Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin filed a motion seeking to bar attorneys for accused cop killer Eric Matthew Frein from presenting a possible insanity defense. The motion, filed Friday, says state law requires a defendant who intends to claim insanity or mental infirmity to file a notice with prosecutors advising them the claim will be raised. The notice gives prosecutors the right to seek an independent examination of the defendant.

Tonkin said the law requires the notice be filed within the time frame for the defense to file pre-trial motions.

Frein’s attorneys, William Ruzzo and Michael Weinstein, filed several pre-trial motions in February and March. They have not yet filed notice of an insanity defense, however, therefore they should be precluded from presenting that defense, Tonkin says in the motion.

Contacted Monday, Ruzzo said the defense still is consulting with a psychiatric expert and will file notice, if appropriate, once that consultation is complete.

Frein, 32, of Canadensis, is charged with fatally shooting Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II of Dunmore and wounding Trooper Alex T. Douglass of Olyphant in an ambush outside the state police barracks in Blooming Grove on Sept. 12, 2014. He was captured on Oct. 30, 2014, following a 48-day manhunt in Pike and Monroe counties. He pleaded not guilty and is being held in the Pike County Correctional Facility without bail. Tonkin is seeking the death penalty. A trial date has not been set.

In pre-trial motions filed Feb. 17, Ruzzo and Weinstein asked Judge Gregory Chelak, who is presiding over the case, to suppress statements Frein made to police following his arrest. The motion contends police violated Frein’s Miranda rights against self-incrimination when they continued to question him after he refused to sign a waiver of his rights and told officers he did not want to discuss “any crime.” The attorneys also filed a motion challenging t he constitutionality of the death penalty.

On March 15, the attorneys filed an additional motion asking the judge to move the trial out of Pike County or bring in a jury from another county due to the extensive pre-trial publicity in the case.

Chelak will take the defense and prosecution motions under advisement and issue a ruling at a later date.