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June 8, 2009 Jury weighing Rockefeller imposter's fatePosted: 08:42 PM ET
BOSTON, Massachusetts–Jurors will resume deliberating the fate of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller Tuesday. Rockefeller, whose true name is Christian Gerhartsreiter, is accused of kidnapping his daughter during a post-divorce visitation and assaulting a social worker who was supervising the visit. He denies the assault and says he was criminally insane at the time of the kidnapping. 
Christian Gerhartsreiter standing in court next to photographic exhibit showing daughter Reigh  Jurors spent about 3 and a half hours deliberating before calling it a day. Earlier, they heard 90 minutes of summations from both sides before the judge instructed them on the law and they retired to decide the case. Defense attorneys Jeffrey Denner and Timothy Bradl split their closing argument. Bradl focused on three of the four charges that he said were not proved: assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (social worker hanging onto the car as it drove away), assault and battery (pushing the social worker in the back), and giving a false name to a police officer at the time of arrest. Denner conceded that the fourth charge, kidnapping, was factually proven but that Gerhartsreiter is not criminally responsible because of his severe psychological disorders. Denner defended the testimony of forensic psychologist Catherine Howe and forensic psychiatrist Keith Ablow, who both agreed that Gerhartsreiter’s delusions and narcissism prevented him from comprehending the wrongfulness of kidnapping his daughter. Denner concluded: “You see him descending into madness. You see completely irrational action that other people are buying because of the name Rockefeller and the appearance, the veneer, of respectability with a powerful wife.” Assistant District Attorney David Deakin told jurors this is a “case about manipulation, not about madness.” He suggested that insanity has nothing to do with the case. Rather “it’s a case about the loss of control, the defendant’s anger and frustration over the loss of control over his family and the plan he set about to regain at least as much of that control as he could.” Deakin went through a list of Gerhartsreiter’s actions in preparing and carrying out the abduction, to illustrate that Gerhartsreiter knew what he was doing was wrong. For example, shortly after the divorce was finalized, Gerhartsreiter resumed his life-long pattern when he planned a new life and a new identity, this time in Baltimore, as Charles “Chip” Smith. On the day of the kidnapping his meticulous plan unfolded once he had two getaway drivers in place. He wouldn’t allow one of those drivers, Aileen Ang, to answer her cell phone while driving him and his daughter to New York City because he knew she would learn about the Amber Alert for his daughter. The judge selected one of the four men on the jury as the foreperson. He teaches special education law at Harvard. Another man is a firefighter. Of the eight women, one of them used to counsel sex offenders and another has applied to medical school. After nearly three hours of deliberations on Monday, jurors asked the court detailed questions related to the most minor charge, the misdemeanor of giving a false name to the police. Stay tuned to In Session for all the latest as deliberations continue. Beth Karas, In Session correspondent Filed under: Uncategorized |
 
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