Hanukkah suspect found unfit, lawyer says
MONSEY, N.Y. >> A psychiatrist hired by Grafton Thomas’ defense team has found the Orange County resident incompetent to stand trial on federal hate crime charges stemming from a machete attack at a Hanukkah party that wounded five Hasidic Jews, Thomas’ attorney said Monday.
Michael Sussman said he has asked a federal judge to hold a competency evaluation for Thomas, who was arrested hours after the Dec. 28, 2019, attack in Monsey, an Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County.
The federal court has given the U.S. Attorney’s Office two weeks to respond to the application for a competency evaluation, Sussman said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment to the media on Monday.
Thomas, of Greenwood Lake, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges in Rockland County. He also has pleaded not guilty to 10 hate crime charges in federal court.
Thomas is being held without bail in federal custody.
Investigators found antiSemitic writings in Thomas’ journals and articles on Jews and Nazis on his cell phone, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sussman and Thomas’ mother have said Thomas suffers from mental illness and was not responsible for his actions. Sussman also has said Thomas has no history of violent acts or antiSemitism.
One of the victims of the Monsey attack, 72-year-old Josef Neumann, remains in a coma with a fractured skull and other injuries.