The Bethesda man found incompetent to stand trial because he believes he is a CIA spy will be evaluated by state doctors to determine whether he is dangerous.

Daniel Shykind was ordered to Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville for four weeks by Montgomery County Circuit Judge S. Michael Pincus.

Shykind, 30, is accused of bilking 14 airline employees and high school friends of $30,700 by getting them to invest in his foreign currency exchange program.

UPDATE: The court records pertaining to this case were later expunged.

Pincus said yesterday he worried about the number of weapons and the hollow-point ammunition found in Shykind's apartment and the loaded 9 mm handgun he was wearing when arrested in December.

"I am concerned to some extent as to the defendant's dangerousness," he said.

Prosecutor Suzanne Schneider noted that defense medical experts warned that Shykind's mental condition was worsening and that he could become schizophrenic.

She also said that Shykind had retaliated against alleged victims, including making anonymous phone calls to social workers in Ohio to report that one pilot was sexually abusing his children.

Defense lawyer Henry Asbill said his client had no history of violence and had done nothing in the past year to have his $100,000 bond revoked.

He urged Pincus to send Shykind to a private mental hospital for inpatient treatment that his parents would pay for.

In a four-day competency hearing that ended Monday, Pincus ruled that Shykind was delusional and would not help his defense lawyers because he believed it would unveil CIA "sources and methods."

Shykind told mental health experts that he passed himself off as a United Airlines pilot, a Yale-trained doctor and a University of Maryland physics professor to conceal his CIA activities.

Pub Date: 11/06/98