Prosecutor - Yoder presents danger if released to public

PSYCHIATRY ON TRIAL

By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian

CHESTER, Ill. -- In the second day of mental patient Rodney Yoder's court proceeding that some say has put "psychiatry on trial," Illinois prosecutors painted a portrait of a madman, saying that Yoder is too dangerous to be released from the state's maximum-security facility for the criminally insane.

Today, the defense witnesses will take the stand -- possibly even Yoder himself -- to argue that there is no such thing as mental illness and that Yoder should be freed after almost 12 years of involuntary incarceration at the Chester Mental Health Center.

Yoder has been incarcerated at Chester for 12 years after he was taken there from prison, where he was serving a conviction for assaulting his ex-wife. Yoder also served a prison sentence before for assaulting a live-in girlfriend years ago.

Yoder, 44, was extremely animated during the proceeding, often scribbling notes, going through files and talking in a loud voice to his attorney while witnesses were testifying. Yoder even had an irritable exchange with a former mental health center employee, loudly calling him a "paid assassin" and a "hit man" while the jury was out of the room.

"Keep it up, man, keep it up," the man said.

Psychiatrists testify

For a second day Randolph County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Burke continued to call state and independent psychiatrists who evaluated Yoder, wrapping up the state's case Tuesday afternoon. Two testified Tuesday.

Psychologist J. Reid Meloy of San Diego, reputed to be a national expert on risk assessment, testified that 28 people or agencies have contacted the Chester facility saying they want to be warned if Yoder is ever released.

"I've never seen a list that long of people who want to be warned," he said.

William Reid, a psychiatrist from Texas who evaluated Yoder a year ago, said that he believes Yoder has persecutory-type delusional disorder, which he said makes him dangerous, especially considering that Yoder has refused all treatment for years.

"That involves people who have a break with reality," he said in front of the six-person jury that includes five men and a woman. "They think things are true that are really not. Mr. Yoder has a belief that he has been held as a political prisoner and that dozens and dozens of people have it in for him."

Reid said that Yoder has also said that psychiatry itself caused the events of Sept. 11 because it was only after Osama bin Laden befriended a psychiatrist that he shifted from freedom fighter to terrorist.

All of this, Reid said, means Yoder would not be safe on the street.

"He is always feeling attacked, so that means he is always ready to fight back," Reid said.

Reid said he couldn't predict exactly what Yoder would do, only that he would place him in a "moderately high to high" category of risk that he would do something.

Reid, who testified most of the day Tuesday, also said it would be a mistake to say Yoder's rage is only the result of being incarcerated.

"That's a superficial look," he said. "To say, 'I'd be mad too if I were locked up' is the wrong way to look at it. It goes way beyond Mr. Yoder's incarceration."

Illness doesn't exist

During cross-examination, Yoder's attorney, Randy Kretchmar, hinted at Yoder's belief that mental illness doesn't exist. That is a claim that has drawn some national media attention and defenders like Patch Adams, the doctor and former mental patient who gained fame after a movie about his life was released.

Kretchmar asked psychiatrists if there was any medical evidence, such as a blood test, X-rays or brain scans, that shows how a person is mentally ill. The psychiatrists said diagnosis of mental illness is based on a person's behavior and beliefs.

Yoder maintains that officials from the Illinois Department of Health have it in for him because he once won release from prison after suing a prison warden who later was the administrator at the mental health center.

Evidence was presented Monday and Tuesday that Yoder sent threatening letters to people before his first time in prison or in the Chester facility. Some of the letters went to the CEO of Playboy magazine, the owner of Mars candy and a mix of other public figures including a state judge, whom Yoder threatened to rape.

Two guards from the mental health center also testified Tuesday, recalling an incident in which Yoder was involved in an altercation with an inmate. The guards said that Yoder attacked a man who was on the phone with a sock full of batteries. Yoder's attorney suggested it was retaliation because Yoder had been threatened by the man on the phone and another Chester patient earlier in the day. Another bailiff also testified that Yoder once bit him.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137