Opinion ID: 2600593
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Medical and psychological evidence concerning defendant

Text: Defendant's two psychological experts testified during 11 days of the trial. Dr. Edward Fischer testified concerning defendant's background, the results of various tests administered to defendant, the nature of defendant's pornography collection, and the various types of child molesters. Dr. Veronica Thomas, a clinical and forensic psychologist, testified concerning pornography, sexual behavior, and pedophilia. Fischer testified that defendant had fibril convulsions as an infant, but outgrew his seizure disorder. Fischer also testified that defendant had a history of migraine headaches, beginning at 24 years of age, after he had been knocked unconscious in Vietnam. [12] Defendant denied all drug use but admitted consuming alcoholic beverages when he was depressed. Defendant told Fischer that he was exclusively heterosexual, and until he met Kwang, all of his sexual activity was with prostitutes. Defendant also told Fischer that all of his sexual relationships had been with adult women. Fischer administered several tests to defendant to evaluate his brain function. The Bender Gestalt visual motor test led Fischer to believe that defendant was compensating for some marginal sort of brain damage. Fischer also administered to defendant the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test Revised, on which a person of average intelligence will have a score of 100. Defendant's verbal score was 84, his performance score was 93, and his fullscale score was 87, which is in the dull normal range. Fischer also administered the Wide Range Achievement Test, which reflected that defendant had improved his reading and writing abilities over his lifetime beyond the level that would be expected from one with his native intelligence, but that he had difficulty performing simple computational problems. The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological test generated similar results. Fischer testified concerning medical tests administered by others. An electroencephalogram (EEG) and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test were performed upon defendant in March 1997. Fischer testified that the results of the EEG were normal. He also testified that the MRI test reflected that defendant had many small lesions within the deep white matter of both cerebral hemispheres, which was consistent with his learning disability and other indications of brain dysfunction that Fischer perceived in defendant. Fischer testified that defendant has an arachnoid cyst in his left temporal lobe, which may be the cause of his rather unusual affect. Various tests were administered by Fischer and others to evaluate defendant's personality and psychological tendencies. Fischer testified that Dr. Fredman at Victor Valley Community Hospital administered to defendant the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test (MMPI) about three days after Tahisha's death. The answers given by defendant when Fredman administered the test indicated that defendant suffered from depression, which is associated with sadness, pessimism, brooding, being self-punitive, and feeling a lack of self-worth. Defendant's answers also reflected mania, which Fischer described as the opposite of depression. Fischer stated that this paradoxical sort of profile is found in people who have brain damage.... And the impact of the mania seems to make them a bit more agitated and unable to sit still about it. In some aspects it energizes the depression and may make it easier for them to act out. Fischer testified that defendant's profile was different from the profile of a person who would commit a vicious, senseless crime. Fischer also testified that the pedophilia score on the MMPI administered by Fredman indicated that it was unlikely that [defendant] has any interest in children as sex objects. Fischer administered to defendant the Rorschach inkblot test in December 1996. Fischer testified that defendant's failure to perceive human movement in any of the shapes was consistent with a person with brain dysfunction who does not imagine or fantasize. Fischer also testified that defendant's responses reflected vulnerability and depression, and lacked any indication of a failure of impulse control or any tendency toward expressing aggression or explosiveness. A Thematic Apperception Test also reflected that defendant lacked imagination. Fischer diagnosed defendant as suffering from major depression, dementia, and a learning disorder. Fischer identified, among physical conditions that affected defendant's mental state, defendant's high blood pressure, migraine headaches, the temporal lobe cyst, and the multiple brain lesions. Finally, Fischer identified as personality disorders defendant's desire to be cared for by others, such as by his wife, and his obsessive compulsivity, the need for orderliness of things and need to be in control. According to Fischer, there was no indication in defendant's history or psychological tests that he was a pedophile or a violent person. Fischer testified that defendant told him there was no history of child molestation in defendant's family, and Fischer confirmed that this information was important to his evaluation of defendant. The prosecutor asked Fischer, hypothetically, whether Fischer's evaluation would be affected if Fischer learned that defendant's older brother, Kenneth, had molested Kenneth's and defendant's two sisters, Kenneth's daughter, and Kenneth's stepdaughter, and that Kenneth had committed suicide when the molestation of his stepdaughter was discovered. Fischer responded that it would increase the probability that [defendant] was somehow sexually deviant. Fischer added, however, that defendant's history [is] remarkably different. And it would also appear that his brother had a much different personality. The trial court ruled that police records concerning Kenneth's sexual molestation of Kenneth's daughter and stepdaughter were admissible for purposes of impeachment. The prosecutor provided the police records to Fischer, and Fischer testified that the records revealed that Kenneth had used pornographic videos in the course of introducing his daughter, then four years of age, to sex, and that Kenneth engaged in various sexual acts with her. The records also revealed that when Kenneth was confronted concerning his molestation of his stepdaughter, he committed suicide. Fischer also testified that the defense investigator, Mr. Ron Hawkins, had informed Fischer during a break in the proceedings that Kenneth had molested Kenneth's and defendant's two sisters. Fischer stated that none of this information caused him to doubt the validity of his opinions concerning defendant. The next day, Fischer confirmed he had learned that morning that defendant had informed Dr. Thomas, defendant's other psychological expert, that defendant had been molested by his brother Kenneth when defendant was six or seven years of age. Fischer rejected the suggestion that this information established it was very likely that defendant was a child molester, and stated that the information did not alter his conclusions regarding defendant. When questioned by the prosecutor concerning an MMPI test that Fischer administered to defendant in November 1996, Fischer testified that defendant's score on the pedophilia scale was 66, which indicated that defendant had more pedophilic tendencies than 93 percent of the population, and his score on the sadomasochistic scale was 85, which indicated that defendant had more sadomasochistic tendencies than 98 percent of the population. Fischer testified that the test results did not appear to be valid, because so many scales are so incredibly elevated, and that Fischer had disregarded the results and had not included them in his report. Fischer attributed the test results to an incredible amount of exaggeration by defendant, which may be accomplished by giving the least socially desirable answer to each true/false question. Fischer confirmed that he could not determine whether a test taker was lying or answering truthfully, and he agreed that if defendant's answers were truthful, the test results would indicate that defendant very likely was a child molester and that defendant had sadomasochistic tendencies in interpersonal relations. Fischer further agreed that if the test results were valid and reflected defendant's true personality, defendant was the type of person that would do what was done to Tahisha Clay. Fischer added that the test results were inconsistent with the apparent absence of violent crimes in defendant's history. When asked how a person with defendant's psychological profile would react in the aftermath of bringing a child into his apartment, molesting her, and rendering her unconscious, Fischer responded that such a person would have fled and attempted to avoid the situation. Fischer testified that he did not believe that such a person would have been able to go to Coco's Restaurant and talk to the police if he had committed these acts, and that such a person would not have been able to reflect upon the situation and decide that killing the child was the best option. Fischer expressed the view that if defendant had committed these crimes, he would have become very depressed, would have confessed if confronted with the crimes, and then might have attempted to commit suicide. Fischer testified that defendant's suicide attempt might have resulted from his being the perpetrator but ... also might have resulted from his being worried about his job and being the subject of the investigation. [13] Fischer also testified that defendant was timid, and agreed that if defendant were capable of attacking another person, he would attack a child rather than an adult. Fischer also addressed the issue of defendant's collection of pornographic materials. To provide some perspective regarding the collection, Fischer prepared a videotape comprised of random 30-second excerpts (from defendant's pornographic video collection), which was shown to the jury. Fischer testified that none of the 30-second random excerpts and none of defendant's magazines that the prosecutor had chosen to bring to court included children or portrayed anything illegal, and that he considered defendant's pornography to be within the normal range of such materials. With respect to Bridled magazine, which portrayed women who were bound, Fischer stated that defendant may have purchased the magazine out of curiosity, and that it was a normal publication when considered in the context of defendant's entire pornography collection. In Fischer's opinion, Shaved Pussy and Oriental Delight magazines catered to persons who were interested in or fantasized about adolescent girls, and Fischer viewed such magazines as a component of normal sexuality. With respect to little girl costumes, Fischer testified that pedophiles are more fixated on the age of the child than they are on the way the child is dressed. Fischer noted that some of the magazines found in defendant's bedroom were old. [14] According to Fischer, the Coolidge Principle, which suggests that something new is more stimulating sexually than something known, explains why defendant had such an extensive collection of pornography. Fischer testified concerning two types of child molesters. According to Fischer, fixated child molesters prefer the company of children and have no history of sexual relations with adults, whereas regressed child molesters do not restrict their sexual activities to children and might enjoy adult pornography. Fischer stated that regressed child molesters develop psychosexually into maturity, but develop a relationship with a child and then molest the child. Fischer testified that stress arising from inadequate gratification in relationships with adults, rather than professional frustration, is a factor that may prompt a regressed pedophile to molest a child. Fischer stated that to the best of his knowledge, defendant was not a regressed child molester, but Fischer acknowledged nonetheless that this was a possibility. Defendant's other psychological expert, Dr. Thomas, also addressed the issue of defendant's pornography. Thomas described the videotape of excerpts from defendant's video collection as pretty tame compared to the kinds of pornography I have seen, and stated that a pedophile would not be interested in the videos. With respect to the presence of models who had young faces and fully developed secondary sexual characteristics, Thomas testified that it is typical for heterosexual males to be attracted to nubile females, and that Shaved Pussy and Oriental Delight magazines were responsive to the fantasy of having sex with an adolescent female. A pedophile, Thomas testified, would be disgusted by these types of magazines, because the women depicted have secondary sexual characteristics and the articles concern adult thoughts and desires. Thomas described Bridled magazine as involving domination and sadomasochism, and testified that she would not conclude that a person who possessed one magazine like Bridled in a substantial collection of pornography was sadomasochistic. She also testified that the circumstance that a man looks at sexual images does not signify that he engages in the conduct portrayed. According to Thomas, most adults who were molested as children do not molest children, but between 40 and 50 percent of child molesters have a history of being molested. She also testified that a boy who was molested by a male and who molests as an adult generally will molest a male victim. Thomas testified it would be unusual for a person who functioned within the normal range of sexual behavior over a 20-year period to engage in deviant sexual behavior. Thomas testified that a regressed pedophile has some sexual interest in children, does not act on that interest, typically gets married, has children, and may possess adult pornography. During a period of extreme stress or depression, a regressed pedophile may engage in a sexual relationship with a child for a period of time. The stress may be from internal depression or anxiety or from external events such as marital problems, loss of employment, or financial problems. Among the psychological characteristics of regressed pedophiles identified by Thomas were that the pedophile initially engages in molestation as an impulsive rather than a premeditated act, and primarily victimizes females. According to Thomas, a pedophile develops a relationship with a child in order to be loved by the child and to satisfy the pedophile's sexual needs, and does not want to cause the child physical harm. Thomas testified it is extremely rare for a child molester to kill a child, but agreed with the statement, Almost any child molester is capable of violence or even murder to avoid identification. She also agreed with the description of a regressed child molester contained in an article by the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, entitled Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysisa person who usually has low self-esteem and poor coping skills. He turns to children as a sexual substitute for the preferred peer sex partner. Precipitating stress may play a bigger role in his molesting behavior. His main victim criterion seems to be availability.... Thomas concurred that this type of molester typically coerces the child into having sex, and may or may not collect child or adult pornography.