Defense attorneys for a Somali accused of murdering his four children have asked a judge to reconsider his competency after a psychologist was sanctioned for offering his opinion in testimony without having met with the defendant.
Dr. Larry Curl, who was an employee with Central State Hospital at the time, has been reprimanded by the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology and put on two years’ probation and supervision for testifying about Said Biyad’s competency, even though he admitted he had not personally assessed him.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge James Shake ruled in June that Biyad is competent to stand trial on the murder charges as well as charges of attempted murder, rape and assault on his wife, Fatuma Amir, who survived the Oct. 6, 2006, attack.
Shake noted in his ruling that after initially being deemed paranoid and delusional, Biyad had shown marked improvement with treatment at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange, according to testimony from Dr. Greg Perri, a psychologist who met with Biyad.
Curl agreed with Perri and testified in October 2008 that Biyad's cultural differences may have played a role in why Biyad was initially deemed not competent.
During that hearing, Curl acknowledged he had not evaluated Biyad personally and couldn’t declare the defendant competent or not, but he said he was relying on his observations and interviews with corrections officers and nurses as well his analysis of other experts’ evaluations.
On Thursday, defense attorneys Mike Lemke and Ray Clooney wrote in a motion that Curl’s testimony was “incompetent and illegal” and that he should not have been allowed to testify.
The motion claims a psychologist who read about Curl’s testimony in the media filed a complaint with the board, which investigated and ruled in November that Curl had violated state law by testifying to Biyad’s competency without formally assessing him.
In a settlement, Curl denied wrongdoing but acknowledged there was enough evidence for the board to prove the violation. Curl was reprimanded, put on probation for two years, ordered to pay a fine of $2,160 and will undergo weekly, face-to-face meetings with a supervisor.
Prosecutors with the Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office could not be reached Thursday.
Also, the defense claimed in its motion that Shake misstated a key defense witness’s testimony when he ruled that Dr. Wayne Herner, the chief psychologist for the Kentucky Department of Corrections, had issued no conclusion to Biyad’s competency.
Lemke and Clooney noted that Herner testified that Biyad is schizophrenic, paranoid, has grandiose thoughts that he is a multimillionaire with “celebrity status” and is borderline mentally disabled.
The defense said Herner and another doctor clearly found Biyad was not competent.
Shake’s ruling “will result in an incompetent man being tried for capital murder,” Clooney and Lemke wrote.
Biyad, who is scheduled for trial in June, has told police that he and his wife had been fighting and he forced her to have sex, then hit her with a blunt object, according to court records.
When Amir regained consciousness, she fled to a bedroom and braced the door shut so Biyad could not enter, prosecutors said in court records.
Biyad then went to the rooms where his children slept and cut their throats, according to a transcript of an interview he had with police.
“It is not right, I did bad things,” Biyad told police, according to the transcripts.
Goshany, Khadija, Fatuma and Sidi Ali, ages 2 to 8, all died in the family's apartment in the 1400 block of Bicknell Avenue.
Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 584-2197.
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