Psychologists square off in MMA fighter's trial

The main event in Schenectady County Court was a rarity: a former amateur mixed martial arts fighter using an insanity defense to try to beat a felony assault conviction for his vicious attack on a police officer.

[...] former amateur MMA fighter James Hilton, 33, of Lake George was convicted on all charges for savage Aug. 1, 2015, beating of Schenectady patrolman Mark Weekes, whose skull was fractured from being struck 28 times near State Street and Broadway.

Assistant District Attorney Christine Tremante-Pelham called Bashkoff, who typically testifies for defendants, as a rebuttal witness to counter the testimony of Lawrence Avery, an Albany-based clinical psychologist called by Hilton attorney Lincy Jacob.

Avery testified that he examined Hilton and diagnosed him suffering from bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder and, to him, Hilton was not guilty by mental disease or defect.

Bashkoff, in practice since 1982, said it was "way too simplistic" for Avery to conclude that Hilton was bipolar, which she said would not even be a mitigating circumstance for a defendant to be not guilty by mental disease or defect.