Defendant in the pen after stabbing attorneys with pencils
WHAT A HEEL: After stabbing his court-appointed attorney with a pencil in court, Joshua Monson, 27, was assigned a public defender – whom he also stabbed with a pencil. Monson, who faces charges of second-degree murder and methamphetamine possession, was then assigned a third attorney. During opening statements, Monson grabbed his defense attorney’s pen and stabbed him in the head with it, ABA Journal reports:
Corrections officers set off an electric stun cuff on Monson’s leg as he lunged for the pen and then piled on top of him, the story says. The first person to reach Monson was a police officer seated at the prosecution table.
Judge David Kurtz said Monson would have to defend himself without a lawyer and would be strapped to a special chair for the rest of the trial. Kurtz advised jurors to ignore the incident, the restraints and the lawyer's absence.
Monson, who was convicted on the drug possession charge, was not allowed to use a pen or pencil to sign court documents. He will be tried separately on the second-degree murder charges and face a third trial on fourth-degree assault charges for the (alleged) attacks on his attorneys.
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