Former Peabody cop Sideris sent to mental facility

SALEM – Former Peabody police officer George Sideris, charged with beating his elderly mother into a coma on Thanksgiving Day in 2004, has been committed to a more lenient state mental facility for six months.In Salem Superior Court Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Karen H. Hopwood and defense lawyer Lawrence J. McGuire asked Judge John T. Lu to adopt the recommendation order from Bridgewater State Hospital.The civil commitment was filed by medical director Robert B. Diener from Bridgewater State Hospital.The petition stated that the court received an evaluation report from Dr. Sara Beszterczey, which states that Sideris remains incompetent to stand trial and requires a commitment to a less secured state facility and should be housed in a Department of Mental Health facility at Taunton State Hospital.Lu allowed the order which stated that Sideris is mentally ill, and that failure to retain him in a facility would create a likelihood of serious harm.The six month commitment orders that Sideris be restricted to the buildings and grounds at the state facility.The judge also allowed authorization of Sideris medical records and forensic evaluations released to the Department of Mental Health.Sideris, 37, was not objecting to the commitment, McGuire told Lu.Sideris has been held at Bridgewater State Hospital since last April, when he failed to show up for a court hearing and was found by authorities barricaded in his Walnut Street, Peabody apartment with two knives, which he used to inflict wounds to his body.Sideris is due back in court on June 26 for a status report.