News

April 5, 2008

Mental health exam ordered for teen

Nora Rynkeiwicz is charged with defacing a Jewish temple in Wilkes-Barre.

JEN MARCKINI jmarckini@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – A teenage girl, charged with defacing the Ohav Zedek Synagogue and the Mertz building with anti-Semitic graffiti, was out of jail after she spent less than a day behind bars.

After not being able to produce bail at her arraignment Thursday night, Nora Rynkeiwicz, 18, of Factoryville, spent the night at Luzerne County Correctional Facility. She posted $35,000 bail by Friday mid-afternoon.

District Judge William Amesbury in Wilkes-Barre ordered Rynkeiwicz’s mental health be evaluated by a psychiatrist before her preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday at Central Court. He also ordered the psychological assessment to determine whether medication is necessary.

At her arraignment, Rynkeiwicz, a self-proclaimed Nazi, told Amesbury that she goes once a week to counseling to meet with a psychologist in Waverly.

Her mother, who said she is a nurse living in Factoryville, told the judge the doctor said her daughter was better off without medications. Rynkeiwicz was diagnosed and treated when she was 14 years old. She was admitted into in-patient treatment and prescribed medications as early as the age of 13.

Rynkeiwicz has no prior record and no history of drug and alcohol abuse, according to her lawyer, Jair Novajosky, of Robert Munley & Associates in Peckville. She was issued a summary citation in Plymouth in February for disorderly conduct, which was adjudicated through community service.

Rynkeiwicz is employed at JC Penney at Viewmont Mall, in Dickson City, as a customer service associate in the home department 10 to 13 hours a week while going to school. However, she has no vehicle or driver’s license.

Wilkes-Barre police Det. Ronald Foy said Thursday following the arraignment that he was surprised to find out two teenage females were involved in the vandalism.

The charges against the 17-year-old juvenile accomplice will be filed in the juvenile court system.

“It is unfortunate because people of her mindset that agree with those sort of principles are able to do that because of people that fought against the people that believe in the principles that she has,” the detective said. “And, we still have people fighting for our principles to allow her to do that, which makes the whole thing sad.”

Rynkeiwicz’s job and parents’ home was in Lackawanna County, but she has been living with her grandmother for the past couple of years in Pringle. Her parents lived two years ago in Plymouth and moved to Factoryville.

She is a senior at Wyoming Valley West High School and is two months away from graduating. Her attorney said the girl wants to be in a secure environment and would be moving back home with her parents in Factoryville.

Richard Fischbein, a forensic psychiatrist in Kingston, said there could be many possibilities as to what motivated the teenager, who allegedly spray-painted the synagogue in Wilkes-Barre with racist remarks and symbols. He said he was not ready to discuss the psychological issues because Rynkeiwicz is an adolescent and he did not have enough information to go public.

“It could be a hundred different things,” Fischbein said on Friday. “I’m not ready to say, ‘hypothetically, it could be this, this or this.’ Some of it might be disturbing if it’s not true. I think family could be rightfully upset.”

Fischbein said he has not been asked to evaluate the girl’s mental state.

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