The attorney for one of the four men accused of attempting to bomb Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center says her client may not be competent to stand trial.

The attorney for Laguerre Payen, Marilyn Reader, has found a forensic psychiatrist willing to evaluate her client, she told a U.S. District Court judge during a brief June 5 court appearance. Mr. Payen and his three alleged co-conspirators were arraigned June 3; all four pled not guilty.

Mr. Payen is a Haitian immigrant who has told judges he does “all types of work” and did not finish high school. According to his lawyer, he suffers from severe mental issues and cannot read or write the English language. Ms. Reader has said that Mr. Payen takes prescription drugs for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In court June 3, she also said that he was “one step above homeless” and getting help from social services in Newburgh, N.Y., where he lived.

His mental condition may be the reason he’s in this country — or it might be a ruse.

The government has recorded Mr. Payen saying he beat an attempted deportation, and describing his plans to win an ongoing child custody dispute, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder said at the Haitian’s June 3 arraignment. Mr. Snyder said Mr. Payen appeared more sophisticated in those recordings.

And Mr. Snyder has previously said that Mr. Payen was alert and enthusiastic, in other video the government has, as he learns how to use a Stinger missile he and the three other alleged conspirators are accused of planning to fire at military cargo planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh.

Mr. Payen, wearing jeans and a black tank top at his arraignment in the White Plains federal courthouse’s largest courtroom, gave the audience in the room an embarrassed smile when his pants fell down. He hadn’t been allowed a belt and had to hold them up with his cuffed hands.

— N. Clark Judd