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Judge Offers Reason for Defendant’s Inside-Out Clothing

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 3, 2008, 1:45 pm CST

A lawyer for a homeless ex-convict accused of raping and torturing a Columbia University graduate student asked a Manhattan judge yesterday to note that his client came to court wearing his shirt and jeans inside out.

Lawyer Arnold Levine suggested that the getup indicates mental illness suffered by his client, Robert Williams, who refuses to talk to him. But Judge Carol Berkman was skeptical, the New York Times reports.

“Maybe they were dirty on the other side,” she said.

But Berkman did give Levine more time to submit evidence that his client suffers from a psychiatric disorder that makes him incompetent to stand trial.