Thompson v. Crawford, 84-428

Decision Date20 November 1985
Docket NumberNo. 84-428,84-428
Citation479 So.2d 169,10 Fla. L. Weekly 2597
Parties10 Fla. L. Weekly 2597 Paul THOMPSON, Petitioner, v. Fred CRAWFORD, Director Dade County Jail, et al., Respondents.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Varon, Bogenschutz, Williams & Gulkin, P.A., and H. Donn Williams, Jr., Hollywood, Arthur W. Tifford and Peter C. Clemente, Miami, for petitioner.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Janet Reno, State Atty. and Arthur Joel Berger, Asst. State Atty., for respondents.

Before BASKIN, PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.

JORGENSON, Judge.

Paul Thompson seeks in the alternative a writ of habeas corpus, a writ of prohibition, or a writ of mandamus. For the reasons which follow, we decline to grant the extraordinary relief requested and remand this cause for trial on the merits.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On January 15, 1980, Thompson was indicted on four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of kidnapping, and four counts of armed robbery. 1 At Thompson's arraignment on January 23, 1980, defense counsel stated that Thompson had been declared insane or incompetent in a prior federal criminal proceeding. 2, 3 The trial judge (Judge Fuller) entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Thompson, set the cause for jury trial and, in accordance with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.210(b), appointed three psychiatrists, Drs. Graff, Mutter, and Jaslow, to examine Thompson.

A. Initial Evaluations

After examining Thompson, the three doctors filed reports with the court in early February, 1980. In his report, Dr. Graff noted that, while Thompson exhibited memory and other problems in his thinking, there were enough inconsistencies in his behavior to raise the possibility that Thompson was actually a "very clever malingerer." Dr. Graff delayed rendering an opinion and, instead, recommended both an intensive evaluation of Thompson over a several-week period in a closed hospital setting (such as the forensic unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital) and testing by an expert psychologist (Dr. Graff recommended Dr. Reichenberg).

Dr. Mutter concluded that Thompson was moderately mentally retarded, was incompetent to stand trial and would require commitment to a mental facility for "the rest of his life."

Dr. Jaslow, who had examined Thompson for the federal court in 1978 (see supra note 2), reported that Thompson now presented a condition even more disturbed than that presented two years before. Dr. Jaslow concluded that Thompson was "grossly" incompetent to stand trial due to chronic brain syndrome and was, at best, only "marginally" competent at the time of the alleged offenses. 4 The doctor opined that the illness did not seem treatable and that Thompson's behavioral patterns "dictate that he be constantly supervised and controlled, so that he cannot be eligible for any criminal activities in the future."

On February 8, 1980, the prosecutor requested that the court follow Dr. Graff's recommendations and order the evaluation of Thompson under the conditions the doctor had suggested. On February 15, 1980, defense counsel filed a notice of intent to rely on the defense of insanity. Over the next several months, the state attempted to have Thompson sent to a Florida hospital for evaluation; however, its efforts were in vain. 5

On March 7, 1980, the lead homicide investigator interviewed a state prisoner, Fred Gearing. Gearing told the detective that, when Gearing and Thompson were in prison together, Thompson and other prisoners had rehearsed feigning insanity (see infra note 16). In April, the prosecutors requested that the detective produce Gearing; however, by that time, Gearing had been released from prison and had vanished. The court was not informed of these events.

On August 1, 1980, the prosecutor told the court that the state was unable to send Thompson to a hospital for further evaluation. 6, 7 At the prosecutor's request, the court appointed Drs. Graff, Jaslow, and Castiello for a second set of evaluations. 8

Dr. Castiello concluded that Thompson's mental condition was compatible with a diagnosis of "pseudo dementia" and that Thompson was incompetent to stand trial. Dr. Castiello was unable to reach a conclusion regarding Thompson's mental condition at the time of the alleged offenses. Dr. Graff again noted inconsistencies in Thompson's behavior and concluded that Thompson was "consciously malingering" and that Thompson had the capacity to stand trial. Once more, Dr. Graff recommended that Thompson undergo intensive psychological evaluation. Dr. Jaslow confirmed his prior diagnoses, finding that Thompson continued to be "grossly" incompetent.

On September 23, 1980, the state requested that the court appoint a psychologist to examine Thompson "because of the spectrum [sic] raised by Dr. Graff about the possibility that Thompson [was] consciously malingering...." Defense counsel complained about the number of state requests for evaluation. The state replied that, after one more set of evaluations, it would stipulate to competency or ask the court to hold a competency hearing.

On September 25, 1980, the court appointed Dr. Reichenberg along with Drs. Castiello and Mutter. Dr. Mutter again concluded that Thompson was incompetent due to chronic brain syndrome. Dr. Castiello confirmed his prior diagnosis, stating that the clinical picture displayed by Thompson was compatible with a state of "pseudo dementia" resulting from a severe mental illness and, again, reported that he could not reach a conclusion regarding Thompson's sanity at the time of the alleged offenses. Dr. Reichenberg did not file a report for the stated reason that he lacked a sufficient basis to give the court an opinion and that only a long-term hospital evaluation could detect whether Thompson was malingering or actually suffering from a mental illness or defect.

B. The Competency--Insanity--Commitment Proceeding

A competency hearing was set for November 28, 1980, and was twice continued and reset for December 16, 1980. However, before the competency hearing was held, the parties came before Judge Goderich on December 12, 1980. 9, 10

At the December 12, 1980 proceeding the state announced that, based on the reports of Drs. Mutter, Castiello, and Jaslow, which indicated that Thompson was incompetent to stand trial and would not likely regain competency in the near future, it was "willing to stipulate." Despite the fact that none of the doctors' reports contained an opinion that Thompson was insane at the time of the alleged offenses, the state stipulated to this issue as well as to the issue of Thompson's competency to stand trial. 11 The trial court entered (1) an order finding Thompson not guilty by reason of insanity and acquitting him of the offenses, (2) an order finding and adjudging Thompson to be incompetent, and (3) an order finding that Thompson met the criteria set forth in section 916.15, Florida Stat utes (Supp.1980), and committing Thompson to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services [HRS] for involuntary hospitalization in accordance with that section and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.217(b). This last order stated that Thompson had waived his right to a jury trial and that the December 12, 1980 proceeding was a non-jury trial. However, there is no indication on the indictment or otherwise that Thompson waived his right to a jury trial. Thompson was admitted to South Florida State Hospital [South Florida] on January 30, 1981.

On March 10, 1981, the trial court entered a specific commitment order in which reference was made to the psychiatric reports and evaluations of the various doctors who had been appointed to evaluate Thompson (including those made for the federal court in 1978) to support the finding that Thompson was insane at the time of the commission of the crimes. The court stated that the stipulations entered into by counsel for the state and the defense "included ... psychiatric reports and evaluations which dealt with the sanity of the defendant at the time of the commission of the instant offenses." (Emphasis supplied.) Nevertheless, the only doctors who had addressed the issue of Thompson's sanity at the time of the offenses were Dr. Jaslow, who opined that Thompson was marginally competent at the time of the offenses, and Dr. Castiello, who stated that he could not reach a conclusion on the issue. 12

C. Release Proceedings

On March 25, 1982 (only fourteen months after Thompson had been admitted to South Florida), the hospital's senior forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Koson, and forensic clinical director, Dr. Hahn, sent a letter to Judge Klein stating that it was the "collective and unequivocal" opinion of the disposition board that Thompson was not mentally ill nor dangerous to himself or others. The hospital recommended that Thompson be released as no longer meeting the criteria for involuntary hospitalization or, alternatively, asking that Thompson be released conditionally to the community under section 916.17(1), Florida Statutes (1981), in accordance with an attached "Aftercare Plan." In an attached report, titled "Forensic Psychiatric Summary," Dr. Koson concluded that Thompson's initial picture of toxic confusion, memory disorder, and decreased intellectual capacity resulted from a reversible organic brain syndrome caused by the toxic insult from the fume incident, compounded by three months of steady illicit drug usage and the use of tranquilizers in the early stages of hospitalization. The report stated that, with the cessation of all sedating drugs, Thompson's neurological picture, especially his intellectual functioning, improved dramatically. In fact, despite early I.Q. tests indicating that Thompson was mentally defective, by late fall of 1981 Thompson had passed the G.E.D. (General Education Development) test and had obtained his high school (equivalency) diploma. The report described this feat as "an achievement which is spectacularly in conflict with his prior intellectual...

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