Taylor Swift’s NYC stalker mentally ‘unfit’ for trial, attorney claims in plea to get him out of Rikers Island
The Seattle law student accused of stalking Taylor Swift was found mentally unfit for trial, his attorney claimed Wednesday — as she pushed for his client’s release from a Rikers Island jail.
David Crowe, 33, was supposed to appear in Manhattan criminal court Wednesday for a hearing related to his serial lurking outside Swift’s New York apartment, but the results of a recent court-ordered mental health evaluation kept him at Rikers, his attorney said.
Crowe was evaluated by at least two psychiatrists who found he was “not fit to proceed not just on the evaluation, but also on the review of his criminal record,” attorney Katherine LeGeros Bajuk said.
But Crowe won’t be transferred to a mental health facility but instead stay behind bars until at least Friday, when another hearing is scheduled.
The attorney said the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office hasn’t agreed to the transfer, even though they received a copy of the 11-page report early yesterday.
“In some cases we have clients who sit in jail for months and months and months after they’ve been found not fit,” Najuk told reporters outside the courtroom after the hearing.
“It’s just a shame,” she said. “The doctors, director of the clinic and psychiatrist of the clinic, deemed that he is not fit to proceed based on meeting with him.”
The evaluation was ordered by a judge at Crowe’s last hearing after he was busted lurking outside Swift’s Tribeca apartment, in violation of a Jan. 22 court order. It was the third time he was taken into custody on her street that week after he was spotted allegedly staking out the pop singer’s apartment 30 times since November.
Crowe’s latest arrest came when he was caught on camera rummaging through a dumpster outside Swift’s apartment just an hour after being released from court, where a judge had ordered him to stay away. Swift’s security team notified local police he was back in the neighborhood.
Crowe is now sitting at Rikers held on $100,000 bail for contempt after intentionally violating the court order.
Crowe’s initial charges were stalking in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor, and two counts of harassment.
Taylor meanwhile snagged a record-breaking fourth Album of the Year award at the 2024 Grammy awards show Sunday for her album “Midnights.” The megastar announced in her acceptance speech that she’d drop a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.
The Post has reached out to the Manhattan DA’s office.
