‘Rockefeller’ challenges convictions
Lawyers for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller have asked a state judge to set aside his convictions in a custodial kidnapping case, asserting that a prosecutor made inflammatory remarks in a closing argument and that an expert witness for the state gave unreliable testimony about Rockefeller’s sanity.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk County prosecutors said they will respond to the motion in writing but that Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano considered similar defense arguments at trial and rejected them.
Lawyers for Rockefeller, 48, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, said Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin prejudiced their client when he urged jurors to reject defense claims that Rockefeller was insane when he abducted his young daughter last summer.
“Don’t let this insanity defense be the culminating manipulation in a lifetime of lies designed to get what he wanted,’’ Deakin argued.
Rockefeller’s lawyers said the remark was a smear that went beyond the limits of what state appeals courts permit in closing arguments.
“The use of the word manipulation suggests that the defendant, his attorneys, and, by extension, even his forensic expert witnesses utilized this defense to con the jury into believing that he suffered from a mental disease or defect,’’ wrote Rockefeller’s legal team, which was headed by Jeffrey A. Denner of Boston.
The lawyers also wrote that Gaziano should have granted their request at trial to order jurors to ignore the testimony of Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist at McLean Hospital who testified for the state. Chu said Rockefeller suffered from a mental disorder but had exaggerated his symptoms and was legally sane at the time of the crime.
Rockefeller’s lawyers pointed out that Chu, who is not a forensic psychiatrist, acknowledged that he was unaware the insanity defense in Massachusetts places the burden on prosecutors to prove the defendant was sane, rather than requiring the defense to prove the defendant was insane.
“Combined, the improper closing argument and the inaccurate expert testimony eviscerated the insanity defense and denied the defendant due process of law,’’ said the motion, which was submitted June 19 and unsealed by the judge Thursday, according to Denner.
Erika Gully-Santiago, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said prosecutors will respond to the motion within 60 days.
“The issues raised in this motion were raised by defense counsel during the trial, and the judge ruled in the commonwealth’s favor,’’ she said in a statement.
Days after Rockefeller’s conviction on June 12, his lawyers filed a separate notice with the court that they intended to challenge the verdict in the state’s appeals courts.
John H. LaChance, a veteran Framingham defense lawyer, said yesterday that Rockefeller’s lawyers face an uphill battle with their objections to Deakin’s closing argument, although he said it is not a frivolous motion.
“The deal with inflaming the passions - that’s rarely a winner because you’re allowed rhetorical flourishes,’’ he said. He said Deakin’s characterization of Rockefeller’s insanity defense as manipulation might have been permitted because the jury heard testimony about whether the defendant was faking or exaggerating his symptoms.
At trial, Rockefeller’s lawyers called two expert witnesses, a forensic psychiatrist and a forensic psychologist, who testified that the defendant suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions. They said he was legally insane when he abducted his daughter, Reigh, who was 7 at the time, from a Back Bay street on July 27 and took her to Baltimore. He was arrested six days later in that city, and Reigh was reunited with her mother, Rockefeller’s former wife, Sandra Boss.
The jury convicted Rockefeller on the fifth day of deliberations of two felonies: parental kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was acquitted of two lesser charges. Gaziano sentenced him to four to five years in state prison.
Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com 