In September of 2003, Plano housewife Lisa Diaz obeyed the voices in her head that ordered her to kill her children. She drowned her two daughters in a bathtub, then stabbed herself repeatedly in an ultimately unsuccessful suicide attempt. In August last year, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Read her story in the Houston Press, including how her attorneys learned from those who had defended Deanna Laney, but beware - some of the details are quite gruesome.
There's also a good sidebar story about the recent developments in the Andrea Yates case. Meanwhile, Ginger points to this Newsweek article in which Park Dietz whines and stamps his feet about how it's soooo unfair that his "honest mistake" has caused him soooo much grief. Poor baby.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 22, 2005 to Crime and Punishment | TrackBackPark Dietz is lucky old Johnny Homes is no longer District Attorney. He would have brought him up on perjury charges faster that you can say "my career is over".
Posted by: Chris on January 22, 2005 4:03 PMChris, a grand jury did convene to consider a perjury charge against Dietz, but they no-billed him. Admittedly, the DA's office has a lot of sway in these matters, but he was at least investigated.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on January 22, 2005 4:55 PMI am outraged that Park Dietz has not been charged with perjury. How can an invented t.v. show be an honest mistake? It all shows just how corrupt Texas is! Anyone who wants to understand what happened to Andrea Yates should google effexor petition. Effexor should never be given to a bipolar person. It can cause violent episodes. Her brother is bipolar. Bipolar is genetic. The drug company who hid all this is to blame! Park Dietz is a monster!
Posted by: Leslie hillnear on November 17, 2005 10:37 PMThe attorney Geoffrey Feiger did a good job in exposing Park Dietz for the kind of scoundrel he is when he cross-examined him on the witness stand in the Jenny Jones wrongful death trial back in the 1990s. The proof on the table that Park Dietz is a professional liar and a sham artist is the fact that Geoffrey Fieger ended up winning the 25 million dollar lawsuit against The Jenny Jones show. (Park Dietz testified as Jenny Jones' expert witness in her defense and Geoffrey Fieger exposed him for the fraud he is.) If anyone has followed Dr. Dietz's career as closely as I have, they'll feel that he should not be licensed to practice psychiatry anywhere in the United States or the world. The main reason that he has gotten away with so much is that he's got this creep lawyer named Roger Adelman who shields him from all legal harm's way. To tell you just what kind of sleeze Roger Adelman is, I found out that he was one of the attorneys who Ken Starr hired to go on a witch hunt against the Clintons in the Whitewater investigation back in the 1990s. I would endorse a class action suit against the Threat Assessment Group that Park Dietz owns and operates in California, because that organization is another sham of Park Dietz's that has ruined the lives of decent people since its creation. The man is pure evil and has no place in our criminal justice system.
Posted by: Billy on February 14, 2006 12:22 PMI wonder how the Yates' scandal affected Dietz's expert witness career since. Did it?
Bill, can you tell more about TAG's operation in CA, and how it 'ruined the lives of decent poeple' since its creation? I am not familiar with it. Thanks!
Posted by: Pat on May 24, 2006 11:38 PMThere is something very strange about the "mistake" Park Dietz made in perjuring himself. This is a man who is meticulous to a fault. It is almost like he wished to get caught in some kind macabre game of his invention. It is also very interesting that he intimated that his early experiences "dancing with mental patients" when his mother brought him to work (she was a nurse) were highly traumatizing to him. This from a man who is known to be highly punitive towards forensic mental patients.
Posted by: dave on July 26, 2006 11:10 PM