The attorney for Hannah Roemhild, the Connecticut woman who was arrested after leading Palm Beach Sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase and crashing through security barriers at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on January 31, says his client is not mentally competent and needs further evaluation.
Roemhild appeared in court on Friday in a continuation of her original first appearance.
David Roth, her attorney, is requesting that she be transferred to mental health court, in order to be evaluated by a psychologist and eventually be transferred to a state mental facility.
Roth explains that Roemhild is improving with medication for her long-standing mental illness but adds that two experts say she is not competent.
To that end, he asked Judge Laura Johnson to appoint Dr. Stephen Alexander to conduct a full competency exam.
After the exam, if the state agrees, Roth will request that his client be transferred to either a Treasure Coast mental facility or a state mental hospital in Connecticut.
“It would need to be a secured, lock-down facility based on her mental state and condition,” said Roth.
Roth says the woman’s father and mother, who is a nurse, have retained a private psychologist.
Secret Service agents and sheriff’s deputies shot on Roemhild’s SUV as she drove into a security checkpoint in front of Mar-a-Lago before the President arrived.
She got away, picked up her mother at Palm Beach International Airport, and checked into a West Palm Beach motel, where an FHP trooper arrested her.
Roemhild came to the attention of an off-duty FHP trooper who was doing security detail at the Breakers hotel when guests reported that she was dancing on the roof of her car by the main fountain.