Would-be politician faces fourth psychiatric examination

Bill Gang

Friday, July 30, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

After District Judge Kathy Hardcastle ordered a fourth psychiatric examination for perennial political candidate and convicted felon Hilary Michael Milko, he yelled that there were nuclear devices at Lake Mead and that he knew who killed John F. Kennedy Jr.

Milko is awaiting sentencing on his conviction for going into his ex-girlfriend's North Las Vegas home and taking their then-3-year-old son. He faces trial on additional charges of burglary and home invasion.

After his outburst, Milko was led away until his next court session on Aug. 25.

Hardcastle said the third psychiatric report indicated that Milko, 42, was competent to be sentenced on his conviction for two felony charges and stand trial on two others.

That report, Hardcastle suggested, agreed with a prior evaluation that Milko has been feigning incompetence. Another psychiatrist concluded Milko is mentally incompetent to proceed in the courtroom arena.

Before his outburst, the judge warned Milko that if the fourth evaluation also concludes he is faking a mental illness, "it would convince me you are a danger to society and I will take that into consideration at your sentencing."

Hardcastle said she would consider giving the maximum sentence of 6 to 15 years in prison to the man who has run for U.S. president, Congress, Nevada governor and Las Vegas mayor.

Milko then blurted out there are as many as 21 nuclear devices in Las Vegas and at Lake Mead and that a man believed to be a fellow prisoner at the Clark County Detention Center was responsible for the death of Kennedy in a plane crash.

"Check it out," he called as he was taken back to jail.

His attorney, Alzora Jackson, has told the judge Milko "is unable to discuss his case in a rational manner and has delusions of activities in the Clark County Detention Center," including a belief that attempts are being made to kill him with poison smuggled into jail inside pens.

Milko's scheduled sentencing hearing for his conviction for violating custody rights in the June 1998 child snatching case has been postponed from Aug. 2 until after the final psychiatric report is submitted.