New reports from the Ohio family arrested over the alleged abuse of 16 children living in a “house of horrors” suggest the family patriarch suffers from health issues that could have contributed to the deteriorating living conditions.
The judge has ordered both a competency evaluation and an insanity evaluation for Gary Siders Sr. At first, he was only expected to be evaluated to determine whether he could enter a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity plea. But his attorney says the 73-year-old doesn’t seem to understand the charges or the case being made against him.
“When he was initially arrested, and he was arraigned, he had no idea what was going on,” says Los Angeles Magazine contributor Lauren Conlin. “He couldn’t really identify the judge’s role, not even his own lawyer’s role. And so as a defendant, you really need to be capable to help with your own defense, and they’re not sure that that’s going to happen.”…