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Holmes’ attorney ask for video of his psychiatric hospitalization

Posted at 7:27 AM, Mar 10, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-10 07:27:03-04

(CNN) — The man accused in last summer’s mass shooting in a Colorado cinema was hospitalized in November for apparent self-inflicted head injuries while in his cell and, in another incident, received in-patient psychiatric care after being deemed a danger to himself or others, according to a court document filed Friday.

James Holmes’ public defenders are seeking a sheriff’s office video showing Holmes while he was a patient in Denver Health Medical Center, according to a motion filed Friday in Arapahoe County District Court.

On November 15, the prosecutor’s office filed an emergency motion stating Holmes was in need of immediate psychiatric evaluation, according to the court document.

Holmes was hospitalized for several days, frequently in restraints, records showed.

State law allows an emergency commitment and evaluation — or so-called 72-hour hold — when a mental health professional determines a person “appears to be an imminent danger to others or to himself,” court documents said.

Holmes’ attorneys are seeking the medical center’s video of Holmes.

The November hospitalization is separate “from an earlier hospitalization that resulted from potential self-inflicted head injuries in his cell,” the public defenders wrote in a footnote, without providing further details.

Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and weapons violations in the July 20 shooting that killed 12 people and wounded 58.

Holmes is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

CNN’s Michael Cary contributed to this report.

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