A federal judge ruled Wednesday Barrett Brown, the occasional public face of Anonymous, to be mentally competent to stand trail for three criminal cases.
Brown, arrested during an FBI raid in September 2012, was indicted for public threats made against an FBI agent, and again in December 2012 for an alleged connection with the December 2011 Anonymous hack against private intelligence firm Stratfor.
On Wednesday, Brown appeared before a federal judge and “told U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsey that he understood the charges against him as well as the repercussions,” The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
“Lindsey also based his ruling on the findings of a psychologist for the federal prison in Fort Worth who concluded Brown was competent for trial,” said the publication.
Brown also pleaded not guilty to last week’s indictment, when he was charged with concealing evidence in cooperation with an unnamed assistant known only by the initials “K.M.”
K.M., according to various reports, is believed to be Brown’s mother. On both his YouTube page and in emails to The Daily Caller prior to the September raid, Brown had expressed concern over the safety of his mother.
The videos were made while Brown had been weaning himself off Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction.
The Dallas Observer reported that Brown told Lindsey, “I was addicted to Suboxone.”
“He said that he now takes Zoloft, an anti-depressant, and risperidone, an anti-psychotic (although Brown characterized it as an anti-depressant and sleep aid, which it’s sometimes also prescribed for),” reported The Dallas Observer.