Misplaced Court Order Holds Up Grandma’s Psych Evaluation, Attorney Says

Alfreda Giedrojc, the Oak Lawn woman accused of murdering her infant granddaughter, was back in a Bridgeview courtroom on Wednesday morning.

The 62-year-old grandmother’s attorney told the judge a psychiatric evaluation did not take place as requested because Cook County Jail officials said they never received the court order.

Giedrojc was charged with first-degree murder after her 6-month-old granddaughter was found bludgeoned with a sledgehammer and her throat slit in Giedrojc’s home last October, prosecutors allege.

Police said Giedrojc admitted to the crime in a videotaped statement at the Oak Lawn police station the afternoon of Oct. 6, 2013.

The grandmother, who does not speak English and requires the services of a Polish interpreter during court appearances, allegedly told police she had hidden a hammer in a closet the night before the baby was killed.

Her attorney, assistant public defender Michael Wilson, has since expressed a “bonafide doubt” about the grandmother’s competency to stand trial when he requested the psychiatric evaluation last month.

Cook County prosecutor Michael Deeno verified that a court order had been placed.

“I called clinical services but they never received it,” Deeno said.

Judge Colleen Hyland told both attorneys that she expected the psychiatric evaluation to be completed by Giedrojc’s next court hearing on March 6.

The forensic clinical evaluation will take place on the 10th floor of the Leighton Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California.

Carrying two pairs of the grandmother’s prescription glasses in a sealed plastic bag out of the courtroom, Wilson blamed the snafu on bureaucracy.

“They didn’t get it. It happens,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you send stuff and you don’t have it. It’s a bureaucracy.”

Asked if Giedrojc had been without her prescription eyewear all this time in jail, Wilson said family members had given the two pairs to the prosecutor.

“[The jail] takes care of that,” he said.

Police reports and morgue photos have been exchanged, Wilson confirmed. He has also filed court orders for Giedrojc’s medical and hospitalization records as she awaits trial in the women’s dorm at Cook County Jail.

Similar requests have gone out for interviews with the Oak Lawn woman’s immediate family and a court-appointed Polish interpreter.

“We defend people’s rights, not their lifestyles, ” Wilson said. “All murders are different. Nobody wins in a murder trial, especially when it involves family. Our purpose is to see that she gets a fair trial.”

Read Patch's complete coverage of grandmother slaying case:

• Attorney Expresses ‘Bonafide Doubt’ About Grandma’s Sanity

• Grandma Pleads Not Guilty To Murdering Baby Granddaughter

• Grandmother Accused of Killing Baby Indicted in Court
• Grandma Killed Baby With Sledgehammer and Knife, Prosecutor Says
• VIDEO: Oak Lawn Police Chief Talks to Reporters After Alfreda Giedrojc's Bond Hearing
• VIDEO: Prosecutor Speaks on Charges in Baby Homicide

• Oak Lawn Police Release Few Details In Baby Homicide Investigation
• Relative Being Questioned in Infant's Death
• VIDEO: Press Conference on Homicide Investigation in Infant's Death