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State v. Flake8/5/2003
history of polysubstance abuse, alcohol and marijuana in particular, but she said the defendant had indicated that he was sober when these shootings occurred. Dr. Zager also acknowledged that during his ten years of mental health treatment the defendant had failed to report auditory hallucinations and did not report hearing voices until after his arrest, however, she said his failure to report hearing voices did not change her diagnosis or her thoughts about his condition.
On cross-examination, Dr. Zager admitted that the defendant believed the victims were homosexual and said they made him feel uncomfortable because they were "huggy, touchy, feely, kind of people." Dr. Zager related that the defendant said he had a list of 140 names, that he had been planning to kill them and that he did not believe he "would be caught." Dr. Zager conceded that the defendant's score on the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition ("MMPI-II") was indicative of malingering, and she acknowledged that the defendant gave inconsistent answers when questioned about when he began experiencing auditory hallucinations, on one occasion saying the voices began after he was jailed and on another occasion saying he had heard voices all his life. Dr. Zager also acknowledged that John Perry, the coordinator of mental health services at the Shelby County jail, advised Dr. Zager's team that the defendant was not really sick and that he was "pulling one" on the evaluation team. Finally, Dr. Zager agreed that no tests were conducted to determine whether the defendant had been drinking when these offenses were committed, and she acknowledged that drug use can induce symptoms similar to those exhibited by schizophrenia sufferers.
Also testifying for the defense was Dr. Samuel Craddock, a clinical psychologist employed at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute ("MTMHI") to conduct forensic evaluations. Dr. Craddock examined the defendant for a thirty-day period in November and December of 1997, pursuant to a court order. During this time he met personally with the defendant on nine occasions and administered a battery of tests to assess the defendant's intelligence, personality, reasoning, judgment, visual, and processing skills. Dr. Craddock testified that psychological testing revealed that the defendant was within the average range of intelligence and possessed college-level reading comprehension, but that his logic and reasoning skills were equal to that of a fifth-grader. Dr. Craddock opined that these test results were consistent with mental illness and inconsistent with malingering, explaining that malingerers generally experience deficits in both reading comprehension and reasoning. As further support for his conclusion that the defendant was not malingering, Dr. Craddock pointed to the defendant's high score on a visual skills test and his score on a test specifically designed to determine if a patient is malingering schizophrenia symptoms. While Dr. Craddock admitted that the defendant's score on the MMPI -II suggested a strong likelihood of malingering or symptom exaggeration, he explained that the score could also be the result of severe mental illness or random responses. Dr. Craddock also admitted that the defendant's initial scores on the Personality Assessment Inventory ("PAI") were indicative of malingering, but Dr. Craddock had re-scored the test using upgraded software, and he opined that the revised scores were consistent with paranoid schizophrenia. Dr. Craddock referred to the defendant's expressed delusional beliefs as further indications of this mental illness. For example, Dr. Craddock said the defendant claimed to know who was responsible for the Value Jet crash in Florida, the 1993 World Tra
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Tennessee DUI Attorneys
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