Ozark man charged with threatening Obama can be force medicated for trial
A three judge appeals court panel ruled Monday that the government can force-medicate a local man who is charged with threatening the President of the United States.
The ruling backs a lower court decision in October 2015 that stated the government can administer antipsychotic medication to Ozark resident Deryke Matthew Pfeifer, confined since the summer of 2014 after Pfeifer placed several calls to a Social Security Administration office and the Federal Protective Service Mega Center, both located in Michigan. On those calls, he is reported to have threatened to “blow up” a Social Security facility and harm its employees and, purportedly speaking as an agent of God, threatened President Barack Obama.
Pfeifer was diagnosed with delusional disorder and deemed incompetent to stand trial. He has refused antipsychotic medication because he does not believe he is mentally ill. The government sought to force-medicate Pfeifer in an attempt to make him fit to stand trial.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled in October of 2015 that medicating Pfeifer served his own best interests as well as the interest of the government to prosecute a serious crime.
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