Opinion ID: 2686798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Dr. Jethro Toomer

Text: After establishing Mendoza’s difficult background and serious mental health issues, trial counsel called on Dr. Toomer, one of the psychologists who had evaluated Mendoza. Dr. Toomer testified about Mendoza’s multiple psychological problems and lack of treatment for them. Trial counsel obtained Dr. Toomer’s report before trial. We now recount his trial testimony. Dr. Toomer was imminently qualified as he: (1) had bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in psychology; (2) was licensed to practice psychology in Florida; (3) had been a psychologist for 17 years; (4) was a “diplomat of the American Board of Professional Psychologists”; (5) was published in various medical journals and had recently published a book on psychology; and (6) had testified as an expert in psychology numerous times since 1975. Dr. Toomer was a 17 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 18 of 58 professor at Florida International University, where he directed the graduate mental health program. He also had a private clinical and forensic psychology practice. 10 Dr. Toomer met with Mendoza four times at the prison. Dr. Toomer performed his evaluations in English, not Spanish, because there was no language barrier between Mendoza and him. Dr. Toomer first obtained from Mendoza a “psychosocial history,” which was “a process or series of questions” indicating “overall functioning, place of birth, demographic data, information regarding childhood, parental relations, sibling relationship, prior medical history, [and] prior areas of problems or difficulty.” Dr. Toomer stated, “[i]n other words, it’s a life history of the individual’s functioning from earlier on up to that point.” As to his childhood in Cuba, Mendoza told Dr. Toomer “that he had received treatment and it had something to do with his having supposed experiences with multiple personalities.” Mendoza “also described . . . an extensive drug history that dated back to the age of nineteen involving the use of alcohol, marijuana and some crack cocaine.” Dr. Toomer testified that Mendoza’s “multiple personalities” diagnosis indicated “something rather serious,” and Dr. Toomer was concerned that Mendoza had not received any treatment in the United States. Dr. Toomer 10 Dr. Toomer testified that “forensic psychology” refers to “the interaction of psychology and the law,” whereas “clinical psychology” focuses on “the impact of human behavior and treatment and diagnosis of the mentally ill.” 18 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 19 of 58 suspected that Mendoza resorted to illegal drugs as a form of “self-medication” for his mental health problems. Dr. Toomer testified about his psychological testing of Mendoza. He administered the Bender Gestalt Designs, which “is a screening instrument where the individual is asked to . . . draw on a piece of paper with a pencil . . . drawings of symbols that he observed on a particular card.” “The discrepancies between the drawings and what the individuals produce is indicative of functioning or lack of functioning or deficiencies in functioning in a variety of areas . . . and organicity or brain damage.” Mendoza’s performance on the Bender Gestalt indicated “poor impulse control and high levels of anxiety and aspects of poor judgment.” Dr. Toomer also administered the Carlson Psychological Survey, which “measures an individual’s overall functioning across four basic dimensions and . . . compares [the individual’s] functioning against individuals who have been charged with or accused of crimes.” The test “assess[es] functioning across a variety of areas such as chemical abuse, thought disturbance, anti-social tendencies and self depreciation.” It also has various mechanisms to detect whether an individual is “faking or not responding appropriately” to the psychological evaluation. Dr. Toomer described Mendoza’s performance on the Carlson Psychological Survey as “difficult.” The results indicated that Mendoza suffered from “inferiority, poor self esteem, impulsivity and irrational behavior,” as well as 19 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 20 of 58 “changes in mood shifts or behavior changes from time to time.” Dr. Toomer suspected brain damage as a cause for Mendoza’s behavior. The test showed that Mendoza was in the 99th percentile for chemical abuse and in the 99th percentile for “thought disturbance.” Dr. Toomer explained that “thought disturbance” refers to “the degree to which there are perceptual disturbances or difficulty in terms of reality testing,” and one way to measure thought disturbance is by asking “whether or not the person experiences hallucinations, audible or visual.” As for anti-social tendencies, referring to “the tendencies of an individual to violate social norms,” Mendoza was in the 85th percentile. Mendoza was in the 95th percentile for self depreciation. During later meetings with Dr. Toomer, Mendoza demonstrated “heightened agitation, nervousness, sweating, [and] a sense of being out of touch with reality.” Mendoza was unable to remember who Dr. Toomer was from one visit to the next and complained of auditory and visual hallucinations. Dr. Toomer concluded that Mendoza was “suffering some very significant deficits in terms of his reality testing and they [were] reflected in impairment both in terms of cognitive ability as well as affective or emotional ability.” Dr. Toomer also suspected brain damage, which “would not be inconsistent given [Mendoza’s] history of drug and substance abuse.” Seeing no evidence of anti-social personality disorder, Dr. Toomer believed that Mendoza could be rehabilitated. 20 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 21 of 58 On cross-examination, Dr. Toomer acknowledged that Mendoza did not actually state that his drug use was a means of “self-medication” for his mental health problems. Mendoza had only told Dr. Toomer that “he took the drugs because it calmed him down and helped him to feel better.” This statement led to Dr. Toomer’s “utilization [sic] that he was using drugs for self-medication.” Over trial counsel’s objection, the State asked Dr. Toomer if he was aware that Mendoza had “a pending trial in other robberies using a firearm[?]” Dr. Toomer was aware of the pending charges. 11 Nevertheless, based on his “mental status evaluation” and Mendoza’s history, he believed Mendoza could be rehabilitated. Dr. Toomer testified that he did not find anything indicative of antisocial personality disorder.