Taele falsely claimed 14-year tenure as State Department official
A Los Angeles County judge on Wednesday suspended criminal charges against Jeanine John Taele, a former U.S. Marine taken into custody earlier this month at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course with a gun and ammunition in his vehicle. The case will now proceed in mental health court after a pretrial evaluation found the defendant not mentally fit to stand trial.
Judge John Lonergan Jr. ordered the 38-year-old Taele transferred to a mental health court in Hollywood based on statements he made during the pretrial evaluation, the Associated Press reported. In that evaluation, Taele falsely insisted he had been a State Department official for 14 years.
The transfer pauses the criminal proceedings while Taele undergoes psychiatric evaluation, with the case to proceed in the mental health court system rather than the standard criminal docket.
When Taele was arrested earlier this month, he was observed wearing an earpiece and taking pictures of the golf course where Trump was scheduled to attend a Republican National Committee dinner, the AP reported. The arrest took place at Trump National Golf Course Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Los Angeles.
Taele is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, the AP reported. The mental health court will oversee his case as the evaluation continues.
AP reporter Safiyah Riddle filed this report from Torrance, California.