Planteen

Attorneys will likely seek a civil commitment for the Bend man who is accused of attacking his roommate with a hammer.

Arrested in February 2018, the trial of Matthew Planteen was to begin Nov. 2. Now, counsel for the 37-year-old will seek to have him re-committed to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, where Planteen has spent around three years since the alleged attack.

Planteen has pleaded not guilty to numerous Measure 11 offenses, including attempted murder, for which he could be imprisoned for more than 20 years.

The state alleges that on the afternoon of Feb. 11, 2018, Planteen assaulted Terry Trask, then 63, with a hammer in three separate attacks in the home they shared in the 64000 block of the Old Bend Redmond Highway.

Planteen allegedly started assaulting Trask while Trask was asleep in bed. Planteen then allegedly dragged Trask around the house while continuing to hit him with the hammer, according to the Deschutes’s County Sheriff’s Office. Trask eventually gained access to his phone and called friends, who notified 911 and after arriving at the house, held Planteen at bay with a baseball bat until deputies arrived.

Trask was taken by paramedics to the hospital with serious injuries.

Planteen was arrested, and one week later, Trask and 10 other witnesses testified before a grand jury.

Planteen was charged with 10 felonies: attempted murder, coercion, three counts of first-degree assault, three of unlawful use of a weapon and two of kidnapping.

From May 2018 until February 2021, he was at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, where he was determined to be mentally unfit to stand trial.

In February, Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alison Emerson denied a motion to delay the case, and Planteen was given a trial date and a transfer to the Deschutes County jail. He pleaded not guilty in March.

Defense attorney Shawn Kollie wrote to the court that his client’s mental health has deteriorated in the past seven months. Planteen’s delusions have increased and are now “pervasive” and he is unable to have lucid conversations, Kollie wrote.

According to Kollie, Planteen’s mental health was evaluated this month and he was again found to be unable to “aid and assist” in his defense.

Kollie wrote he expects he and the state will agree to have Planteen committed to the Oregon State Hospital as a “dangerous offender.”

Civil commitments occur as alternatives in serious criminal cases with defendants with severe mental illness. They allow authorities to detain a person locally or in the state hospital for as long as they are determined to represent a danger to themselves or others.