A federal judge has granted a request for a Lawrence man and defendant in a methamphetamine trafficking and counterfeit case to have a psychological evaluation based on a head injury he suffered in 1998.

Thomas R. Telthorst, a defense attorney for Donald M. Steele, 50, filed a motion saying there is reasonable cause to believe Steele may be suffering from mental disease or defect due to the head injury.

Telthorst asked U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum to direct the medical examiner “to address whether, at the time of the alleged offenses, the defendant suffered from mental disease or defect that left him particularly malleable or susceptible to entrapment.”

Steele faces 10 charges related to accusations of making counterfeit money and conspiring to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine. Officers investigated the drug ring over a three-month period starting in November 2009. They alleged the crimes occurred at his residence east of Lawrence and a home Steele owned in Topeka.

Several other defendants in the case face charges, and one Lawrence man 57-year-old Anthony Wayne Sims pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug charge.

Lungstrum on Thursday granted Telthorst’s motion to have Steele examined before proceeding with the case.