The Boston Globe posted breaking news today - the guilty verdict of the jury in the Clark Rockefeller kidnapping case. The Globe reports that the jury rejected Crockefeller's insanity defense and found him guilty of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter Reigh Boss last year. Court TV followed the trial. Evidence at trial deconstructed 30 years of the defendant's chronic exaggerations and outright falsehoods about his identity, his activities, dubious stories and exposed his use of multiple aliases.
Crockefeller's lawyers and highly paid experts claimed that he suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder ("NPD")and that he was legally insane at the time of the crime. The DA argued that Crockefeller was really a manipulative con man who meticulously planned a crime, hiding $800,000 in gold coins, buying a new residence using another false identity where he could hide Reigh. It took eight days for law enforcement to find him and Reigh. He's been in jail ever since.
He was also convicted him of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon -- the sport utility vehicle in which he escaped, telling his highly paid getaway driver to speed off while clinical social worker supervising his visitation clung to the door. I don't understand the jury's verdicts of not guilty of another count of assault and battery for allegedly pushing Yaffe to the ground and the count of giving police a false name when he was arrested in Baltimore.
It would, in my opinion, have been a travesty if he'd gotten away with the kidnapping because of NPD. The prosecution had to prove two things: that Rockefeller knew that what he did was legally wrong and that the kidnapping was morally wrong. Given that people with NPD have no conscience according to the DSM IV and have a strong sense of entitlement, the jury must have been counting the angels on the head of a pin when they made their decision, though. But why get all hung up on semantics.
The methodical way in which Rockefeller planned the kidnapping was, for me, the deciding point.
Further coverage on June 13, 2009 is at this link. The Globe has provided comprehensive links on this page to photos, prior articles, and video of the trial. http://tinyurl.com/m6c9u3
For more about parental kidnapping see the parental kidnapping archives of this Blog where you'll find all kinds of resources to help you prevent parental abduction and also resources to help left behind parents recover abducted children. See also my parental kidnapping web site at http://parental-abduction.com.
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