SALEM – The lawyer for the Salem mother charged with attempted murder for withholding her autistic son’s chemotherapy treatments told a Superior Court judge he will be seeking a criminal responsibility defense in the trial set for next month.Kristen R. LaBrie, 38, of 1 Beachmont Road, Salem, is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 15 on charges of attempted murder and child endangerment after allegedly failing to provide her autistic, cancer-stricken 9-year-old son, Jeremy Robert Andrea Fraser, with treatments medical professionals said he needed to remain in remission. Fraser died on March 30, 2009.In an unanticipated move Thursday, defense attorney Kevin G. James filed a pretrial conference report which states that he will present at trial the medical opinion of psychologist Dr. Fred Krell.Krell is expected to say at the time of the incidents LaBrie lacked criminal responsibility and was a poorly functioning person. He also will produce testimony as to the effects of raising a child with Autism and the burdens associated with being the sole care provider for an Autistic child with cancer.Although James said he is relying on criminal responsibility as a defense, he said there is no mental disease or defect defense and that this issue had been addressed earlier, although no notice of intent was filed in court or with the district attorney.Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall, obviously “surprised” by the new development, insisted to Judge Timothy Q. Feeley that the notice is supposed to be filed during preliminary trial motions, not one month before trial, so the commonwealth can have its own expert examine the accused and establish its own testimony as to her medical condition.”You are now sitting here one month before trial, given notice of expert witness,” stressed MacDougall.”She later responded saying, “I am lost as to what the defense is.”Feeley acknowledged the commonwealth’s concerns and said he would give the defense 10 days to submit a motion as to legality of filing and the commonwealth also time to prepare their opposition. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27.If the judge allows the defense motion, this may delay the trial so the commonwealth can have ample time to have their own medical expert examine LaBrie.The commonwealth maintains that LaBrie failed to give Jeremy his medications from Oct. 16, 2006 to March 25, 2008, failed to bring him to at least a dozen medical appointments and engaged in conduct that created substantial risk or serious injury to her son.Jeremy was diagnosed in 2006 with the curable form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, went into remission after receiving chemotherapy and the prognosis was good as long as he continued taking the medications, but the cancer returned in 2008 and Jeremy died a year later after a three-year battle, at age 9.Jeremy was born in Salem and raised in Saugus. He was the son of Eric Fraser, 38, of 3 Evans Road, Saugus, who died last year from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Malden on Oct. 25, 2009. Fraser was not part of his son’s life as his illness progressed, but lived with him during his final days.LaBrie has pleaded innocent to the charges lodged against her. She faces up to 40 years in state prison if convicted. She currently remains free on $15,000 cash bail pending the outcome of her case.