TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Asperger’s

  • Odgren’s trial date set

    Trial date set in Sudbury high school slaying:

    You have got to be kidding me.

    A trial date has been set for John Odgren. Odgren is the teen accused of stabbing his classmate James Alenson to death at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts. The thing is the trial date is almost a year away…

    Middlesex Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein yesterday set a Sept. 15, 2008, trial date for John Odgren, 16. Odgren is charged with the Jan. 19 murder of classmate James Alenson, 15, inside the high school.

    Not that I give a damn about Odgren but why so long for a trial? Whatever happened to the speedy part? I want to see this kid get put away as soon as possible.

    Odgren is also one of the kids that the Helen Lovejoy’s are rallying around not only because he was charged as an adult but he also has Asperger’s.

  • Robert Derderian arraigned and still faking it

    Robert Derderian arraigned and still faking it

    Student arraigned on more sexual assault charges:

    I originally posted about Robert Derderian here. He’s the 18-year-old accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and videotaping the assault. The wrinkle, in this case, is that Derderian allegedly has autism and isn’t talking to his attorney.

    At a hearing on those charges last week, public defender Tracy Scavarelli asked a judge to allow Derderian’s parents to make phone calls confirming that he is following his bail conditions because her client isn’t speaking. The lawyer has said Derderian may not be competent to stand trial because he has autism.

    So he has the wherewithal to record a sexual assault that he allegedly committed, and now all of a sudden, he’s a window licker? I’m not buying it and neither is the prosecution.

    Prosecutor George Waldron accused Derderian of exaggerating his illness. He says he thinks Derderian can speak and is just faking it.

    Which again does a great disservice to people who actually have autism. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing this kid has is I’m-a-big-faker-itis. Which the only known cure is a lengthy stay in a penitentiary.

  • Asperger’s as a criminal defense

    Asperger’s as a criminal defense

    I first heard of Asperger Syndrome when I was blogging about the case of William Freund. Freund was a 19-year-old from Aliso Viejo, California who donned a paintball mask and a cape, armed himself with a shotgun, and went on a neighborhood shooting spree. He entered the unlocked home of Vernon Smith and shot and killed Smith and his 22-year-old daughter Christina before turning the gun on himself.

    Now before we go any further, I’ll give you just the briefest of rundowns on Asperger’s. There are many who argue about the precise definition of Asperger’s, but it is believed to be a mild form of autism in which the afflicted have an extremely hard time with social interaction. For example, an AS patient may have a difficult time detecting sarcasm or reading a person’s body language and may take everything as fact. AS patients may also have an obsession with one particular subject or pastime. I realize this is just barely scratching the surface of Asperger’s, but it will do for now.

    William Freund’s obsession was more than likely guns. On the Asperger’s forum, WrongPlanet.net, Freund often spoke of wanting a real friend, being suicidal, and threatening to start a terror campaign. On the site SomethingAwful.com, he asked what kind of buckshot was the best for home protection. He stated that on Halloween, he was going to wait out on his porch with his shotgun and shoot anybody who tries to vandalize his pumpkins. That was possibly the worst site that he could have posted that on. The Something Awful community is not known to be kind to any user who posts such outrageous statements, and I’m sure his Asperger’s didn’t help.

    The moderators of WrongPlanet tried to reach his family to tell them of the terror plot he was allegedly planning, but they could not. Since Freund took his own life, no trial was ever held, but at the time I commented that Asperger’s would be eventually used as a murder defense. At the time, not knowing that it already had been tried.

    The next time I heard about Asperger’s was from the case of John Odgren. He is the 15-year-old student from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts who stabbed and killed another student by the name of James Alenson in a school bathroom.

    Alenson was stabbed in the heart and abdomen and slashed across his face and neck with a 13-inch kitchen carving knife. Odgren is alleged to have two obsessions, forensics, and his knife collection. He had a penchant of bragging to classmates that he could pull off the perfect murder. After the murder took place, Odgren ran into the school hallway and admitted what he had done to school officials and police. By all accounts, he didn’t act like someone who had just committed a murder. Some reports say that he was joking with police and when Crime Scene Services arrived he excitedly offered to assist them.

    While the case has not yet gone to trial, his defense attorney was quick to offer up Asperger’s as a defense to the media.

    While blogging about the Lincoln-Sudbury murder, I asked some blogging doctors I know what they thought about using Asperger’s as a medical defense.

    One medical doctor explained to me that Asperger’s patients can sometimes have explosive episodes and that AS patients can have a lack of impulse control. A surgeon told me that since the explosive outbursts are a part of the disease, he doesn’t think the suspect should be sent to prison but should be under constant supervision and a controlled environment. I asked a Ph.D. who has a son with autism what her opinion was, but I’ll get into that a little later.

    Both crimes that I’ve mentioned so far do not seem like explosive episodes. Freund had been threatening to go on a rampage for a while. In my opinion, John Odgren had his crime planned out very far in advance, as he had the day of the murder circled on his calendar.

    Yesterday I read about the story of Robert Derderian. He’s an 18-year-old who is accused of sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl and videotaping what basically amounts to rape.

    He has also been charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl several times over the course of last summer. According to his defense attorney, he may not be competent to stand trial because he has Asperger’s and autism and will not speak to his attorney.

    I find this claim hard to believe. One of the symptoms of autism and Asperger’s for many sufferers is an extreme dislike of physical contact. That’s not to say that is the case for all AS and autism patients, but it is rather prevalent among them. My point is this. Any criminal defense attorney who has an iota of integrity should not use Asperger’s as a criminal defense.

    The Ph.D. whose opinion I asked about this told me the following. Using autism/Asperger’s as a criminal defense is seen as having a very negative effect on the public perception and understanding of autism and Asperger’s as it suggests a direct link between autism/Asperger’s and violence.

    If this becomes standard practice among defense attorneys, it could lead to a sort of witch hunt against Asperger’s patients.

    AS patients are probably having a hard enough time as it is without this kind of social condemnation. A few bad apples, so to speak, should not let society cast a bad light on a group of people who are already misunderstood.

  • Odgren pleads not guilty

    Odgren pleads not guilty

    Lincoln-Sudbury student pleads not guilty in slaying:

    John Odgren pleaded not guilty today in the stabbing death of James Alenson. So let me get this straight. He stabs James Alenson to death, basically confesses to the crime to police at the scene, then pleads not guilty. Just once, I want someone to plead guilty. Why has he pleaded not guilty? I sense someone laying the grounds for an insanity defense…

    Odgren, a 16-year-old sophomore from Princeton, looked puzzled during the proceeding as his attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, asked the judge to transfer his client from jail to Westborough State Hospital so he could receive medication and psychiatric treatment. Odgren’s condition has deteriorated, Shapiro said, and he has been on suicide watch for the last four or five days.

    Judge Isaac Borenstein ordered that Odgren be sent to Westborough State for observation for 20 days.

    Call me a cold-hearted bastard if you want, but I’m not buying it. I think Odgren and his lawyer are trying to use his Asperger’s to their advantage. I would lay odds that during the trial, they’re going to make it seem like that all Asperger’s patients are all just time bombs ready to go off and kill someone at any given moment.

    Let’s not forget what Odgren did either…

    Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett said that Odgren slashed Alenson’s throat before plunging a 5.5-inch knife through his ribs and then into his though the stomach. A third student was in a bathroom stall and heard Alenson say, “What are you doing, you are hurting me,” Bennett said.

    That doesn’t sound like someone who “just snapped” to me. That sounds more like a stone-cold killer.

  • NPR on Asperger’s and the Lincoln-Sudbury murder

    NPR on Asperger’s and the Lincoln-Sudbury murder

    Student with Asperger Syndrome Charged in Murder:

    This is a piece from NPR about how much a part Asperger’s Syndrome is playing in the murder of James Alenson by Asperger’s patient John Odgren. What I found interesting about this piece is that some parents of Asperger’s kids are horrified that Odgren’s defense attorney is using Asperger’s as a defense. It’s a very good listen.

    Thanks to Dr. Feste for the link.

  • Odgren’s past

    Odgren’s past

    School transfer of accused teen eyed:

    This is an article that chronicles the school history of Lincoln-Sudbury High stabbing suspect John Odgren. According to the article, he attended 5 schools in five years, which also, according to the article, is not very conducive to an Asperger’s patient.

    Psychiatrists say children with Asperger’s often struggle with school transitions, and a move to a large public school with 1,600 students would not be easy. Youngsters with Asperger’s typically have poor social skills.

    “It’s difficult for these people to accept changes,” said Mohammad Ghaziuddin, a child psychiatrist at the University of Michigan and a specialist in Asperger’s. “They are used to having their own schedule, their own routines. It’s their desire for sameness.”

    At this point, it’s unknown why all those transfers took place. One of the schools said that anyone who has a tendency towards violence would not be allowed to remain there. Lincoln-Sudbury schools are also saying that records provided to them were missing documents that should have contained information regarding Odgren’s past “explosive episodes”.

    Was he shuffled from school to school because of his behavior? Or could it have been parental impatience? Were they possibly not satisfied with the pace he was progressing and held the schools responsible? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

  • Alenson didn’t know his attacker

    Alenson didn’t know his attacker

    Principal: No Evidence Slain Teen Knew Attacker:

    The principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, John M. Ritchie, addressed a group of parents at the school auditorium Thursday night. He stated that there was no pre-existing relationship between accused killer John Odgren and his victim James Alenson. So all of those claiming bullying as Odgren’s motive can stick that in your crack pipes.

    Now it says the stabbing started as an altercation. How do we know that John Odgren didn’t start that altercation? If he’s going to claim that Asperger’s caused him to kill James Alenson the prosecution can also claim that it caused him to kill James Alenson unprovoked.

    An insanity plea can work both ways.

  • Another doctor’s opinion on Asperger’s

    Another doctor’s opinion on Asperger’s

    I had asked another blogging doctor about Asperger’s as a murder defense in the case of John Odgren. I e-mailed Dr. Feste of Illyria and this is what he had to say. Again, nothing has been edited…

    One would think that a 16-year-old with such a diagnosis would not be allowed to have a knife collection; obviously parents have poor insight into the problem…. oftentimes the parents have just as many issues. If I were the supreme authority on truth, justice and all things imperial (I should be provided with such responsibilities), I would not incarcerate the individual, since the explosive outbursts are a consequence of his disease, but I would not let him roam free, especially with such parents….. it seems a good chunk of modern society is incapable of reasonable parenting, and thus the murderous 16-year-old should be under constant supervision and a controlled environment until there is proof that he will not repeat his offense. Parents need a good whack in the head, though.

  • A doctor’s opinion on Asperger’s

    A doctor’s opinion on Asperger’s

    With all the talk about Asperger’s Syndrome on this site lately because of the Lincoln-Sudbury High stabbing, I decided to get a professional opinion. Over the weekend, I e-mailed Dr. Scott from Polite Dissent and asked him his opinion about Asperger’s being used as a murder defense. This was his reply. Nothing has been edited.

    There’s no easy answer. Some people with Asperger’s are all but autistic, others are fully functional, most fall somewhere in between. A person who attends high school, admits to the deed, and apologizes strikes me as someone who is pretty functional, and knows right from wrong.

    That being said, impulse control problems are common in people with Asperger’s. May seem to lack the ‘maybe this isn’t the right thing to do’ switch between anger and action.

    As an aside, whenever I hear that someone has Asperger’s — be they a patient of mine, or someone on the news, I wonder where they received their diagnosis. About half the people seem to be self-diagnosed (or ‘mother diagnosed’) because they think it fits, and it ‘sounds right’ and they now have an excuse for some of their choices (it wasn’t me, it was the Asperger’s). I never trust these diagnoses. Asperger’s is a poorly defined condition that is difficult to diagnose; it takes hours of psychological testing and interviewing for a correct diagnose; it takes a specialist. Without one of those doing the diagnosing, I don’t believe the diagnosis.

    If you have an opinion about this, post it in the comments here. Don’t harass Dr. Scott at his site. He was merely doing me a favor.

  • Lincoln-Sudbury suspect bragged of knives

    Lincoln-Sudbury suspect bragged of knives

    Accused killer boasted of vast knife collection:

    John Odgren, the suspect in the Lincoln-Sudbury High School stabbing, had previously bragged about his rather extensive knife collection…

    John Odgren is a private kid who spent hours exploring the vast woods around his secluded Princeton home, neighbors said, sometimes carrying a machete.

    One neighbor said the quiet teen appeared menacing as he stalked along the winding country road with a machete in hand whacking at brush. “He just acted odd,” said the neighbor. “He’d sit in the woods all day. He spent all last summer walking in the woods.”

    But another said Odgren seemed like a typical country boy who enjoyed the outdoors: “He didn’t seem like a punk. He didn’t seem like he was too big for his britches. He seemed like a nice kid.”

    A student at Sudbury named Julia, who is making a crime film, said Odgren was fascinated by crime. “He said if we needed any props for the movie he had knives,” she said.

    For the sake of argument, let’s just say that his Asperger’s is what caused him to kill James Alenson. Then if his parents knew he had a predisposition to fly off the handle, why did they allow him to have a knife collection? Why would you let any 16-year-old have a knife collection, including a machete, anyway?

    The article said he was picked on too. I don’t care. I bet James Alenson was picked on too. He was a quiet kid who played the clarinet. You’re going to tell me that no one picked on him?

    There’s only one victim here, and his name is James Alenson.