days.

Experts will determine whether Brown "is suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering her mentally incompetent" to understand the charges or participate in her own defense, the judge said in his order.

Surrick said he would schedule a competency hearing for Brown after the evaluation has been completed.

The judge said he would recommend that Brown be sent to Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, but he added that the final decision would be made by the Prisons Bureau.

Gregory P. Miller, Brown's lead attorney, said she would voluntarily surrender and would provide her own transportation to and from the chosen facility.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello said prosecutors requested the exam because "we need more information." Brown's attorneys first raised the competency issue this month, a few days before her retrial was scheduled to begin.

In response, Surrick ordered Brown to be evaluated by both a forensic psychiatrist and a psychologist. Defense attorneys also gave the court two additional reports on the state of Brown's mental abilities. The findings of the four reports remain confidential.

Brown founded three small charter schools in Philadelphia and a cyber school in the suburbs. She is charged with scheming to defraud the schools and conspiring with other administrators to cover up the alleged crimes.

A retrial was scheduled after jurors acquitted her in January on six counts and deadlocked on dozens of others.