By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — A District Court judge has granted a defense motion to provide accused toddler-rapist John Price with a hearing to determine whether he is competent to stand trial, a spokesman for the attorney general said.

Price, 17, of 192 Bourdon Boulevard, had been scheduled to appear in court today for a hearing to determine whether he may be released on bail pending trial. That hearing will be postponed for “probably a matter of weeks” while Price’s lawyers explore the competency issue, said Michael Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.
Healey said District Court Magistrate Joseph P. Ippolito has authorized Price’s lawyers to seek a competency report and to present their findings in court later this month.
“The court is scheduled to receive the report on Aug. 19,” Healey said. “I don’t know if the report will be complete by then. Sometimes these things take a little longer.”
Price is accused of beating, biting and raping his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter on June 29. Although he is not yet a legal adult, Price is being tried as one after Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah waived him into District Court last month.
Following an initial appearance before Ippolito on July 15, Price was ordered held at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Cranston, without bail. He remains held in a special, maximum security unit for juveniles, segregated from the prison’s general population.
He faces one count each of first-degree child molestation and second-degree child abuse, and could be sentenced to anywhere from 25 years to life in prison on former charge, which is the most serious. As a juvenile, the longest sentence Price would have faced would have been two years.
State law holds that it is mandatory for juveniles accused of rape, murder or first-degree child molestation to stand trial as adults.
But the attorney general would have filed a juvenile waiver petition in Price’s case anyway because of the horrific nature of the allegations he is facing, officials say.
At the time of the crime, Price was babysitting for his 24-year-old girlfriend’s 2-year-old and infant son while the mother went to Landmark Medical Center to have a minor procedure done. An older daughter stayed elsewhere that day because she did not like Price, according to police reports.
When the mother returned from the hospital, she noticed red marks on the 2-year-old’s face. When Price told her that a dog had scratched the child, the mother became incredulous and dialed 911. The girl was later taken to Landmark Medical Center and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, in Providence, where doctors confirmed that the child had been raped. Bite marks were found on the girl’s shoulders, thighs, arms and chest, as well as other bruises elsewhere on her body.
The girl was initially held for 72 hours of observation at Hasbro following her initial treatment. The mother, who had been living with Price for about two months before the alleged rape, has retained custody of all three of her children, according to the state Department for Children, Youth and Families.