The next witness was Dr. Reedy, who testified to what she had written in the psychological report when Rose did the direct examination. Things got pretty tense during Tonia’s cross-examination, as Tonia called about everything she did into question. Tonia suggested that I was so brilliant that I could have manipulated her and the tests even though the tests have built-in mechanisms to check for truthfulness. There were, of course, questions I could see people lying about, like, “Do you fantasize about hurting other people?” Rose wound up objecting to Tonia’s questions five separate times. Judge Ruest sustained all but the objection about what percentage of Dr. Reedy’s patients were adults. A typical exchange was:
Q. Would you be surprised to know that Mr. Mockensturm was hospitalized less than a week after your evaluation of him?
A. No.
Q. Well, Ms. Reedy, you had testified that you had confidence in Mr. Mockensturm’s ability to engage in self talk to help him deal with his stressors, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. So would you agree that his ability to engage in self talk wasn’t successful?
A. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t successful. If he went and was hospitalized, that doesn’t surprise me because he did have the capability, the coping skills to know when he needs help. If somebody did not have that, those coping skills, would continue on their own and would not go for help.
Q. Well, Ms. Reedy, you’re presuming that Mr. Mockensturm took it upon himself to go to the hospital when indeed you don’t know if that’s accurate or not, correct?
A. I had understood you to say he did, but no, I don’t.
Q. I guess what I’m saying to you is you don’t know how he got there, correct?
A. At the moment, I don’t, no. If that’s not what you were telling me, if you were not telling me that he took himself to the hospital, then no, I don’t know how he got there.
Q. Now in your report, you specifically indicate that Mr. Mockensturm is extremely — in fact your evaluation shows he’s of superior intelligence, correct?
A. Yes, yes.
Q. So it’s conceivable that Mr. Mockensturm would have the intelligence to, for lack of a better word, trick the results of this testing, correct?
A. It is possible.
Q. Okay.
A. These tests are very hard to trick.
First, I voluntarily went to the hospital as I had just discovered the emails and videos between Rita and Mike on my computer indicating that she’d had an affair. It wasn’t really that I was particularly upset about the affair, although I was, of course, hurt; it was that Rita, for years, had been accusing me of having affairs when I was not. And then she has an affair and starts making false allegations and harassing me to let her move to be with this man. I was not admitted to the hospital, although Tonia certainly makes it sound like I was. Another typical exchange was:
Q. Okay. So you’re taking Mr. Mockensturm’s word that his medication is well controlled, correct?
A. I — yes, that part of the report is what he told me.
Q. Right. So you don’t know in fact whether he is taking his medication or not, right?
A. I would not have been in his house to watch it, no. Every indication by his demeanor appeared that he was taking it, because he exhibited no behaviors that would suggest he wasn’t taking it.
Q. Well, Dr. Reedy, you would agree that you could have called Dr. John De Carle to verify that, correct, and you didn’t?
A. I could have, but again, that was not within the purview of this evaluation. The only thing I was asked to determine was was he a danger to his children.
Q. And you don’t believe it’s good practice to verify the information that a client comes in and relays to you when you know there’s a Protection From Abuse in place and you know there’s a history of admitted depression and suicidal ideations? You don’t believe it’s good practice to verify what this individual is telling you?
A. I believe it’s good practice if somebody else — if the evaluation is for a specific reason, specific reason such as transferring the care, yes, I believe it’s good practice to get that information. If there is something that is being said that would contribute — let’s say for example he came in and said, well, the doctor thinks that my behavior was because such and such happened. I would follow through with that, but if somebody comes in and tells me, I have a history of depression, and I’ve had thoughts of suicide, and I’m taking medication, that’s a standard — first of all, the medication is standard for what he’s taking, for what he is experiencing, and he’s coming in and admitting that. So I’m starting from that point that he’s admitting that. I’m not going to call the doctor and say, is he lying about having depression and anxiety.
Things got pretty tense during this exchange, and it would be an argument Tonia would resort to many times in the future, i.e., “Are you sure he’s taking his medication?” Interestingly, she berates Dr. Reedy for not calling Dr. deCarle but later forces him to admit he could not be sure I was taking my medication. Of course, doctors can’t be certain patients are taking their prescription as they don’t watch the patients do it every day. For whatever reason, Judge Ruest seemed to buy the argument that I was not taking my medication, and Rita would later suggest that was the case.
The thing is, it sucks to be depressed, and if the medicine is going to help prevent that, I am certainly going to take it. You hear many people with severe psychiatric problems saying they stopped taking their medications because they made them feel “numb” or “not themselves.” And some people have adverse side effects from certain anti-depressants. However, I was not taking any of these powerful psychotropic drugs and was having no side effects. Psychiatrists worry that if you take a medicine for long enough, it could stop being effective. That is why, if you have an episode of depression while on medication, they will typically try something different. There were, of course, days I would forget, but they were pretty infrequent as I had seen first-hand what happens when I stopped taking the medication for an extended period.
Another tense exchange occurred shortly after this one about taking the medication.
Q. I understand that. Now, in your report you reference that Mr. Mockensturm is also receiving therapy. Did you ask Mr. Mockensturm who his therapist was?
A. No.
Q. Would you be surprised to know that Mr. Mockensturm has not been in therapy for the last five years?
A. That would surprise me because he did say he was receiving therapy.
Q. Did you ask him whether — did you ask him how long he had been receiving therapy?
A. I believe we did talk about the length of therapy, but it was in the past, and I did not put it in there. It was in relation to one of the other incidents.
Q. You would agree with me, Dr. Reedy, that in your field a psychiatrist does not provide therapeutic services to their patients, correct?
A. That is not correct. A psychiatrist is trained and capable of providing therapeutic services. It is up to them whether they want to do that or whether they just want to give medication.
Q. Well, let’s go with that. So in your specific evaluation of Mr. Mockensturm, were you under the impression that Dr. De Carle was offering therapeutic services to Mr. Mockensturm, or were you under the impression that he was simply prescribing medication to Mr. Mockensturm?
A. I’m going back and forth here to find the places where we talked about that. I will tell you this, I do not recall whether that was the impression I was under. I just pulled this up last night and looked at it. I will tell you that it is very possible because I have another — I have several other clients that have seen Dr. De Carle, and he has provided some therapy to them.
Q. Do you believe, Dr. Reedy, that it would be accurate that your perception of Mr. Mockensturm is that he was a fairly honest person? I mean, you’ve indicated that.
A. Yes. I would agree that he is a fairly honest person.
Q. Would you be concerned or surprised if you knew that on Mr. Mockensturm’s cell phone he had a daily reminder indicated, and pardon my language, fuck with Rita?
A. I don’t know that I would be surprised at anything that somebody that is going through a divorce would do. That’s a whole different dynamic than what I was examining him for.
Q. Well, Dr. Reedy, part of what you were examining him for was his tendency toward being mentally unstable or violent, correct?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. You need to say yes or no just for purposes of the record.
A. Yes.
Q. So understanding the context in which you were evaluating Mr. Mockensturm, knowing that bit of information wouldn’t cause you to be concerned about his mental health?
A. I would advise him on the wisdom of doing that.
Q. That’s not what I asked you. I asked you if you would be —
A. Mental health, I have dealt with a lot of people who are going through divorce, and they behave very differently, at that time very differently toward their spouse or their ex-spouse, and it is not an indicator of their overall mental health. It is an indicator of the situation they find themselves in at that time.
Q. I’m asking you if it would cause you to be concerned.
MS. KAUFFMAN: Objection, Your Honor, this has been asked and answered.
MS. TORQUATO: She is not answering.
THE COURT: She did answer the question. I’m going to sustain it.
MS. TORQUATO: Okay.
Reading this now, knowing that Tonia was going through a terrible divorce at this same time, is fascinating. I wonder if Judge Ruest or Rose knew about this. It would have been nice for someone to have asked Tonia if she thought having an affair with her client said anything about her mental health.
Dr. De Carle was doing more than simply prescribing me medication. My appointments with him were not the usual hour-long therapy sessions with a psychologist, as I did not think I needed that. Psychologists I’d seen prior and after this have not been much help in general. There’s usually not much to discuss with them. Most of the time, I would vent my frustrations or ask for their opinion about some decision I would need to make. Later, Rita would portray my depression issues as happening yearly or more. While I won’t deny that I will have some bad days every year, I have learned not to let these spiral out of control as had happened in 2001 and 2002.
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