Man accused of assaulting patient unfit for trial

STAMFORD — A Westport man with mental health problems accused of sexually assaulting a fellow patient at a psychiatric hospital in 2016 and who has been found incompetent to mount a defense multiple times has again been deemed unfit to stand trial.

Mark DiPietro, 27, has been charged with firstdegree and fourth-degree sexual assault. He was found not competent to stand trial in a recent psychological evaluation conducted by a team of mental health professionals that included a psychiatrist and a psychologist, according to findings cited by Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes at a hearing Thursday morning.

“Their opinion is that he is not able to understand the proceedings against him and not able to assist in his own defense,” Valdes said.

This is the seventh time DiPietro has undergone a competency evaluation, according to his lawyer, Frank Bevilacqua. He said DiPietro has only been found competent in one of those seven hearings.

Valdes said DiPietro has a “long history” of being restored briefly to competence “for very short periods of time” before falling back into being unfit for trial.

In the past, Judge Gary White had ruled DiPietro to be “not competent and non-restorable,” but the state requested further competency hearings at the urging of the victim.

Despite the most recent findings, the court was unable to hold a formal competency hearing Thursday because none of the mental health professionals involved in the evaluation were in attendance.

As a result, Bevilacqua asked White to “take the report on face value,” rule his client incompetent and then order another competency evaluation further down the line.

But White suggested that if a social worker corroborates the findings of the most recent report at his next hearing, then another competency hearing should not be requested.

DiPietro was arrested on Aug. 3, 2016, after a female patient at the Westport campus of a Bridgeport hospital’s behavioral health services program made a complaint against him on April 23 that year.

According to a four-page arrest affidavit by Westport detective George Taylor, police were called to the psychiatric hospital when a female patient told a nurse that a man she identified as DiPietro had just grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her into his room and sexually assaultin gher.

The woman told police that she tried to get away from DiPietro, who according to his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he would not let her go, the affidavit said. The patient said DiPietro also felt her private parts through her clothing, the affidavit said.

DiPietro denied doing anything to the woman and initially claimed to police that he did not know her.

But police obtained video tape showing the two sitting in a hallway of the hospital before he grabbed the woman by the wrist and pulled her into his room, the affidavit said. Several minutes later, the two can be seen on video coming out of the room, and they sit in the hallway for a few moments before the woman walks into her room, according to police.

DiPietro is currently being held at Garner Correctional Facility in Newtown, which gives treatment to adult male offenders with significant mental health issues, and will remain there before he either goes to trial or makes a plea agreement.

He is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 7