A notorious blogger accused of stalking judges has refused to submit to an in-prison evaluation of his mental competency and the judge assigned to his case ordered a hearing next week at which he will try to decide himself about whether Paul Boyne can stand trial on 18 felony charges.
Boyne has argued unsuccessfully since his arrest 14 months ago that he is entitled to first amendment protection for his blog postings, which allegedly use racist and antisemitic language to promote conspiracy theories about control of the state judiciary. He has been unable to make bail and is being held in a high security state prison.
Prosecutors accuse Boyne of crossing a line separating protected speech from threats when he allegedly published identifying information about judges, such as their photographs framed by rifle sights, along with their home addresses and the suggestion that violence is a remedy for disgruntled litigants.
Earlier this year, a court denied Boyne’s demand that the case be dismissed on First Amendment grounds and said a jury can decide what amounts to protected speech if he chooses to take his case to trial.
It appeared Monday that the case has since turned into something of a standoff between Boyne and his lawyers and the court.
Boyne’s appointed public defenders asked the court to order the competency evaluation a month ago, saying he persists in arguing to them that the case against him is being manipulated by a former associate justice of the state Supreme Court, a frequent target of his blog.
The results of the competency evaluation, ordered to determine whether Boyne is capable of understanding the prosecution case against him and cooperating in his defense, were to be presented to Superior Court Judge Peter Brown in New Haven Tuesday.
But Brown, reading a letter received from the prison evaluation team, said Boyne refused to cooperate.
“No, I’m not doing it,” the judge said Boyne told the evaluators.
When Brown asked Boyne in court on Tuesday whether he would cooperate if the evaluation was rescheduled, Boyne asked, “Why?”
Boyne then tried to engage the court in a legal discussion about the evidentiary basis for determining competency. He concluded by asserting that two retired state Supreme Court justices — one of them being the retired associate justice — have published newspaper opinion pieces condemning his blog.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” Brown said.
Brown told Boyne there will be no further movement on his case, including resolution of his motions to reduce his bond, dismissal of the charges or suppression prosecution evidence, until the competency question is resolved.
At a hearing next week, Brown said he will allow the defense and prosecution to present arguments and evidence about Boyne’s competency and, based on the presentations, he will try to reach a conclusion.
Whatever Brown decides, there could be further delays in the case. Boyne’s lawyers, who asked for the competency evaluation, said there has been a deterioration in their relationship.
“Over the last could of months, I do believe there has been a breakdown in communication between Mr. Boyne and his attorneys,” defense lawyer Jennifer M. Buyske told the court.
In interviews by prison phone with another blogger, she said Boyne has questioned his legal team’s competence. She said he told his lawyers during a meeting before court Tuesday that he considered them to be in an “adversarial position.”
Boyne, 63, is an engineer who formerly lived in Glastonbury and who is said by associates to be consumed by what he believes was unfair treatment in his divorce and custody case. He has lived for nearly two decades in Virginia with his elderly parents, from whose home he allegedly published the blog.
He has not admitted authorship of the blog, but investigators have made a persuasive case it is his using internet service and other records.
He leaned on a cane as he hobbled, shackled, into court Tuesday, and used headphones to follow the conversation in the mostly empty courtroom. Not long ago he suffered a head injury in a prison dispute.
