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  lets force this lady to take drugs, even if it kills her, so the government can say she is sane enough to pub put on trail. Original Article


Medication possible for kidnap suspect

Debbie Hummel
Associated Press
Feb. 18, 2006 12:00 AM


SALT LAKE CITY - A judge is considering whether the woman accused in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart should be forcibly medicated in an attempt to restore her competency for trial.

Wanda Barzee, 59, was declared incompetent to stand trial and ordered to remain at the state psychiatric hospital, where she has refused to participate in therapy.

At a hearing Thursday, Barzee's psychiatrist, Dr. Kreg Jeppson, testified that she would likely benefit from medication, starting with low doses of an anti-psychotic drug.

Barzee refuses group therapy and medication, Jeppson said. Otherwise, he described her as a friendly person who gets along with others. Her delusions are religious and she views her stay at the hospital as a test by God, he said.

"She said Jesus Christ was the only physician she needed," Jeppson testified.

The drugs Jeppson would use have some side effects, including fatigue, dry mouth and metabolic syndrome, which could cause weight gain, elevated cholesterol levels or signs of diabetes. But he said he didn't think the drugs would seriously harm her or impair her ability to testify or recall facts.

Both Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell, who also was declared incompetent, face charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping in the 2002 kidnapping.

Mitchell is accused of snatching Smart, then 14, from her bedroom in June 2002.

Barzee is accused of helping keep her on a nine-month journey from homeless camps in the foothills behind the Smart family's upscale Salt Lake City house to Southern California and back.

Smart was found on a street with Mitchell and Barzee in March 2003 and returned to her family.