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'Rockefeller' jury asks question about proof in insanity case

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 10, 2009 06:17 PM

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Clark Rockefeller today in Suffolk Superior Court.

By Maria Cramer and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Suffolk Superior Court jury deliberating the fate of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller asked a judge today what prosecutors had to prove in the case in which the defendant has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Judge Frank Gaziano

Judge Frank Gaziano told the jury that prosecutors had to prove that Rockefeller understood the legal and moral consequences when he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter last summer after a bitter divorce.

"The Commonwealth does have to prove the defendant could appreciate the criminality or legal import and the wrongfulness or moral import of his conduct," Gaziano told the jurors. "Further, when you asked 'Or can the Commonwealth meet its burden by proving just one of these?' The answer to that question is no."

Rockefeller, 48, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the kidnapping charge. His is also accused of giving police a false name and two counts of assault on a social worker supervising the July 27 visit with his daughter in the Back Bay. Prosecutors allege that the defendant is really Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a con man who came to the United States as a German exchange student in 1978 and never left.

The jury concluded its third day of deliberations late this afternoon. The question about the legal definition of insanity gets to the crux of the case, which hinges on dueling diagnoses from mental health experts, who gave contradictory testimony.

Two defense experts -- Dr. Keith Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist from Newburyport, and Catherine T.J. Howe, a forensic psychologist from Salem -- testified that Rockefeller was legally insane when he abducted his daughter last summer. They told the jury that Rockefeller suffered from narcissistic personality disorder so acute that he had grandiose delusions of wealth and aristocracy that were reinforced when people such as his wife believed his outlandish stories.

The prosecution countered with Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Chu testified that he found "very clear evidence ... of exaggeration of symptoms" by Rockefeller. The defense tried to discredit Chu because of his lack of forensic training and the fact that he made his diagnosis after visiting the defendant once for about 2 1/2 hours at the Nashua Street Jail.