Opinion ID: 353179
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Sojourn at Matteawan

Text: 80 On November 15, 1968, the Commissioner committed Suggs to Matteawan, a state hospital for the criminally insane. A tentative diagnosis on November 15, 1968, confirmed Dr. Lubin's findings. Suggs was characterized as a schizophrenic, paranoid type. His behavior at Matteawan continued to exhibit delusional thinking. On admission he was distant, dull, tense, hostile, with a tendency to ramble. He said that many of his statements at Bellevue were lies, made to feign mental illness so that he would be sent to a hospital. Yet the Bellevue records reveal that he protested at being hospitalized. He claimed that he had lied about having hallucinations, but shortly thereafter he demanded his own room, fearful that someone might attack him. He also boasted of having made a lot of money, of his father's having deposited $5,000 for him when he was born and of his mother's having left him $17,000. He would admit and then later deny that he had committed the rapes and robberies. 81 Subsequently, with the use of the drug Librium, he became no management problem, his behavior now childish and silly. He continued to assert that he had put on an act at Bellevue in order to be sent to the hospital, while expressing anger toward his lawyer who had sent him to a hospital in order to get rid of him. He complained of a frameup, and each time he was seen offered different information as to his income and bank accounts. Matteawan came to the conclusion as of December 18, 1968, that he had a psychosis with a history of longstanding maladjustment and antisocial activities, that he was never able to form close relationships and that he showed suicidal and homicidal tendencies. The staff diagnosis was Psychosis with Antisocial Personality, Paranoid and Reactive Features. 82 An auto-anamnesis or history of Suggs conducted on January 17, 1968, revealed additional fanciful and extraordinary stories. Appellee explained that he had never worked (though he had earlier stated that he earned hundreds of dollars each week as a musician and karate teacher) because his father sent him money to make up for turning Suggs' mother into an alcoholic, thereby causing her death. Suggs earlier had told Justice Nunez that he had not heard from his father for many years. Plea Minutes at 9. Suggs also revealed that he had taken out a contract on his father's life, and that he had admitted committing the offenses to get off the streets and to avoid a contract the Mafia had out on him. His birthdate had now become 1947 instead of 1951; hence he claimed to be twenty-one rather than the seventeen indicated in prior medical records. He also stated that he had been married for quite some time, and got along very well with his wife and child. Letters written to his wife as well as to his aunt were not answered. 83 On January 25, after having been off medication for fifteen days, Suggs was assaulted when he made sarcastic, racial remarks to other patients. More significant is Suggs' statement to a doctor on February 22 that though there had been something wrong with him when he arrived, he now felt that he was well. He explained: I convinced myself that I did something that I didn't do it. The doctor noted that (h)e was referring to pleading guilty to his indictment. When asked if he knew that he was convicted he said, I don't (sic) know my original charge was murder and they changed (sic) to statutory rape.On March 18, 1969, Suggs, seen in special consultation by two doctors, tried to confuse the issue about his age, stated that he had lied to the doctors in Bellevue when he told them that he did not understand the charges, and emphasized that he had money in the bank from dealing in drugs. He repeatedly referred to being arrested on a charge of murder, claiming his innocence, and discussed the fight at City College with the police officer who, he said, kicked him in the groin after telling him to stand against the wall. Suggs, after being read a letter by the district attorney which indicated that he was not charged with murder, said I have tried to go to a real hospital because I know I do have problems. The doctors concluded that his mental condition had improved but that he remains immature, insecure and unstable with a tendency to explosive reactions on slight provocation and that (o)n the ward he is considered very excitable and unpredictable. 84 On April 1, 1969, he was seen again by the same two doctors who found him more composed. He had now made up his mind to return to court to face criminal charges against him, although he was then claiming that he did not commit the crimes for which he had been indicted. He still insisted that he had money in the bank this time $25,000 which he inherited from his mother. 85 The Matteawan superintendent certified Suggs as competent on April 4, 1969. A letter to the court said that after Suggs' admission he had shown continued symptoms of mental illness. Under treatment with psychotropic drugs, his mental condition had gradually improved to the point where, unlike a few months earlier, he was able to give a coherent and relevant account of the events leading to his arrest. The diagnosis remained Psychosis with Antisocial Personality, Paranoid and Reactive Features. 86