Justice, Justice ... Still Pursued
Not guilty? Claiming to be the Messiah?... Throw away the key!
Mental patient David Tarloff made a grotesque claim while under questioning in the meat-cleaver murder of an Upper East Side psychologist - telling cops his grandmother had tried to rape him as a young boy.
Tarloff, 40, who yesterday pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to the Feb. 12 murder of Kathryn Faughey in her East 79th Street office, said "that his grandmother moved in with him and, while he was sleeping, he woke up and his . . . grandmother was on top of him, straddling him," according to police statements.
The Queens psych patient also told cops that an unknown man led him behind some buildings and fondled him when he was 5 years old.
Tarloff, an out-of-work telemarketer, has been in and out of psych wards for the past 17 years, and may seek a psychiatric defense to the grisly murder, said his lawyer, Bryan Konoski.
"That allegation has come up a few times," Konoski said of the supposed grandma attack. "There's no way of knowing if there's any truth to it," he said, adding that the grandmother is no longer alive.
Tarloff admits slaying Faughey and injuring her colleague, Dr. Kent Shinbach, a psychiatrist whom he says was his true target.
SOURCE
Defendant Told Police He Only Heard Therapist Scream
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
The man accused of killing an Upper East Side psychotherapist with knives and a meat cleaver on Feb. 12 told detectives that he had heard her scream, but he did not acknowledge that he had killed her, according to court documents released on Tuesday.
The man, David Tarloff, said he “did not know what happened” to the psychotherapist, Dr. Kathryn Faughey, according to the detectives’ notes of their interviews with Mr. Tarloff and statements they said they heard in a phone call he made to his father.
The detectives wrote that Mr. Tarloff had intended to rob Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, who shared an office with Dr. Faughey and was seriously wounded when he came to help her. Mr. Tarloff also told the detectives that he had been in mental hospitals about 21 times, the notes said, and that he had not taken medication in about a week, although he had been forced in the past to take Haldol, an antipsychotic drug.
Mr. Tarloff, surrounded by court officers, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges on Tuesday. Bryan Konoski, his lawyer, said that Mr. Tarloff had not been regularly receiving medication at Rikers Island and that he had been attacked and jeered by other inmates with insults, including, “He’s the cleaver man!” He asked Justice Charles H. Solomon of State Supreme Court in Manhattan to transfer Mr. Tarloff to the psychiatric unit at Bellevue Hospital Center or order a second psychiatric evaluation.
Two psychiatrists who examined Mr. Tarloff at Bellevue in February said he was fit for trial.
But Mr. Konoski said that his client had deteriorated and began experiencing hallucinations after he was transferred to Rikers in mid-March, at one point claiming to be the messiah.
“There’s clearly a change in his mental state, competency and level of paranoia,” he told the judge.
Evan Krutoy, an assistant district attorney, said the fact that Mr. Tarloff had the wherewithal to complain about his treatment suggested that there was “clearly lucidity there.”
Although he said he was reluctant to tell the Department of Correction where to house prisoners, Justice Solomon said that Mr. Tarloff should be given the appropriate medication. The judge also ordered that Mr. Tarloff be put into protective custody, but he did not rule on the request for a second evaluation.
Detectives said Mr. Tarloff, who was arrested after they matched him to bloody palm prints, told his father that he wanted to rob Dr. Shinbach so he could take his ailing mother out of a nursing home and move to Hawaii. Mr. Tarloff’s family said Dr. Shinbach had played a role in his original diagnosis of schizophrenia 17 years ago.
“I only wanted Dr. Shinbach’s money,” Mr. Tarloff was quoted in the notes as saying. “I thought he was rich.”
Close to a dozen members of Dr. Faughey’s family, including sisters and brothers, sat through the hearing on Tuesday.
“We’re all devastated,” a brother, Owen Faughey, 57, said.
Me too, Mr. Faughey. Me too.
Mental patient David Tarloff made a grotesque claim while under questioning in the meat-cleaver murder of an Upper East Side psychologist - telling cops his grandmother had tried to rape him as a young boy.
Tarloff, 40, who yesterday pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to the Feb. 12 murder of Kathryn Faughey in her East 79th Street office, said "that his grandmother moved in with him and, while he was sleeping, he woke up and his . . . grandmother was on top of him, straddling him," according to police statements.
The Queens psych patient also told cops that an unknown man led him behind some buildings and fondled him when he was 5 years old.
Tarloff, an out-of-work telemarketer, has been in and out of psych wards for the past 17 years, and may seek a psychiatric defense to the grisly murder, said his lawyer, Bryan Konoski.
"That allegation has come up a few times," Konoski said of the supposed grandma attack. "There's no way of knowing if there's any truth to it," he said, adding that the grandmother is no longer alive.
Tarloff admits slaying Faughey and injuring her colleague, Dr. Kent Shinbach, a psychiatrist whom he says was his true target.
SOURCE
Defendant Told Police He Only Heard Therapist Scream
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
The man accused of killing an Upper East Side psychotherapist with knives and a meat cleaver on Feb. 12 told detectives that he had heard her scream, but he did not acknowledge that he had killed her, according to court documents released on Tuesday.
The man, David Tarloff, said he “did not know what happened” to the psychotherapist, Dr. Kathryn Faughey, according to the detectives’ notes of their interviews with Mr. Tarloff and statements they said they heard in a phone call he made to his father.
The detectives wrote that Mr. Tarloff had intended to rob Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, who shared an office with Dr. Faughey and was seriously wounded when he came to help her. Mr. Tarloff also told the detectives that he had been in mental hospitals about 21 times, the notes said, and that he had not taken medication in about a week, although he had been forced in the past to take Haldol, an antipsychotic drug.
Mr. Tarloff, surrounded by court officers, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges on Tuesday. Bryan Konoski, his lawyer, said that Mr. Tarloff had not been regularly receiving medication at Rikers Island and that he had been attacked and jeered by other inmates with insults, including, “He’s the cleaver man!” He asked Justice Charles H. Solomon of State Supreme Court in Manhattan to transfer Mr. Tarloff to the psychiatric unit at Bellevue Hospital Center or order a second psychiatric evaluation.
Two psychiatrists who examined Mr. Tarloff at Bellevue in February said he was fit for trial.
But Mr. Konoski said that his client had deteriorated and began experiencing hallucinations after he was transferred to Rikers in mid-March, at one point claiming to be the messiah.
“There’s clearly a change in his mental state, competency and level of paranoia,” he told the judge.
Evan Krutoy, an assistant district attorney, said the fact that Mr. Tarloff had the wherewithal to complain about his treatment suggested that there was “clearly lucidity there.”
Although he said he was reluctant to tell the Department of Correction where to house prisoners, Justice Solomon said that Mr. Tarloff should be given the appropriate medication. The judge also ordered that Mr. Tarloff be put into protective custody, but he did not rule on the request for a second evaluation.
Detectives said Mr. Tarloff, who was arrested after they matched him to bloody palm prints, told his father that he wanted to rob Dr. Shinbach so he could take his ailing mother out of a nursing home and move to Hawaii. Mr. Tarloff’s family said Dr. Shinbach had played a role in his original diagnosis of schizophrenia 17 years ago.
“I only wanted Dr. Shinbach’s money,” Mr. Tarloff was quoted in the notes as saying. “I thought he was rich.”
Close to a dozen members of Dr. Faughey’s family, including sisters and brothers, sat through the hearing on Tuesday.
“We’re all devastated,” a brother, Owen Faughey, 57, said.
“And we want justice for our sister.”SOURCE
Me too, Mr. Faughey. Me too.
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