THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250294
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DEDHAM, MASS. LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
John C. Salvi III is schizophrenic and incompetent to stand trial for the murder of two abortion clinic workers, a psychiatrist testified Monday.
The hearing was punctuated by an outburst from Salvi. ``I have the right to speak if I'm brought to this courtroom, and I would like to say something,'' Salvi told Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara as his mental competency hearing reconvened after a lunch break.
``Sir, you cannot speak,'' Dortch-Okara replied while court officers surrounded Salvi, who already was manacled and wearing a bulletproof vest.
The hearing resumed after Salvi was taken out of the courtroom and lawyers conferred with the judge. During hearings in May and June, Salvi had to be restrained as he tried to pass statements to the media.
The competency hearing, being held in Norfolk Superior Court, ended about 4:20 p.m. and was scheduled to continue today. It is pivotal because it will determine whether Salvi should stand trial or be committed to Bridgewater State Hospital until he is deemed competent to stand trial.
Earlier Monday, prosecutor John Kivlan and Dr. Philip Resnick, a psychologist testifying on behalf of the defense, clashed about whether Salvi's fears of an anti-Roman Catholic conspiracy are really ``delusions'' or a calculated attempt to avoid trial for the clinic attacks.
``Didn't you write there are over 400 theories of psychiatric treatment?'' Kivlan, an assistant Norfolk County district attorney, asked Resnick during his cross examination.
``I would agree it's not a precise discipline,'' said Resnick, a court psychiatrist from Ohio and a professor of psychiatry at Case-Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Salvi, 24, of Hampton, N.H., is charged with two counts of murder and five counts of aggravated assault for the Dec. 30 attacks on two Brookline abortion clinics. He pleaded not guilty last February. Salvi also has been accused of shooting at Hillcrest Clinic on East Little Creek Road in Norfolk, Va., the next day. No one was injured in the Hillcrest shooting, and charges were waived by Virginia officials so that Salvi could be returned to Massachusetts.
Shannon Lowney, a receptionist at a Planned Parenthood clinic, and Lee Ann Nichols, a receptionist at a clinic operated by Preterm Health Services, were killed. Five other people were wounded.
Salvi has said he is competent to stand trial and would accept the death penalty if convicted. His lawyers believe he is not competent. Last month they persuaded Dortch-Okara to appoint a third party, a so-called amicus counsel, to argue Salvi's incompetence against his wishes.
Under questioning by that attorney, John H. LaChance, Resnick testified that Salvi is a schizophrenic, most notably because he suffers ``delusions.''
For example, he said, Salvi believes members of the Catholic church are suffering an ``economic holocaust'' by systematically being fired from their jobs.
Resnick said Salvi thinks that Catholic males are rendered sterile by injections when they're born; that there is a conspiracy of Freemasons who want to blind or kill him; that the Mafia may be after him; and that his car was bugged.
KEYWORDS: HEARING ABORTION CLINIC SHOOTING by CNB