polk trial verdict

[MDhasbeen]

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wow... reading this article about the nuances of the susan polk case feels like one of those "what's wrong with this picture?" games-- only everything you can think of is wrong. 😱

Polk guilty of killing therapist husband
Woman acted as her own attorney during four-month trial

By Lisa Sweetingham
CourtTV

Friday, June 16, 2006; Posted: 4:40 p.m. EDT (20:40 GMT)


MARTINEZ, California (CourtTV) -- A jury found California housewife Susan Polk guilty of second-degree murder Friday in the stabbing death of her wealthy psychologist husband.

Polk showed no emotion as jurors returned the verdict shortly before noon Pacific Time after deliberating for four days. Sons Gabriel and Adam, who testified against her, also showed no emotion when the verdict was announced.

It was a surprisingly decorous end to a circus-like, 14-week trial in which the defendant acted as her own lawyer.

Polk, 48, faces 16 years to life in prison. In California, a conviction of second-degree murder means jurors found the killing was intentional but not premeditated.

She was 14 when she met Felix Polk, who was her therapist. She was 24 when she married him.

During the trial, jurors heard bizarre testimony from the defendant about psychics, secret agents and the daily physical abuse Polk claimed to have endured during a relationship that spanned three decades. (Full coverage)

Polk was arrested in October 2002 after her 70-year-old husband was found stabbed to death on the floor of a poolside cottage on the couple's $1.85 million property in Orinda, California.

Polk initially denied knowledge of her husband's death, but later claimed she stabbed him in self-defense after he attacked her with a paring knife.

Self defense, plus heart attack

Polk, who represented herself at trial, claimed her husband died from a heart attack during the altercation, and not from multiple stab wounds.

Prosecutors alleged Polk killed her husband at the end of a contentious divorce when she realized she was on the losing side. Felix Polk called police and friends in the days before his death saying he feared his wife would harm him.

The couple raised three sons, two of whom testified against their mother at her trial. Adam Polk, 23 called his mother "bonkers," "****oo for Cocoa Puffs" and "the embodiment of evil" on the witness stand.

Gabriel Polk, 19, testified that before his father's death, his mother talked about drugging Felix and throwing him in the pool, hitting him with her car, or shooting him.

Both sons say Polk is delusional.

She in turn claimed her sons were brainwashed by her husband and conspired to loot the family estate.

She found support during trial from her middle son Eli, 21, who told jurors that his father was the unstable parent.

Eli is serving a nine-month sentence for misdemeanor battery and violating the restraining order of a former girlfriend.

Nine days on stand

Susan Polk spent nine days on the stand, claiming Felix drugged and raped her as a teen, poisoned the family dogs, brainwashed their sons, and plotted the 1978 assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.

She called a psychic detective to the stand in an attempt to lend credibility to her claim to be a medium. She said her husband was a secret Israeli intelligence agent who hypnotized her into trances to glean her predictions and feed them to the Mossad.

Her husband threatened to kill her, their children and their pets, Susan Polk said, if she ever left him or divulged what she knew about him.

She told jurors she refused to undergo a psychological evaluation and denied suffering from delusions.

An expert on domestic violence testified that Polk appeared to be suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder due to her husband's abuse, but that she was not delusional.

Felix Polk's autopsy noted 27 stab and incise wounds and blunt force trauma to the head.

Dueling experts

Battling medical experts testified that Felix died from heart failure due to blocked arteries, and alternately that his weakened heart was simply a contributing factor in his death.

Susan Polk's relatively minor injuries -- red discoloration around her eyes, bite marks on the hand and a red welt on her shoulder -- did not help her case.

She was granted the right to represent herself at trial after firing five attorneys. Her first trial, in October, ended in a mistrial during its first week when defense attorney Daniel Horowitz came home to find his own wife had been murdered.

Polk faced serious challenges as an in-custody defendant acting as her own attorney. But she made forceful objections in court, pored over case law and never backed down from an argument.

The thin, gray-haired defendant with the meek voice and acid tongue was often her own worst enemy at trial.

If she were truly an attorney, the judge admonished Polk several times, she would have suffered severe sanctions for her constant disregard for the court's rulings and her daily allegations of misconduct and bias lobbed at the judge, the prosecutor, the deputies, the clerk, even the court reporter.

Polk told jurors the judge had instructed the court reporter to falsify the record. She called the prosecutor an "immoral creep," a "lying, deceitful" man," and a "P.E. major."

 

[PopoZao]

I saw some of her behavior on wrap ups on court tv. She clearly has paraniod delusions. What I can't figure out is why the people in the jury refuse to believe that she is very ill.
This is from an article on the verdict,
"Adam and Gabriel both testified that Polk is delusional. (these are her sons)

"That's a tough one," Juror Cristwell said when asked if the panel thought Polk suffered delusions. "I think she spent a lot of time telling us she's not delusional."

What?! Are they serious? For some reason I think that there are a lot of people who don't beleive that mental illness even exists. Here's an example, I'm sure everyone has heard this one: "There is no such thing as 'depression', I've been sad before and I got over it. They should just suck it up and get over it."

The other wierd part of the case is that she used to be his patient when she was 14 and married him when she was 24. I find that to be very creepy.

 

[Psyclops]

Ahhh.....ethics who needs 'em. I guess this illustrates why one shouldn't date thier patients. But then again, that's just classic blaming the victim. I would like to know what kind of psychologist practice he had that he afforded a 1.6m house in Cali. Any mention of that? Then again, if he was 70, then he was practicing back when psychologists used to make real money, before the managed health care travesty. I'm surprised all they mustered up is a paltry PTSD due to abuse. But then again, I guess it would have been the defenses purview to pursue an insanity plea. Sounds like a real circus, I'm sure the judge loved it.

 

[pingouin]

The other wierd part of the case is that she used to be his patient when she was 14 and married him when she was 24. I find that to be very creepy.

That got to me, too. Ugh.

If she refused a psychological/iatric eval, wouldn't this be a good case for the judge to court-order one? How did they determine her competency to serve as her own attorney?

 

[Psyclops]

I saw some of her behavior on wrap ups on court tv. She clearly has paraniod delusions. What I can't figure out is why the people in the jury refuse to believe that she is very ill.
This is from an article on the verdict,
"Adam and Gabriel both testified that Polk is delusional. (these are her sons)

"That's a tough one," Juror Cristwell said when asked if the panel thought Polk suffered delusions. "I think she spent a lot of time telling us she's not delusional."

What?! Are they serious? For some reason I think that there are a lot of people who don't beleive that mental illness even exists. Here's an example, I'm sure everyone has heard this one: "There is no such thing as 'depression', I've been sad before and I got over it. They should just suck it up and get over it."

What do you think the average education level was on that jury?

 

[Psyclops]

That got to me, too. Ugh.

If she refused a psychological/iatric eval, wouldn't this be a good case for the judge to court-order one? How did they determine her competency to serve as her own attorney?

Or stand trial for tha matter. Iguess that, although delusional, she still was capable of apprciating her actions.