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Mental Health Evaluation Ordered For Orange Park Terror Suspect

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News 4 Jax via Facebook

A federal judge is ordering a mental-health evaluation for an Orange Park man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a Missouri September-11th ceremony.

Twenty-year-old Joshua Goldberg allegedly sent bomb-making plans to someone he didn’t realize was an FBI informant.

As our partners News4Jax report, Goldberg first got the FBI’s attention on the Internet when he called for a different attack on a Muhammad-drawing contest in Garland, Texas.

Investigators say Goldberg also boasted online about helping plan terrorist attacks in Australia.

On Tuesday, Goldberg’s father asked a judge to order psychiatric evaluation before he stands trial, and the judge agreed.

The evaluation is expected to take between four and six weeks. After that, a mental competency hearing will be scheduled.

Goldberg is charged with distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. 

Ryan Benk is a former WJCT News reporter who joined the station in 2015 after working as a news researcher and reporter for NPR affiliate WFSU in Tallahassee.