Threat suspect not fit to stand trial

A Mayfair man charged with threatening to kill the second-highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House was declared incompetent yesterday to stand trial.

Following a brief hearing, U.S. Magistrate Jacob P. Hart ordered that Norman Leboon be committed to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., for psychiatric treatment for up to four months.

The goal will be to restore Leboon's competency to stand trial, authorities said.

Leboon, 38, of Benner Street near Lardner, who has been in federal custody since his arrest on March 29, has claimed to be the "son of the god of Enoch" and allegedly threatened to kill House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and his family in a video that Leboon posted on YouTube.

In the video, which was taken down and turned over to the FBI, Leboon called Cantor a "Lucifer" and an "abomination," and said that the congressman would "receive [Leboon's] bullets in [Cantor's] office."

Following Leboon's initial appearance last week, U.S. Magistrate Carol Sandra Moore Wells appointed a psychiatrist to evaluate his competency.

The court-appointed psychiatrist, Pagos H. Voskanian, concluded that Leboon's "ability to rationally assist his attorney in his defense is impaired" and that he was not competent to stand trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed and Federal Defender Kai Scott agreed yesterday with Vos-kanian's medical conclusion.

However, Scott argued that Leboon had health insurance and should be permitted to voluntarily undergo private treatment in the area, where his life partner and friends live.

But Hart said that the law directed him to order that Leboon be committed to federal custody for treatment.

In court papers filed last week seeking Leboon's pretrial detention, Reed said Leboon had informed U.S. Pretrial Services that he had been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and had been hearing voices since he dropped out of school in seventh grade.