Prosecutors called the former Seton Hall ethics professor who schemed to burn down New York’s iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral mentally unfit for trial on Thursday morning following the results of a court ordered psychological evaluation.
The Manhattan Supreme Court judge presiding over the case, Judge Neil Ross, says he plans to commit Marc Lamparello to a mental health facility, indefinitely postponing his case.
According to CBS2 New York, defense attorney Chris DiLorenzo confirmed that Lamparello suffers from schizophrenia and that he has undergone mental health treatment for years.
Lamparello was initially arrested after entering St. Patrick’s Cathedral with two gas canisters and a butane lighter just days after the catastrophic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. When he was stopped by police after exiting the building, Lamparello told them he was cutting through the building to get to his broken-down car on Madison Ave. When police investigated, they discovered that Lamparello’s vehicle was not only on 5th Ave. but operating normally. Police then took Lamparello into custody.
Prior to his arrest in New York, Lamparello had also apparently been arrested earlier that week at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark after he had refused to leave when the building closed.
The former part-time philosophy instructor stands charged with one felony count of attempted arson and one misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment, both of which Lamparello pleaded not guilty to back in June.
