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http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/ca4afd67-cea1-5a39-aad5-2257a8d153e7.htmlJudge sure Loughner's not faking his illness
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By Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, May 28, 2011 12:00 am
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Chris Morrison Defendant Jared Loughner is restrained by U.S. Marshals following an outburst during his competency hearing in federal court Wednesday, May 25, 2011 in Tucson, Ariz. as shown in this artists' rendering. Loughner is charged with shooting U.S. Rep. Garbrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. and 18 others and was deemed by a federal judge today to be incompetent to stand trial at this time. (AP Photo/Bill Robles)
Loughner back in Missouri
The suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage left Tucson on Friday morning, headed by plane to a Missouri prison facility where mental health experts will try to make him psychologically fit to stand trial.
Jared Lee Loughner will spend up to four months at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others and killed six people.
The Associated Press
When a federal judge declared Jared Lee Loughner incompetent to stand trial Wednesday, he said confidently that Loughner was not faking his symptoms.
"I've considered and rejected that possibility," U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said.
But how did he know?
Over decades, forensic mental-health experts have developed and refined techniques for ferreting out what lawyers call "malingering," or faking symptoms of mental illness. The techniques range from psychological testing to commonsense observations of the defendants' behavior.
Most basic is the consistency of the way the defendant acts, said Emily Fallis, a Fort Worth, Texas, forensic psychologist who for 14 years worked for the federal Bureau of Prisons.
If the defendant's strange behavior is inconsistent, Fallis said, "That is the biggest clue that somebody is either pretending to have problems or exaggerating the problems they do have."
In Loughner's case, psychologist Christina Pietz found that he "acted in a consistent manner," Burns said in Wednesday's hearing.
"Defendant's behavior had become increasingly odd over the last two years," Burns said, citing Pietz's report.
That's a dependable sign, said Mary Alice Conroy, a psychology professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, who for years worked as a forensic psychologist in the federal prison system.
"If they were having symptoms long before the crime, then probably these symptoms are real," Conroy said.
There are also signs evaluators can look for when interviewing the defendant, Conroy and Fallis said.
Often, malingerers will say things such as "I hear voices" or "I see visions," Conroy said. Simply interviewing a defendant for a long period can reveal the pretense of a malingerer.
"Often times it will fade as they get tired," Conroy said. "I have role-played this, and I have trouble holding it up for more than five minutes."
Pietz and psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Carroll found Loughner to be delusional, psychotic and bizarre in his behavior, Burns said.
"The defendant was generally unable to provide rational and coherent thoughts," said Burns, who also watched hours of videotapes of Loughner being interviewed.
Also, while malingerers want to be described as mentally ill, Loughner did not, Burns said, citing the evaluators' reports.
"He scoffs at it,'' Burns said.
Psychological tests can also reveal malingerers, Fallis said. One type of test simply uses the data from thousands of previous test-takers to see if the defendant's answers are similar to those from people with verified mental illness.
Another type of test asks some questions that could be perceived as revealing mental illness by people who are trying to fake, Fallis said. For example, one question might be whether you see blue out of one eye and red out of another.
Malingerers might say yes to this and other questions asking about "the more ludicrous things that you don't hear from mentally ill people," she said.
Pietz was able to administer a test intended to "flush out malingering," Burns said, and Loughner's answers did not suggest he was faking it.
"There's ample evidence to support the conclusion that the defendant is not masquerading," Burns said.
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods said in his experience psychiatrists and psychologists are skilled at evaluating competency and finding malingering.
However, he said, "They live in a world that is very attuned to mental illness. Most of the rest of us, I think are more skeptical. In other words, we don't see mental illness everywhere."
Former Pima County prosecutor Brad Roach said in his experience competency issues are pretty clear-cut.
"In most cases involving someone who has a competency evaluation, it's obvious the dude is incompetent," he said.
Contact reporter Tim Steller at
[email protected] or 807-8427.
