Insanity Defense Is Planned In Case of Psychologist Murder

The lawyer representing the man accused of killing an Upper East Side psychologist with a meat cleaver is pursuing a defense that rarely works out during trials, the insanity plea.

David Tarloff's lawyer, Bryan Konoski, said at a hearing yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court that a psychiatrist who has twice evaluated his client at the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward recommended an insanity defense. He said Mr. Tarloff, who suffers from auditory and visual hallucinations and has a long history of schizophrenia, believed he was directed by God to go to the office where he is accused of killing Kathryn Faughey on February 12.

Several legal experts said Mr. Tarloff's defense is likely to draw parallels to a similar plea offered by the lawyers who represented Andrew Goldstein, who after pursuing an insanity plea eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter for pushing a woman in front of a subway train in 1999.

Goldstein was said to have a history of schizophrenia similar to Mr. Tarloff's, yet he was unable to convince the justice system that he couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong when he committed the crime. Mr. Tarloff's defense will face a similar uphill battle, several legal experts said. Mr. Konoski said his client was directed by God through prayer to go to the office where Faughey was killed as part of a divine plan to rescue Mr. Tarloff's mother from a nursing home in Queens. That Mr. Tarloff was arrested for assaulting a security guard at his mother's nursing home several weeks prior to Faughey's murder will aid in his defense, Mr. Konoski said.