A new hearing is set for June for Gene Randolf Szeremi, who is serving a 15-year sentence for rape.
By Times Staff Writer
Published April 9, 2004
DADE CITY - Gene Randolf Szeremi's courtroom appearances have a familiar ring.
He shows up, his attorney questions his mental capacity, a judge orders tests.
The pattern continued Thursday when the convicted armed rapist was back in court, this time hoping to challenge the abilities of the attorney who represented him when he agreed not to fight a 1996 rape charge.
Szeremi, 33, is serving a 15-year sentence in that case, where authorities say he attacked a Land O'Lakes woman he knew after climbing through her bathroom window armed with a handgun.
He handcuffed her and threatened to kill her, raped her and put the muzzle of a gun against her 9-month-old daughter and threatened to shoot, authorities said.
An appeals court earlier this year ruled a judge should have held a hearing on Szeremi's mental status before allowing him to plead no contest in 2002 and accept the 15-year sentence.
As Szeremi's case languished between 1996 and 2002, he went through seven attorneys and spent time in state mental hospitals. Appointed doctors reported he had at times smeared himself with feces, attempted suicide, flung toilet water, exposed himself, masturbated and shown up for an exam in nothing but a cape.
At sentencing he told the judge he sometimes thought he was the Antichrist.
Szeremi's appointed attorney, Scott McCluskey, asked Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper on Thursday to order a psychiatric evaluation.
Prosecutor Phil Van Allen did not object, and Tepper ordered tests from two doctors. A new hearing date is set for June 4.
Szeremi is serving prison time on his convictions for sexual battery by force, kidnapping, armed burglary, aggravated stalking, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is due for release in 2011. Szeremi was released from prison into Pasco County custody for the hearing. He was returned Thursday to the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes.
