After reviewing the case of Eric Maltz, 22, the Princeton resident who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2013 crash that killed a Princeton rabbi, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Billmeier ordered Mr. Maltz’s release from the criminal locked unit at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.
Mr. Maltz had been held at the facility since Judge Billmeier’s December 23 ruling that he was not guilty by reason of insanity in the Riverside Drive crash that resulted in the death of Rabbi James S. Diamond and caused serious injury to Rabbi Robert Freedman.
Mr. Maltz had been charged with one count of death by auto and one count of assault by auto following the incident. He pleaded not guilty to the charges that could have meant up to 40 years in prison, a sentence of 30 years for first degree aggravated manslaughter and 10 years for aggravated assault.
Following the judge’s December ruling, Mr. Maltz was sent to the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital pending review of his case. He was ordered to remain there “if and until the court finds that he is no longer mentally unfit, such that he poses a danger to himself or others.”
He was released, with conditions, Friday, January 16.
According to a psychiatrist Mr. Maltz posed no danger to others. It was recommended that he be released on condition he remain in psychotherapy, continue taking his medications and submit to random drug tests. At present, he will not get his driver’s license back or be allowed to drive. His father will be responsible for his supervision.
Mr. Billmeier’s December ruling was based on the findings of a psychiatrist who had interviewed Mr. Maltz and reviewed his psychiatric records. He found that at the time of the crash Mr. Maltz met the legal definition of not guilty by reason of insanity.
In March 2013, in what is thought to have been a botched suicide attempt, Mr. Maltz drove a BMW car at high speed into an unoccupied Toyota Camry on Riverside Drive. The struck car then hit a parked Toyota Prius just as Mr. Diamond, 74, was getting into the passenger side. Mr. Robert Freedman, then 63, a former cantor at the Jewish Center of Princeton, was in the driver’s seat. Both men were leaving a Talmud study group.
The Toyota Camry had been parked in front of the Prius. The impact of the BMW pushed the parked Camry into the Prius. Mr. Diamond, who had directed Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life from 1995 to his retirement in 2003, died at the scene. Mr. Freedman and Mr. Maltz were both taken to the trauma center at Capital Health Medical Center.
After the incident, Mr. Maltz was committed to Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, where he remained for several months until he was released to his family on Braeburn Drive. Reportedly, the young man has a history of mental illness and had been in a psychiatric facility not long before the March 2013 crash. He had tried to harm himself with a knife in 2012 and had struggled with mood swings and depression.