Dr Ziv Cohen Forensic Psychiatrist On Dismembered Parents Trial (Chandler Halderson) — Transcript

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1. 0:00all right dr cohen let's first start
2. 0:02with chandler holt i think we could do a
3. 0:03whole show on chandler halderson for the
4. 0:04next 40 minutes but let's first start
5. 0:07with the idea of if you believe what the
6. 0:09prosecution says his ability to lie to
7. 0:13the people in his life lying to his
8. 0:15parents about where he was working what
9. 0:17he was doing for money how much money he
10. 0:19had um
11. 0:21you know jobs that he was trying to get
12. 0:24his education
13. 0:26injuries he sustained lying to his
14. 0:28girlfriend his girlfriend's family how
15. 0:30is someone able to continually do that
16. 0:34well you know so with lying and
17. 0:36pathological lying it certainly makes
18. 0:38you think of what we call psychopathy
19. 0:40you know psychopaths or individuals who
20. 0:43like to manipulate others they don't
21. 0:45have a conscience
22. 0:46they don't really follow conventional
23. 0:48morality and really everything is a
24. 0:50means towards an end
25. 0:52and you can have people
26. 0:54on that spectrum you have the most
27. 0:55severe psychopath but you also have
28. 0:57people who are sort of you know on the
29. 0:59path or on the spectrum of psychopathy
30. 1:01but maybe have a less severe form of it
31. 1:04uh and those people are often very
32. 1:05narcissistic so you know when i when i
33. 1:07hear about chandler halderson and these
34. 1:09lies that all seem to point things that
35. 1:11would touch on your self-esteem like
36. 1:14what kind of an education do you have
37. 1:16what kind of a job do you have um and
38. 1:18that he seems to try to be protecting
39. 1:20his self-esteem by creating this facade
40. 1:22for his parents and then prosecutors
41. 1:25allege that when the facade was was was
42. 1:27burst by uh by his parents by his father
43. 1:30discovering that these were lies that
44. 1:32that that was the motive so if that's
45. 1:35indeed the case as alleged then it
46. 1:37certainly makes you think about
47. 1:38narcissism someone who can't tolerate
48. 1:41a negative perception of themselves
49. 1:44and also about psychopathy
50. 1:46well let's continue on because his
51. 1:48behavior is a study in and of itself we
52. 1:50also heard
53. 1:52from dulce's partner she took the stand
54. 1:55and talked about chandler's kind of odd
55. 1:57behavior in the weekend in question yeah
56. 1:59and the judge said he'll put that under
57. 2:01advisement that issue and rule if
58. 2:02necessary during the trial in the police
59. 2:04interview so i do want to ask you here
60. 2:07doctor it seems to me when we deal with
61. 2:09these kinds of cases
62. 2:11road rage right both on the part of
63. 2:14maybe the victim and the defendant there
64. 2:16is evidence that they want to put in the
65. 2:17defense that the victim had engaged in
66. 2:19prior incidents of road rage what
67. 2:22happens to people in these kinds of
68. 2:24situations
69. 2:26well you know
70. 2:27we often think about evolution you know
71. 2:30our brain developed a fight or flight
72. 2:32response that response is really helpful
73. 2:34if there's a you know you see a lion
74. 2:36suddenly pop up in the jungle or
75. 2:38something like that and you need to run
76. 2:39away or if you need to capture something
77. 2:42and kill it um but that fight or flight
78. 2:44response and those kind of innate
79. 2:47rageful capacities that we have when we
80. 2:50need to defend ourselves are often very
81. 2:52counterproductive in our day-to-day life
82. 2:55so when you're driving we really want
83. 2:56someone to be calm cool rational not
84. 2:59overly reactive
85. 3:01but of course you know we have that in
86. 3:03our dna and so very often uh when you
87. 3:07feel disrespected on the road or when
88. 3:09someone you feel has put you in danger
89. 3:11it can involuntarily elicit a very
90. 3:13strong reaction now if you take someone
91. 3:15who anyway has problems with anger
92. 3:18management with someone who might have
93. 3:20an impulse control disorder or just uh
94. 3:23you know has a history of violence then
95. 3:25of course it can become you know a
96. 3:27lethal combination and of course we see
97. 3:28that all the time
98. 3:30and
99. 3:31clearly that happened in this case
100. 3:32however you want to you know describe it
101. 3:35uh this resulted in a in a homicide so
102. 3:38uh you know clearly the the feelings got
103. 3:40out of control well it's also a case of
104. 3:43possible self-defense so when this trial
105. 3:45begins and you're going to hear maybe
106. 3:47the defendant himself take the stand and
107. 3:49talk about acting in self-defense
108. 3:51what are the things that you will be
109. 3:53looking out for and maybe should
110. 3:56somebody a psychologist or psychiatrist
111. 3:58be called to the stand to further uh
112. 4:01have the jury understand these issues
113. 4:04well they certainly could you know and
114. 4:05so judges uh you know to try to be
115. 4:08balanced on this it really is a
116. 4:10determination for the jury
117. 4:12they are supposed to take into account
118. 4:14the past history of the individual to
119. 4:17understand their state of mind when they
120. 4:19thought they needed to defend themselves
121. 4:20so for example if i've been mugged in
122. 4:23the past when i was going in a dark
123. 4:24alley in new york city and now i'm
124. 4:26walking in a dark alley in new york city
125. 4:28and i shoot someone who's unarmed
126. 4:30because i felt under threat uh the jury
127. 4:33is allowed to consider the fact that i
128. 4:34have a history of being mug that that's
129. 4:36part of my psychology now that kind of a
130. 4:39fact pattern in and of itself doesn't
131. 4:41require a psychiatrist necessarily to
132. 4:44explain it to the jury the jury can just
133. 4:46hear it and and weigh it based on their
134. 4:48common sense and experience
135. 4:49but certainly if there's a history of of
136. 4:52mental health issues for example if i
137. 4:54had ptsd from when i was mugged and
138. 4:56that's even putting me on trigger alert
139. 4:58then i think you would want to have a
140. 5:00psychiatrist you know add that level of
141. 5:02expert opinion so i think in this case
142. 5:03it could go either way depending on what
143. 5:05fact pattern emerges
144. 5:07and it's interesting because we i think
145. 5:09self-defense cases are some of the most
146. 5:11fascinating trials particularly with the
147. 5:13defendant possibly testifying and you
148. 5:15never know really which way the jury is
149. 5:16going to go particularly as we heard
150. 5:18with the kyle rittenhouse case and now
151. 5:20this one so it's going to be great to
152. 5:22see and hopefully dr cohen will join us
153. 5:24when we cover this trial uh live on the
154. 5:26network dr cohen thank you so much for
155. 5:27coming on have a great weekend thanks
156. 5:29for breaking down all these cases with
157. 5:30me i am signing off you're in great
158. 5:32hands and jeannette levy is up next
159. 5:34we'll be back