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Prosecutor seeks psychiatric evaluation of Illinois woman accused of killing 2 kids

By Clifford Ward, Chicago Tribune –

CHICAGO — Expecting a potential insanity defense, DuPage County prosecutors want to have a psychiatrist examine the Naperville, Ill., woman accused of fatally stabbing her young son and another child she was baby-sitting.

“We’re asking for the soonest possible date. Time is of the essence,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said Thursday.

Prosecutors said the examination could be used if the lawyer for Elzbieta Plackowska plans to introduce evidence that she was insane on Oct. 30 when she is alleged to have killed her son, Justin, 7, and Olivia Dworakowski, 5.

Berlin said his office wants to have Plackowska evaluated as quickly as possible because such evaluations are considered to have better quality the sooner they happen after an alleged crime.

Plackowska, 40, appeared in court Thursday, and Judge Robert Kleeman agreed to consider the state motion for the examination next week.

Plackowska’s attorney Mike Mara said he was seeking more time to respond to the state request because he hadn’t received any police reports of the incident.

Mara met with the judge briefly to discuss an expert, possibly a defense mental health specialist, whom Mara wants to bring in on the case.

Mara declined to give specifics on what type of expert he wanted or whether the judge granted the request.

Plackowska is “very upset,” said Mara, who declined to elaborate.

Mara said she is mentally fit to stand trial and understands the court proceedings, though he cautioned that did not necessarily mean she was in that same mental state when it’s alleged the children were killed.

Prosecutors said Plackowska was angry with her husband when she told Justin and Olivia to kneel and pray in a bedroom at the Dworakowski home in Naperville before she stabbed both of them dozens of times with a kitchen knife. She also is accused of killing the two family dogs.

She told police the children had the devil inside them and that she killed them to drive out the demons, authorities say.

At another point in her police interview, she said her son and Olivia had been “poisoned by society,” according to records.

“She explained that videos and computers made them not respect her and that she had had enough and wanted to drive the evil of society out of them by stabbing them so that she could save them and kill herself so that they could all go to heaven together,” according to the state motion.

She also told police that an intruder, a stalker, had committed the slayings, entering the town house while Plackowska smoked outside, the motion states.

Berlin said last week that Plackowska admitted those initial accounts were lies and that she killed her child because she was unhappy with her husband and that Olivia was killed because she was a witness.

The judge asked both sides to appear Tuesday, and they also will be back Wednesday when arguments on the motion are likely to be heard.

Both sides also will discuss whether to allow cameras in the courtroom Nov. 21, when Plackowska is scheduled to be arraigned.

Two TV stations have requested to record the appearance — which would be a first in DuPage County. Both Mara and Berlin said they would not object to the camera coverage.

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