'Rockefeller' exaggerating illness, psychiatrist testifies

On the last day of testimony, Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said he visited the defendant for about 2 1/2 hours at the Nashua Street Jail on May 7. Chu concluded that Rockefeller has a "mixed personality disorder with narcissistic and antisocial personality traits," but said it did not affect his ability to know right from wrong or control his actions.

Chu also dismissed the defendant's assertions of having no memory until recently of his true identity as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a native of Germany. He cited Rockefeller's answers to a 28-item written questionnaire known as the Disassociative Experiences Scale, which can detect amnesia.

In response to one question, Rockefeller said that 70 percent of the time he found himself somewhere and had no idea how he got there. If that were true, Chu said, Rockefeller would have had difficulty functioning.

"There was very clear evidence, at least in my judgment, as to a certain amount of exaggeration of symptoms," Chu said under questioning by Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin. The defendant's answers "were much more consistent with untruthful responses or exaggerated responses."

Rockefeller has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges stemming from his abduction last July 27 of his daughter, Reigh, from a Back Bay street. He took her to Baltimore and was arrested six days later.

The case has attracted extraordinary news media attention because the defendant has used a slew of aliases and bogus biographical details over the last 30 years, including his supposed membership in the storied Rockefeller clan. Prosecutors say he came to the United States in 1978 as a student and is a con man who never left.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey A. Denner challenged Chu's diagnosis, which largely contradicted those of two forensic mental health specialists who testified for the defense on Wednesday and yesterday. They concluded that the defendant suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions that made him legally insane at the time of the kidnapping.

Denner pointed out that Chu, unlike the psychiatrist and psychologist hired by the defense, had no training in forensics. He also noted that Chu spent only 2 1/2 hours with the defendant during one visit; the defense psychologist visited Rockefeller eight times for a total of 16 hours, and the defense psychiatrist visited him six times for a total of 12 hours.

Chu also acknowledged not knowing that the insanity defense in Massachusetts places the burden on the prosecution to prove the defendant was sane when a crime was committed, rather than requiring the defense to prove the defendant was insane.

"In your entire professional career as a doctor, is it fair to say that this is the first criminal case you've ever been retained in which you're the primary forensic expert?" Denner asked.

Chu said yes.

Earlier yesterday, the forensic psychiatrist called by the defense, Dr. Keith Ablow of Newburyport, added another piece to the Rockefeller puzzle. Rockefeller, he said, after recently realizing his true identity as Gerhartsreiter, described a traumatic childhood experience with his father in Germany. Ablow said Rockefeller told him how his father ridiculed his interest in music and questioned his sexuality.

"He openly questioned whether Mr. Rockefeller might be a homosexual in front of him as a boy," said Ablow, and even asked Rockefeller's mother whether the defendant was really his son.

But Deakin challenged Ablow's disclosures, pointing out that Ablow had no independent corroboration of Rockefeller's claims.

The defense team and prosecutors are to deliver closing arguments Monday.

Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.