Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A psychologist testified Friday that the man charged with killing Chicago police Officer Thor Soderberg has a psychotic disorder, not a mere personality disorder as prosecutors have alleged.
Dr. Joan Leska concluded that Bryant Brewer has a psychotic disorder, possibly schizophrenia, after interviewing him and reviewing more than a thousand pages of his medical records from Cook County Jail.
But the judge presiding over the trial questioned whether the testimony was relevant to Brewer’s guilt or innocence since Leska did not evaluate whether he was insane at the time of the officer’s slaying.
Soderberg, 43, was one of six Chicago police officers killed in 2010, the deadliest single year since the early 1980s. Shortly after finishing his shift, he was standing outside his yellow Subaru in the parking lot adjacent to an Englewood police deployment center when he was shot three times with his service weapon after a struggle with Brewer.
In the fifth day of the trial, Bryant continued to act oddly in the courtroom, laughing at random moments and moving his right arm in a chopping motion. A day earlier, he had taken the witness stand and declared under questioning by a prosecutor that he was proud to be a cop killer.
Doctors at Cermak Health Services, the jail’s hospital, have consistently diagnosed Brewer with schizophrenia, according to testimony.
Leska testified that Brewer exhibited “bizarre behaviors” in her interview, talking loudly and cursing at her while denying he had a mental illness.
“He was laughing to himself, mumbling to himself, making faces in a mirror,” Leska said. “He went on a rant that was quite bizarre.”
“They’re very classic symptoms of a psychosis and thought disorder,” she testified.
Prosecutors questioned Leska on whether Brewer actually has an antisocial personality disorder, noting doctors have found some of his behavior in jail manipulative. Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Sexton brought out during his cross-examination that Brewer told other doctors who examined him that “when things don’t go my way, I get angry and upset.”
Leska said she believed Brewer did not have a personality disorder but also noted that she wasn’t asked to assess his mental health status at the time of Soderberg’s slaying.
That perplexed Judge Timothy Joyce, who is presiding over the bench trial and will decide Brewer’s fate.
“I’m struggling to figure out how all of this I’ve heard for the past two hours is relevant ... when the witness did not evaluate his mental status on the date of the offense,” the judge said.
Brewer’s attorney, William Wolf, said a judge who presided over the case for most of its five-year history — not Joyce — had ruled that the defense could present evidence of Brewer’s mental illness.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday with testimony from a psychiatrist hired by the defense.
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