With Permission
Dr. Vajinder Toor and son.
Fifteen months ago, Superior Court Judge Thomas V. O’Keefe, Jr, ordered the forced medication of Dr. Lishan Wang, saying it was the only way to restore his mental health and his competency to stand trial in the murder of a former associate, Dr. Vajinder Toor. Now, two major appeals later, the judge’s order was carried out yesterday.
Dr. Wang was arrested on April 26, 2010, and charged with the shooting death of Dr. Toor, a Yale doctor who previously had been Dr. Wang’s supervisor at a New York hospital. Dr. Wang believes Dr. Toor was responsible for his firing in 2008. Dr. Wang traveled from Georgia where he lived with wife and children to Branford and lay in wait for Dr. Toor as he left his Branford condo that day. He is also accused of attempting to kill Dr. Toor’s wife, a probable cause hearing in the case has found.
In November 2015, Judge O’Keefe said, in his view, Dr. Wang has become decidedly more ill over the years, describing his mental state as fluctuating between paranoia, narcissism, depression, and delusional behavior. He has also been diagnosed with having unspecified schizophrenia spectrum. “He is extremely ill. We are trying to return him to competency. This is the only alternative. It is with great reluctance that I order this, but I do order this,” he said, speaking from the bench back then.
Thomas Ullmann, the chief New Haven public defender, told the judge he would appeal. That appeal went to the Connecticut State Supreme Court, where Judge O’Keefe’s order for forced medication was upheld by a unanimous bench. Ullmann then had his office appeal the Connecticut Supreme Court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, decided not to review the Wang case. This means that the Connecticut Supreme Court decision stands.
So a hearing previously scheduled before Judge O’Keefe took place in New Haven Superior Court yesterday morning. It lasted 10 minutes.
Ullmann had maintained that forced medication violated Dr. Wang’s rights and may hinder his ability to assist in his defense at trial. The defense has said in prior court hearings that the success rate of these drugs, between 50 percent and 70 percent, is not impressive.
Doctors from the Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH), the state’s maximum security psychiatric hospital, have testified that a regular regimen of anti-psychotic drugs could help restore Wang to competency. Wang has refused to take medication on a voluntary basis.
According to sources, Dr. Wang, who resides in the Whiting Forensic Institute, one of the units of CVH, was given his first set of anti-psychotic medications when he returned from court.
In 2003, in what was a landmark decision, the United State Supreme Court imposed stringent limits on the right to forcibly medicate a criminal defendant who, like Dr. Wang had been deemed incompetent to stand trial for the sole purpose of making the defendant competent to stand trial. But in that case, “Sell v. United States,” the court also held there were factors in which forcible medication could be imposed.
Eugene R. Calistro, Jr., the senior assistant state’s attorney who has been handling this case since murder charges were first brought nearly seven years ago, argued at one court hearing in New Haven that forced medication was required and that the Wang case met the four factors outlined in Sell case. One of those factors says forced medication may be sought “if an important government interest is at stake.” In this case, that interest is the trial of Dr. Wang, Calistro said.
The Court Scene
Wearing sneakers, grey sweat pants and a black leather jacket, Dr. Wang sat at the defense table next to Public Defender Angelica Papastavros. Ullmann was out-of-state yesterday.
The judge gave the court a brief overview. He noted that after a previous hearing he made a written finding, which included an order for the forced medication of Dr. Wang. Afterwards, the public defender “informed me he would appeal the order. The State Supreme Court confirmed my order. And yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case. This leaves no issues before the court and clears the way for my last order to be carried out, which is the forced medication of Dr. Wang.”
Dr.Wang did not make eye contact with the judge. The judge set the case down for its next hearing on April 21, adding that if Dr. Wang can be brought back to court earlier that was okay, too. O’Keefe ordered a two-week update on the medication program results from Gail Sicilia, the court-appointed health care guardian for Wang. A CVH psychiatric report to the court will be required every 60 days.
The judge then made one more request of the defendant. “I am hoping the doctor will consider taking medication voluntarily. I am doing everything in my power to protect his rights. It is in his best interests to cooperate.” The judge said Dr. Wang has been respectful of the court even “though he doesn’t always agree with me. But I hope he agrees at some point with what I just said.”
Dr. Wang was silent and stoic.
“Good luck, Dr. Wang,” Judge O’Keefe said as a court officer put Dr. Wang’s handcuffs back on.
Before Dr. Wang left, Attorney Papastavros told the judge that Dr. Wang had a motion he wanted to deliver to the judge.
Another Motion
Dr. Wang’s hand-written motion asked the judge for a special public defender to defend him. As he has said in the past, it was time for Ullmann to go.
The motion to the judge asked for a new attorney, a special public defender. Dr. Wang charged that Ullmann had a “conflict of interest.” He was also “incompetent and ineffective in representing the defendant and protecting his mental health.”
Ullmann, Wang wrote, had failed to obtain “a second opinion of the defendant’s mental health.” Dr. Wang has been examined by any number of psychiatrists over the last seven years.
He also brought up a sore point, that Ullmann’s office “has opposed the defendant using the funds from the public defender’s office for the preparation of his defense when the defendant was representing himself.” That was true.
But in the end the state’s highest court ruled that the public defender’s office was required to pay fees for those representing themselves even though the public defender’s office no longer represented them. The high court’s order applied across the state, not just New Haven.
It is unlikely that Judge O’Keefe will entertain Dr Wang’s most recent pro-se motion because he is still deemed incompetent and because he is represented by the Public Defender’s office.
Dr. Wang was granted the right to represent himself by Superior Court Judge Roland D. Fasano. He acted as his own attorney until April 2015 when after a series of hearings, Judge O’Keefe ruled he was incompetent and could no longer represent himself.
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