Psychiatrist Testifies Patz Defendant Had Cocaine Addiction

By ELIZABETH ELIZALDE

A psychiatrist who testified in the Etan Patz murder trial on Tuesday said the man accused of killing the six-year-old-boy had a secret cocaine addiction he tried to hide from his family but the dependency had no ties to his mental illness.

Michael First, a renowned psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, diagnosed Pedro Hernandez, 54, with schizotypal personality disorder, a mental condition related to schizophrenia, but less severe. Symptoms include delusion, hallucinations, disorganized speech and odd behavior.

The shock to the defense came after Judge Maxwell Wiley brought up Hernandez’s cocaine use and ruled that prosecutors cross-examine First because he felt it was relevant to the doctor’s psychiatric diagnosis.

The prosecution could use Hernandez’s past cocaine use against him, which puts the defense in a difficult position. Hernandez’s lawyers argue that he gave a false video tape confession in May 2012 and has a personality disorder that limits him to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

“He was drawn to the drug because it made him feel better,” First said in his defense testimony. He claimed that it was common for psychiatric patients to struggle with substance abuse and that it was highly unlikely that the cocaine use caused his mental illness.

”He tried his best to hide his drug problem,” said First of Hernandez’s $300-a-week cocaine spree. First testified that Hernandez started using cocaine at  age 15 when he lived in Puerto Rico, and used it heavily in the United States from 1985 to 2005. It got so bad that he would fight with his wife Rosemary over money to buy the drug.

Medical records show Hernandez’s schizotypal symptoms persisted six months after he stopped using cocaine and his Bellevue toxicology reports resulted negative in May 2012.

The doctor pointed out that Hernandez’s medical condition stemmed from his childhood. He was teased, had no confidence and no friends, which coincides with symptoms of schizotypal, the doctor said.

“The cause of delusions remain unclear,” said the witness, who stood behind his diagnosis for the defense.

The doctor, under cross-examination, told jurors that through a series of interviews, Hernandez told him he saw people in night gowns, a “lady in white,” a man in a suit and a woman wearing a pearl necklace, watch him choke Patz in the basement of a bodega some 34 years ago. First found the details striking and asked Hernandez why he didn’t tell him before. “I didn’t want my lawyer to think that I was crazy,” First said Hernandez told him.

“He said that he strangled a kid, but didn’t see his face,” the doctor told jurors. “He doesn’t believe it was Etan Patz.”
The little boy disappeared while walking on his way to school in his neighborhood of SoHo on May 25, 1979. Patz’s body was never found and investigators say there is no forensic evidence linking Hernandez to the murder.

“The way he told the story was very much like a confession,” said First. “It’s clear that he doesn’t know what is real and what is not.”

Prosecutor Penelope Brady asked First if he thought Hernandez gave a truthful confession and if psychiatric patients could commit murder.

“Are they capable of murdering a child?” asked Brady.

“Yes,” said the doctor.