PDO wants independent psychiatric evaluation of man convicted of murder

The Public Defender’s Office is pushing for an independent psychiatric evaluation of Dwayne M. Sibetang, a mentally-ill man who is serving a 15-year jail term for the murder of an alien worker on Capitol Hill in 2000.

Acting Chief Public Defender Elisa A. Long said the evaluation should be comprehensive, objective, and performed by a psychiatrist other than Dr. Laura Post.

The evaluation costs should be shouldered by the government, according to Long in Sibetang’s request for the independent evaluation.

The public defender said that throughout the proceedings, the Superior Court repeatedly found that the Commonwealth came up short in its care and treatment of the defendant.

In May 2001, Sibetang was transferred to Hawaii State Hospital, where he remained until July 6, 2001. Upon his return to Saipan, Sibetang was again placed at the Department of Corrections, which the court had repeatedly found—and the Commonwealth had admitted—is not a suitable facility for him.

Nevertheless, Sibetang has remained to date at the DOC, Long said.

Long said no evaluation was conducted within the 90 days required by the court’s sentencing order.

Indeed, the lawyer said, no report was submitted to the court and the PDO until nearly 270 days later, on Aug. 16, 2002.

The report submitted by Dr. Post, Long noted, did not appear to be an evaluation of Sibetang, but rather it stated that Post conducted, on average, only one clinical session per month with the defendant.

The report, she said, did not provide any further elaboration on any treatment plan, other than to note that Sibetang was taking medication and that Dr. Post was educating him about his condition.

Long said Dr. Post is hardly the appropriate person to be serving as the court’s sole source of information regarding Sibetang’s mental status.

Dr. Post was Sibetang’s psychiatrist at the Commonwealth Health Center prior to the violent incident that gave rise to the criminal matter, Long said.

She said each time he had auditory hallucinations or “heard voices” telling him to hurt himself or others, Sibetang sought help from the CHC Psychiatric Ward.

However, Long pointed out, Dr. Post and others at CHC decided to “ban” Sibetang from the Psychiatric Ward because of the very type of violent episodes for which he sought treatment.

The next day, the killing happened, she said.

Long said that several months ago, the lawyer for the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems Inc. requested that the DOC provide him, on behalf of Sibetang, evidence that the government has been complying with the Patient’s Rights Act.

“As of the filing of this motion, the Commonwealth has failed to provide NMPASI with that information,” Long said.

She said the Board of Parole would reconvene this month, and an independent psychiatric evaluation would be invaluable in its ruling on Sibetang’s parole application.

“The need for this evidence is of vital importance given the government’s long history of failing to adequately provide for Mr. Sibetang’s mental health needs, and its failure to provide any meaningful information about his mental health while in DOC custody, despite this court’s order to do so,” Long added.

Court papers showed that Sibetang, armed with a knife, broke into a semi-concrete structure house near the COCO Garden on Capitol Hill on March 16, 2000 and killed Dong Che Ma and wounded Xing Fan Li.

A few hours before the Capitol Hill stabbing incident, the defendant reportedly assaulted a female nurse at the Commonwealth Health Center.

Sibetang entered last year into an Alford-plea, which is basically the same as a guilty plea. Under such plea, Sibetang is maintaining that he was not cognizant of what transpired at the time of the murder incident.