Judge orders another hearing on competency

The woman repeatedly called the FBI, even after she was told not to.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Visiting Judge Thomas Curran of Cuyahoga County has ordered another competency evaluation for a Campbell woman sentenced in April to five years' probation for threatening a common pleas court judge.
Atty. John E. Fowler II requested the competency hearing Tuesday for Nora K. Anthony, 57 of Coitsville Road, who appeared in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Judge Curran for a probation violation.
Curran said he wants the results of the competency evaluation back by Sept. 5 when he next visits Mahoning County.
Anthony is accused of threatening employees at the FBI office in Youngstown in June. FBI representatives said Anthony continued to call the office after she was told not to, and was verbally abusive.
Fowler told Judge Curran that although Anthony has already undergone psychiatric evaluation, he believes another competency evaluation is in his client's best interest. He tried to refrain Anthony from making comment, but she talked continuously throughout Tuesday's hearing.
Anthony said she has had a lot of problems at her home, including having her garage broken into and her car stripped. She said Campbell police won't help her, so she has been trying to contact the FBI to get help from an agent there.
Speaking her mind
She wasn't happy when Fowler advised her not to speak, nor with his recommendation for another competency evaluation.
"What is there to evaluate? What's that going to prove?" she said. "Nothing has changed. That won't help me when I'm being railroaded."
Anthony was sentenced by Judge Curran in April to five years' probation for telecommunications fraud for threats she made against Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Judge Curran ordered Anthony to report to her probation officer every two weeks, take random drug and alcohol tests and seek mental-health treatment. With a probation violation, she could be sentenced to up to 11 months in prison.
Anthony pleaded innocent last April to retaliation, a third-degree felony, which carries a penalty of one to five years in prison.
She was charged with repeatedly threatening to "drive a white truck to the county courthouse and take out Judge [Maureen A.] Sweeney." Those threats were overheard by Judge Maureen A. Cronin of common pleas court, a sergeant from the county sheriff's department and an employee in the common pleas court's assignment office.