Peeler ruled after lawyers on both sides of the case “stipulated” to the findings of report assessing Klawitter’s mental condition and indicating she was incompetent.
Peeler told Klawitter she would return to court in 60 days to see if treatment at Summit Behavioral Healthcare would rehabilitate her to the extent the case could proceed. The hearing is scheduled for March 17.
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Klawitter has also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), claiming she “was under a severe mental disease or defect that caused her to not know the wrongfulness of the act.”
In a motion for an evaluation, lawyer Timothy McKenna said, “She is diagnosed bipolar, schizophrenic and clinically depressed, has some irregular behaviors, and has repeated admissions into a mental facility.”
If found not guilty by reason of insanity, she could be sentenced to more in-patient treatment, possibly at Summit, the “largest freestanding psychiatric facility in Ohio,” according to the hospital’s website.
Klawitter “intentionally drove her vehicle into the back of another vehicle while traveling at a high rate of speed, causing a multiple vehicle pileup with damage and injuries to numerous individuals and vehicles,” according to a description included with the list of charges issued Monday by a Warren County grand jury.
She has been in the Warren County Jail ever since, unable to post a $100,000 bond.
Two other drivers were treated after the crash, which was reported on Sept. 24 at 8:22 p.m. on southbound Columbus Avenue, two-tenths of a mile south of Monroe Road, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
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Sgt. Tom Bloomberg of the Ohio Highway Patrol indicated Klawitter intentionally caused the crash while in “mental distress.” She was originally charged with felonious assault in Lebanon Municipal Court.
The attempted murder charges were added in the indictment.
The crashes, as the cars waited at a stop light, actually resulted in injuries to 12 people, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said at the time of the indictment.
Thus, 12 attempted murder charges and alternative felonious assault charges were included in indictment.
Data from the “black box” retrieved from Klawitter’s vehicle indicates she was accelerating and traveling at more than 80 mph at the time of the collision, Fornshell added after the indictment was issued.
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