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Accused MGH attacker hears voices, sent for psych evaluation

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 27, 2009 12:21 PM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A Level 3 sex offender charged last week with attempting to rape a woman inside Massachusetts General Hospital told his attorney today that he believes he is on a spaceship, not on the Earth.

David C. Flavell (Sex Offender Registry Board)

David Flavell, 40, appeared in Boston Municipal Court and underwent a psychiatric evaluation by Kerry Eudy, a court psychologist who recommended that the homeless man be sent to Bridgewater State Hospital where his competency to stand trial will be reviewed by clinicians over the next 20 days.

"He states that he is hearing voices," Eudy told Judge Sally Kelly today after her evaluation. “He is having interfering thoughts about being in a closet. He is concerned about this case, but he is also concerned about being in a closet.’’

Flavell has been sent to psychiatric hospitals at least five other times, including two earlier commitments to Bridgewater State Hospital, Eudy said. He has been diagnosed as suffering from major depression and being bipolar, but since his release from state custody in the past few weeks he has not been taking medications to control his mental illnesses.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Flavell’s attorney, Neil Madden, said his client continues to wrestle with personal demons that have haunted him for decades. Flavell told his attorney, “I don’t feel like I’m on Earth. I feel like I’m in a spaceship somewhere.’’

Last week, Madden said his client had no memory of the assault at Massachusetts General, in part because he had been drinking a large quantity of Captain Morgan rum. Police arrested Flavell inside the hospital after he allegedly attacked a woman inside a woman’s bathroom, leaving her bruised and bloody. The woman, a hospital employee, was treated for her injuries and released.
In court today, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Deakin did not object to the 20-day evaluation at Bridgewater Hospital. Flavell is due back in court Nov. 16.

In 2006 and in 2009, prosecutors in Bristol and Norfolk counties tried to have Flavell civilly committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the sexually dangerous. But two Superior Court judges, after separate trials, concluded the evidence was not strong enough to warrant the commitment, which lasts from one day to life.