McADOO - A borough woman said she has fallen on hard times since her husband and son were taken into custody and transported to Alaska on charges they harassed Sarah Palin's lawyers.
Craig Christy, 48, and his son, Shawn, 20, have been in prison in Anchorage for the past six months waiting to be sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty in January to harassment charges related to phone calls made to Palin's lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess deferred sentencing Monday and ordered a full psychological evaluation to be conducted on Shawn Christy, 20, at a federal corrections hospital.
"The judge is confused about conflicting psychological evaluations based mostly on a psychologist who recommended more evaluations," Karen Christy said at her McAdoo home Tuesday.
Karen Christy and a lawyer representing her family in this case, attorney James A. Wendt, said the next step is to ask the court for a report from Peter Weiss, a mental health therapist in Seattle.
Weiss had previously evaluated Craig Christy and may be able to provide information needed to allow Burgess to move forward with the sentencing.
Waiting for more evaluation reports to be completed in either Minnesota or Missouri, which is where Shawn Christy may be headed, will hold up sentencing for another 3 to 6 months, Karen Christy said.
She lost her job when her son and husband were arrested and she fears the court is trying to maneuver, through evaluations, a way to take her son and husband away from her.
"It has been very frustrating," she said.
At Monday's hearing, Burgess indicated he was leaning toward some kind of custody arrangement, telling Shawn Christy's public defender, Mary Geddes, that a non-residential treatment plan was "a non-starter" for him.
The Christys are facing up to two years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. The law firm of Palin's attorney, John Tiemessen, also is seeking about $15,000 in restitution for the billable hours it says were tied up in dealing with the huge number of calls to its offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Tiemessen testified Monday that many of the calls began last June, escalating in July and August. Many were threatening and filled with profanity, he said.
"There were hundreds of calls a day," he said. "The only thing that ever stopped it, frankly, was when they were taken into custody." The Christys have been held since their arrests in Pennsylvania last August. Prosecutors say the men were upset about state restraining orders issued on behalf of former Alaska Gov. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.
According to an affidavit by the FBI, Craig Christy threatened to kill Tiemessen in one obscenity-filled message, and in another message, Shawn Christy said he might have sex with Palin. The younger Christy also threatened to come to Alaska and rape one of the attorneys, according to the document.
David Sperbeck, an independent psychologist who reviewed past psychological evaluations on the men for prosecutors, recommended Monday that Shawn Christy be assigned to a highly controlled residential treatment facility for at least a year. Kristi Fuller, another psychologist, conducted an earlier evaluation on Shawn Christy and testified for the defense, saying that Christy is severely undersocialized and would benefit from being integrated into a community setting, not further incarcerated.
Sperbeck said he doesn't believe a comprehensive evaluation has been done on the elder Christy because he was defensive and conspicuously distorted his responses to appear moralist and virtuous - "faking good" to escape blame. Sperbeck recommended additional psychological testing be conducted on Craig Christy.
Sperbeck said he has listened to audio recordings of some of the calls made to Tiemessen's law firm.
"I've never seen such telephonic harassment," he said.
The restraining orders were issued after Palin left office.
The order against Shawn Christy was issued in 2010 after he was accused of stalking Palin. It was renewed last year after Palin testified that Christy appeared to be sending a clear signal when he made a one-day visit to Alaska on her February birthday.
Palin also said she feared Christy's parents because of their claim that she had a sexting relationship with their son in 2009, when he was a teenager.
The order against Craig Christy was issued last year after he was accused of barraging Palin's parents with antagonizing telephone messages.
The orders for both men were extended last fall for another six months. The orders also require them to stay away from Palin's friends and family including her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. The Heaths attended Monday's proceeding.
Chuck Heath declined to comment on the case.
"I will say this is very interesting," he said outside the courtroom.