Murderer faking "mental illness"
SSRIHater
Psychiatrist says Posner competent for trial
But his lawyer questions the validity of an evaluation that he
says was reached without input from Posner's friends, relatives
or doctors.
BY TOM MOONEY
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- A judge sealed the court file of Ronald A. Posner
yesterday after news organizations reported a state
psychiatrist's finding that the Barrington man is competent to
stand trial for Katherine Brown's killing.
Dr. Barry W. Wall, chief of forensic service at Eleanor Slater
Hospital, evaluated Posner on Jan. 26, eight days after Posner
was charged with murdering his girlfriend.
In his evaluation memo, filed with court papers, Wall said that
while Posner, 20, exhibited some signs of mental illness, he was
likely "feigning an active psychotic mental illness."
Police found Brown's body on the evening of Jan. 18 in Posner's
Rumstick driveway with a major head injury. Posner stood nearby,
his clothes and hands covered in blood. The state medical
examiner's office hasn't released the cause of death, pending the
continuing police investigation.
Posner has pleaded innocent to the murder charge.
His lawyer, C. Leonard O'Brien, yesterday asked District Court
Judge Albert E. DeRobbio to seal the file, saying release of
Wall's competency report was "highly prejudicial" to Posner.
Such material isn't usually included in case files, O'Brien said.
State prosecutor Gerald Coyne agreed.
Outside the courtroom, a visibly angry O'Brien said he would not
comment on Wall's finding that Posner was faking mental illness.
But O'Brien questioned Wall's ability to reach such a conclusion
because, he said, Wall hadn't spoken to any of Posner's friends,
family members or doctors.
"If that's how he [Wall] conducts his practice, then that's
something he should consider," O'Brien said.
Katherine Brown, 20, had dated Posner since their graduation
together from Barrington High School in 1999. They had drifted
apart for a time while Brown attended the University of Maine,
friends say, but drew together again last summer upon her return
to Barrington.
Since last September, their relationship had been marked by
violence.
That month, Posner was arrested for domestic assault after he
allegedly struck Brown in the face at a Seekonk motel.
And four days before her death, Brown's neighbors in her
Providence apartment house called the police after Brown pounded
on their door and screamed for Posner to get away from her. She
showed neighbors a red mark on her neck where she said Posner had
tried to strangle her.
Brown told the police she did not want Posner arrested, just
removed from the apartment.
Because of conflicting stories from both Posner and Brown, the
officers said they didn't arrest Posner but instead took him to a
friend's apartment on Federal Hill.
As they drove away, Brown followed.
She picked up Posner before he could enter the friend's
apartment, and took him home to Barrington.
"I forgave him, I had to," she told a friend hours later. "I
really love him."
Posner is being held without bail.
--
Just say NO to meds!
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(The official defender of drug- and radiation-free Ukrainian women)
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