2 will re-evaluate Mitchell's status

Two doctors assigned to evaluate accused Elizabeth Smart kidnapper Brian David Mitchell last year will get a chance to talk to him again.

In preparation for Mitchell's second competency hearing next month, 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton signed an "order of contact" Thursday that would allow doctors Noel Gardner and Stephen Golding to interview him at the Salt Lake County Jail.

The order was for the "purposes of evaluation and that appropriate accommodations be provided to complete testing and insure confidentiality," according to court documents.

A new competency hearing for Mitchell was scheduled last week after the former street preacher began singing a Christmas hymn in court and had to be removed from the room. The hearing was scheduled for Jan. 6. Gardner and Golding originally differed in their evaluations of Mitchell and whether he was competent to stand trial.

According to Gardner, a psychiatrist, Mitchell suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder but not a psychotic illness. But Golding, a psychologist, determined that Mitchell has a psychotic illness as well as a narcissistic personality disorder. In August, Atherton ruled Mitchell was competent to stand trial after the defense waived a scheduled three-day preliminary hearing. Jennifer L. Skeem, a forensic psychologist, was hired by the defense to also evaluate Mitchell and initially found him competent. She later indicated she needed to update her evaluation following a jailhouse visit with Mitchell on Oct. 29.

Mitchell, 51, along with co-defendant and wife, Wanda Barzee, 59, were indicted by a state grand jury Sept. 4, 2003, charged with aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping after allegedly kidnapping Smart from her home in 2002.