Is Khalil Perry competent to face charges in attack of elderly woman in Waukesha? Defense raises that concern.
WAUKESHA - Khalil Perry, the now 15-year-old Waukesha boy accused in the sexual assault of an 87-year-old woman, will undergo a competency examination before he returns to adult court to face four felony charges.
Perry was in court Friday for what had been scheduled as a preliminary hearing to establish what's known as "probable cause," a standard that determines whether there is enough evidence to conclude that a crime might have occurred.
But at the hearing, Perry's attorney, Nicole Ostrowski, for the first time raised the possibility that the youth is not competent to face criminal proceedings and aid in his own defense.
Court Commissioner Kevin Costello granted the defense request and ordered that Perry be evaluated by the Behavioral Consultants Inc.'s Wisconsin Forensic Unit, the firm that regularly conducts mental evaluations under contract with the state Department of Human Services in criminal cases.
The exam will be done on an outpatient basis within 30 days. In anticipation of that exam report, a status hearing date originally scheduled for Sept. 23 was rescheduled for Sept. 28 before Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow.
The relatively quick timing of the hearing was necessitated by Dorow's schedule, dominated by the pending trial of Darrell Brooks Jr., the Milwaukee man accused in the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade attack. His monthlong trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 3.
Perry's pending competency exam order put a halt to the preliminary hearing, which now will have to occur at some point after Sept. 28, said Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Mike Thurston.
"Legally speaking, competency can be raised at any time," Thurston said. "It should be raised at any time if either party, the state or the defense, has any concern about competency."
The defense team is not required to reveal what elements led to the request for the exam, he added.
Perry, then 14, was initially charged in juvenile court in December before Judge Maria Lazar ruled in favor of prosecutors' motion to move the case to adult court in April. Ostrowski appealed that order to the state Court of Appeals in an attempt to get the case returned to juvenile court. That appeal is still pending.
In addition to first-degree sexual assault with use of a dangerous weapon, Perry faces three other felony allegations: armed robbery with use of force, operating a vehicle without the owner's consent and kidnapping.
All charges stem from an incident outside the Waukesha Public Library on Nov. 30. According to the criminal complaint, Perry approached an 87-year-old Waukesha woman as she was struggling to put books in the library's outdoor book return.
After initially thinking he was there to help her, she said, he pulled a knife and held it to her throat, commandeered her car with her in the passenger seat and drove her to an apartment complex parking lot near the library, where he assaulted her, the complaint said.
He then allegedly took her wallet and drove off in her car, which he was found driving shortly thereafter by police.
Perry remains in custody in the Washington County Secure Detention Facility in West Bend on $250,000 bail.
Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Accused in assault of elderly woman, Khalil Perry gets competency exam
