SALEM – A new attorney will be entering the case of former Peabody police officer George A. Sideris, but Sideris wants to represent himself and have the attorney as standby legal counsel.Sideris, 37, appeared Thursday in Salem Superior Court for two issues involving his civil case he filed against Bridgewater State Hospital and his criminal case.In the criminal case, he is charged with beating his 73-year-old elderly mother Melpomeni Sideris into a coma on Thanksgiving Day in 2004 at their Ellsworth Road home in Peabody – allegations he has vehemently denied.Mrs. Sideris, now 77, was in a coma for several weeks following the incident and eventually emerged, but never returned home. She is currently in a nursing home in Peabody.The criminal case was initially scheduled Thursday for a competency hearing as to his mental status, but instead the issue of his legal counsel was heard before Judge David A. Lowy.Attorney Steven J. Rappaport, who has insisted for months that Sideris refuses to discuss his criminal case with him, was finally allowed to withdraw from the case.Sideris now has been deemed indigent, meaning he cannot afford to hire his own attorney, reported Chief Probation Officer Martin Wallace to Lowy.Wallace explained that Sideris has not worked in three or four years since the case began and all the proceeds he received from the sale of the house he shared with his mother went towards her medical care and his legal counsel. However, Wallace noted he may have some money left, but has no money generated the usual way of income and cannot support himself at this time, which qualifies him as indigent.Attorney Lawrence J. McGuire, head of the public defender?s office in Essex County, accepted the case and set down Aug. 27 for the appearance of the new attorney to enter the case – Sideris? fourth attorney since the case began. However, it is not known at this time if McGuire will be defending Sideris.Sideris also had filed a civil complaint moving that his commitment and treatment at Bridgewater State Hospital, where he has been since April, be vacated and that he be discharged until his trial.The public counsel on that civil case, Attorney Susan T. O?Leary, asked Lowy to allow $2,500 for funds to hire a psychiatrist for an independent evaluation to determine whether or not Bridgewater State Hospital is the “least restricted” setting for Sideris. It was continued until Sept. 25 for the report.The order also allowed O?Leary?s psychiatrist to talk with expert clinicians at Bridgewater, if they did not object.The criminal case against Sideris has lingered for a time due to the changing of defense lawyers and Sideris? mental health issue.Sideris has repeatedly insisted he is competent to stand trial and wants a trial.Lowy told Sideris that until that issue can be resolved, the court cannot accept his representation that he is competent to represent himself at trial, with a standby counsel as legal representation.He was to go on trial in June of 2007, but at that time Rappaport questioned his mental status and urged the judge to send Sideris for an evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.That evaluation concluded he is not competent, but not a danger to himself or others and he could return to society.But when Sideris missed an April court date, police and a probation officer found him barricaded in his Peabody apartment at 59 Walnut St., holding two knives and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds.Police used a Taser to eventually subdue him.He was sent back to Bridgewater and has been held there since.