WOODLAND — Criminal proceedings were suspended Wednesday for a UC Davis law student charged with sexual battery and assaulting officers until he can undergo a mental-health evaluation.

Robert David Schaerges, 26, refused to appear in court for the second time since his May 24 arrest on suspicion of groping two women on a campus bike path. Sheriff’s officials said he also assaulted two Yolo County Jail correctional officers early Friday morning.

“He’s in meltdown condition, and we need to stabilize him before we can proceed with the criminal process,” Steven Sabbadini, Schaerges’ attorney, said following a brief court hearing Wednesday where he expressed doubt about his client’s competency to stand trial.

Visiting Yolo Superior Court Judge Doris Shockley agreed there was “sufficient evidence to suspend criminal proceedings” and appointed a psychiatrist to evaluate Schaerges in the next few days.

A follow-up hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’ll see where we’re at at that point,” Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Cabral said.

Schaerges’ father, Tom Schaerges, told The Enterprise last week that his son suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, the result of his work as an intelligence analyst during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said Robert Schaerges suffered a breakdown in January, about a month before his arrest on suspicion of resisting officers, public intoxication and possession of marijuana after crashing into a car with his bike in West Davis.

UCD police said Schaerges also assaulted a campus officer who tried to detain him following the alleged gropings. He allegedly charged at two jail correctional officers who checked him for a possible medical problem early Friday morning, sending one to the hospital with facial injuries.

“In my opinion, the conduct he exhibited … is 100 percent related to his mental-health issues,” Sabbadini told The Enterprise. “He was a fully functional person up until the last few months.”

Schaerges remains in custody at the Yolo County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her at www.twitter.com/laurenkeene

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