3 Long Island criminal cases where a defendant's mental competency was evaluated

A Suffolk judge declared Kerri A. Bedrick, the Centerport mother accused of killing her 9-year-old son in a 2024 wrong-way crash on the Southern State Parkway, mentally unfit to stand trial seven months ago.

Bedrick said she objected to the designation and no details were shared in open court about why she was deemed incompetent. A Suffolk judge ordered her to be committed to a state psychiatric hospital, in hopes that she’ll someday be able to face a 21-count criminal indictment in her son's death.

Bedrick's case is one of the high-profile, pending criminal cases on Long Island where the issue of competency stands at the center. And Austin Lynch, the Nesconset teenager who authorities said fatally shot his former girlfriend in 2025 when she visited him to return some of his belongings, has been the subject of a recent competency fight in Suffolk courts. 

But critics say New York’s system for rehabilitating criminal defendants who have been deemed unable to understand the proceedings against them because of a “mental defect” or assist in their own defense, is marked by long delays and high costs — over $1,000 a day — and inconsistent expert determinations raise questions about its ability to reach accurate conclusions.

The Legal Aid Society last year filed a class-action lawsuit against New York State and New York City, alleging "systemic, unlawful delays" in providing defendants with what is called competency restoration treatment. The case is still pending.

There has been at least one effort to speed up the issue.

Long Island State Sen. Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) co-sponsored legislation that amends the mental competency law, aiming to avoid holding low-level offenders for long periods, and in some cases allowing a civil process to replace a criminal one if mental competency can’t be restored. He didn't respond to Newsday's interview requests. 

Codified right

Mental competence to stand trial is a right codified in state Criminal Procedure Law, Article 730, which says that a defendant is incompetent to stand trial if they cannot understand the proceedings or assist meaningfully in their own defense.

The process of determining a defendant's competency is usually triggered by the presiding judge, prosecutor or defense attorney expressing concern that the defendant may be incapacitated, which usually comes from an interaction with the defendant or an observation of the defendant, or something noted in a police report or witness statement, said Jolie Bodner Zangari, an assistant professor of legal process at Touro Law Center. 

Those concerns usually result in a judge ordering a competency evaluation, referred to as a 730 exam, which is typically performed by two separate mental health professionals, a psychiatrist and a psychologist who has to be certified to conduct such exams, Zangari said. 

If there is not agreement between the psychiatrist and psychologist, the judge can order a hearing to elicit testimony. A defendant facing a felony charge can be held up to 1 year initially in the custody of the New York State Office of Mental Health, but a judge's retention order can be extended every six months. An incompetent defendant's total time of confinement is capped at two-thirds of the maximum possible sentence on the toughest charge.

Defendants charged with misdemeanors can only be held for 90 days, at which time charges are dropped if competency is not restored. 

Zangari said she questions competency rulings when experts have been at odds. 

"If we have two or more evaluators, one consisting of a physician and one consisting of a psychologist, and both of them are certified to perform these competency examinations, why do we see inconsistencies? And I think that leads to problematic determinations by judges as to whether someone is competent or incompetent." 

Different medical opinions

A pending federal criminal case on Long Island features a defendant who was declared incompetent, but later had his competency restored, amid testimony from dueling experts. 

The ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries, who is accused of dangling the promise of modeling opportunities to lure young men to drug-fueled sex parties in the Hamptons and New York City, and whose competency was the subject of a dayslong court hearing, is set to go on trial in federal court next year.

The 82-year-old Jeffries, who had multiple doctors testify that he was suffering from the effects of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and a traumatic brain injury, was initially declared incompetent in 2025. After a federal judge ordered him to undergo a four-month competency examination at a federal medical center in North Carolina, doctors there deemed him competent. 

A multiday hearing on the matter netted different opinions from medical professionals who examined him at the prison, as well as experts hired by Jeffries' defense attorneys. The judge, considering the different testimony as well as phone calls Jeffries made from prison, ultimately ruled that he is now competent. 

Jeffries, of West Palm Beach, Florida, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sex trafficking and 15 counts of interstate prostitution for running a sex trafficking operation with his two co-defendants between 2008 and 2015.

Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014.

Multiple evaluations

Lynch, 18, was ordered earlier this year to undergo a third mental health evaluation to determine his competency after he was found competent to stand trial in one case and not competent in another. 

Lynch was found not competent to stand trial on the initial charge of second-degree murder of Emily Finn, 18, following an evaluation by mental health professionals. In January, the judge in his case ordered Lynch to be committed to a New York State Office of Mental Health hospital until he is able to understand the charges against him and aid in his defense.  

He was later charged with conspiracy after he allegedly plotted a burglary at the West Sayville home of Finn while incarcerated on the murder charge and was found competent to stand trial in that case. In September, after the third evaluation was completed, the judge declared him competent to stand trial in the murder case. 

In Bedrick's case, statements from emergency medical personnel, police and witnesses at the scene of the Aug. 22, 2024, crash that killed Eli, could have initiated a competency examination. 

An emergency medical technician testified before the grand jury that voted to indict Bedrick on 21 counts, that Bedrick told her "she was fleeing the state because people were after her due to the Gaza invasion because she was Mother Teresa," Newsday has reported. 

Another witness said Bedrick couldn't say where she got her pills from "because Hamas got hired — her boyfriend hired Hamas to get her to him."

Ira Weissman, Bedrick’s attorney, did not return messages seeking comment.

Bedrick has pleaded not guilty to charges including two counts of second-degree depraved indifference murder, manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child. 

The lawyer previously representing her had said she was a domestic violence survivor and he planned to pursue a defense of "battered woman syndrome."