Topeka ? A woman accused of falsely portraying herself as an Indiana couple’s missing daughter had been trying to resolve her own doubts about her identity, her lawyer said at a court hearing Wednesday.

Defendant Donna Lynette Walker, 35, told the judge at the bond reduction hearing that she had been adjusting to new medication for mental illness when she telephoned the father of Shannon Marie Sherrill, who was 6 when she disappeared from outside her mother’s home in Thorntown, Ind., in 1986.

Shawnee County District Judge Nancy Parrish ordered a mental health examination for Walker and said she would view the results before ruling on a request to lower Walker’s $100,000 bond. A report on the exam is expected by Monday.

Billy Rork, Walker’s lawyer, said the Topeka woman never claimed to be the missing girl when she called Shannon’s family in late July.

Walker has been jailed since she surrendered last week as a fugitive from Indiana, where she is charged with the felony identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting.

Rork said Wednesday that Walker’s illnesses included dissociative amnesia and personality disorders. In answer to a question from the judge, Rork said Walker was competent to consult with her attorney because “she’s on her medicine” but that she welcomed the mental exam.

“It’s exactly what I hoped for,” Rork said after the court hearing.

Walker has said previously that she was only trying to help investigators find Shannon Sherrill when she called the family and Indiana authorities.

“It never was a prank call or a malicious call,” Rork said in court Wednesday. “She did not provide any information that she was Shannon Sherrill.”

Donna Lynette Walker, left, talks with her attorney, Billy Rork, before she addresses the court in a hearing to request that her 00,000 bond be reduced to 0,000, for allegedly portraying a missing girl. Walker did not try to mislead an Indiana couple into believing she was their long-lost daughter, Rork said Wednesday. Instead, Rork told Shawnee County District Judge Nancy Parrish, Walker was trying to find out information about herself. She thought she might have been the daughter when she called authorities, Rork said.

Rork also said Walker thought she might be the missing girl. He quoted from the transcript of a July 29 court hearing in Indiana at which authorities were seeking a warrant to arrest Walker.

At that hearing, Indiana State Police Detective Jeff Heck related what Shannon’s mother had told him about her conversations with Walker, who had identified herself to the mother as “Beth Harris.”

“It was more conversation as to, you know, ‘Could I be Shannon?’ ‘Tell me about some of the background,”‘ the detective said, according to the transcript. “Wanting to have herself identified, DNA testing and the like to determine if and — to actually determine her true identity.”

Rork told the judge Wednesday that Walker “probably wasn’t competent at the time those phone calls were made.”

Walker testified Wednesday that she moved in January from California to Topeka to seek mental health treatment. Topeka was home to Menninger, an internationally known psychiatric clinic, until the facility moved to Houston in June.

“The reason I came to Topeka in January was because I heard Topeka was the mental health capital of the world,” Walker said.

Max Freeman, 38, right, protests the 00,000 bail set for the release of Donna Lynette Walker, in Topeka. Protesters argued Wednesday that Walker needed mental health treatment, not jail time.

Rork said Walker was a patient at Osawatomie State Hospital twice, for a total of four or five weeks, and had also been treated at Valeo Behavioral Health Care in Topeka.

Walker said she had a dispute with her Valeo doctor and that the center later told her it did not understand her illnesses. She said she had changed doctors and was adjusting to new medication for several weeks before she turned herself in last week.

Valeo would not confirm that Walker was a patient, citing a federal law on patients’ privacy.

In Boone County, Ind., where Walker is charged, prosecutor Todd Meyer was not available at his office to comment. However, he has said he believed Walker acted in “a criminal context.”

Walker’s case has inspired small protests outside the Shawnee County Courthouse. On Wednesday, 14 people demonstrated quietly, carrying signs suggesting Walker needs mental health treatment rather than jail time.