Federal prosecutors on Friday asked for tighter restrictions on presidential assailant John Hinckley's visits to his parents, citing problems in the family's relationship.
Hinckley, who said he shot President Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster, has been allowed to make periodic visits from a Washington mental hospital to his parents' home in Virginia. Hinckley wants to keep those visits going until this spring, when a judge considers expanding his privileges.
A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday to consider whether those visits should continue but prosecutors said Friday that the hearing was unnecessary. They proposed that if U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman opts to allow continued visits, one of Hinckley's siblings should be required to attend and report back to the hospital.
Psychodynamic issues
Citing a psychiatrist's report, prosecutors said they are concerned about whether Hinckley's mother is accurately revealing to authorities "psychodynamic issues ... concerning the relationships between mother, father and son."
When off hospital grounds, Hinckley is under his parents' supervision, must continue taking psychotropic medication and is required to meet with a psychiatrist. Because his father is ill, his mother has largely been responsible for Hinckley's supervision, prosecutors wrote.
Hinckley shot Reagan, press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a Washington policeman in March 1981 as the president emerged from a downtown hotel.