Public defender to represent Lindstedt

Circuit Court Judge John LePage ruled that perennial candidate (and perennial loser) Martin Lindstedt cannot act as his own attorney in his upcoming trial on statutory sodomy charges, according to John Ford's article in today's Neosho Daily News:

Lindstedt came to court Friday in arm and leg shackles, carrying a small trash bag filled with legal documents and books. Among the papers was a 10-page motion Lindstedt intended to file, along with a writ of habeas corpus declaring he has been improperly imprisoned, a violation of his civil rights. Lindstedt has said the court did not have the authority to commit him to the Fulton facility, as it was done without trial.

Lindstedt has run for every office from East Newton R-6 Board of Education to U. S. Senator, and has also filed numerous lawsuits, including ones against several of the judges who have been involved in this case, the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the Missouri Southern State College Board of Regents, the Jasper County Sheriff's Department, and most famously, against Governor Matt Blunt.