Defense closing: Rockefeller not 'playing with a full deck'

By Jonathan Saltzman and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The defense outlined its claim today that "pure madness" from acute mental illness drove the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter last summer, discounting the diagnosis of a psychiatrist for the prosecution who lacked "expertise, experience, and training."

Clark Rockefeller

Defense lawyer Jeffrey A. Denner urged the jury during closing arguments to reject the testimony of Dr. James A. Chu because his one, 2 1/2 hour session with Rockefeller was inadequate for an accurate diagnosis by a "hospital administrator" with no forensic training. The defense's two mental health experts have extensive training in forensics, experience evaluating the sanity and criminal responsibly of dozens of defendants, and spent 28 hours with Rockefeller over 14 separate sessions.

"They both told you that the notion of spending one -- one visit, 2 1/2 hours -- is an outrageous proposition to them," Denner said, taking aim at Chu, a clinical psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. "No valid conclusions could possibly be drawn from that type of interview."

Denner concluded: "Taking a look at Mr. Rockefeller, you know that something is wrong with him. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or respectfully a psychiatrist to know that something is very wrong with him … This is not a man playing with a full deck."

Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin urged the jury to took look past the "preposterous diagnosis" by paid experts. Deakin asserted that Rockefeller is really a "self-centered, controlling, and manipulative man who was angry."