Michael Barisone had “interpersonal problems” and “a longstanding conflict” with student Lauren Kanarek and her boyfriend, Robert Goodwin, in Florida during the winters of 2018 and 2019, according to Dr. Louis Schlesinger, a psychology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who was a rebuttal witness for the prosecution today in the dressage trainer’s attempted murder trial.
Psychologist Louis Schlesinger makes a point during Barisone’s trial. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
Since the combo of Kanarek and her partner wasn’t a match made in heaven for Barisone, why did he let them come back to his Hawthorne Hill Farm in Washington Township, N.J., for the fateful summer of 2019, when Kanarek was shot?
“He said he needed money,” explained Schlesinger, noting that it cost Barisone $36,000 a month to run his business. The 2008 U.S. Olympic dressage team alternate told Schlesinger everyone in the horse business has to deal with difficult clients, so he lived with it. Kanarek was paying $5,000 monthly board for two horses, although she had several other mounts, one of which she bought from Barisone for $30,00 or $40,000; the amount stated has varied.
At the same time, Goodwin was doing some construction and tileing in the farmhouse on the property where they lived and elsewhere on the farm, but he wanted to be paid for his work. Barisone had been trying to get the couple to leave his farm, and was moving ahead with eviction procedures.
This was the final afternoon of testimony in the trial that has lasted nine days in Morristown, N.J., with attorneys set to sum up and the jury getting the case next Monday. We finally got some answers to questions that have arisen as Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor presided, but were left open-ended due to objections that were sustained or otherwise not permitted. You can’t appreciate the intricacies of the rules of evidence until you see how many “sidebars” are called, where the lawyers move to the bench to discuss various issues in low voices with the judge.
Michael Barisone confers with his attorney, Edward Bilinkas. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
Schlesinger, who has worked for government agencies including the FBI and the Morris County Prosecutor’s office, with which he is presently involved in another case, was called by the prosecution to comment on the testimony of the expert witnesses for the defense.
They are a psychiatrist and another psychologist, who discussed Barisone’s mental state. A psychiatrist is a physician who can prescribe medicine; a psychologist is a PhD who specializes in the study of mind and behavior or in treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral issues.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Steven Simring, yesterday said Barisone–who had been seeing a therapist on and off for 20 years–suffered from delusional disorder and also was dealing with persistent depressive disorder.
Barisone stated he couldn’t remember the incident in which he is charged with shooting Kanarek twice, resulting in her stay of nearly three weeks in Morristown Medical Center’s intensive care unit.
Simring said being hit on the head with a phone by Goodwin “is probably the most likely reason Barisone lost memory,” noting he suffered several injuries on his head, including a hematoma behind his ear. Dr. Charles Hasson, the defense team’s psychologist, mentioned Barisone had many head injuries over the years, a not-unfamiliar scenario for equestrians.
Defense psychologist Dr. Charles Hasson. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
Schlesinger, however, was skeptical about Barisone’s memory loss, noting it came after the attack, when Goodwin punched the trainer and then held him down on the ground until the police came.
Defense attorney Edward Bilinkas is pursuing a joint insanity and self-defense strategy, so the psychology experts are key to judging Barisone’s mental state.
Defense attorney Edward Bilinkas. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
Schlesinger discussed malingering in terms of feigning or faking an illness, motivated by criminal prosecution.
He said it is something that is “strongly suspected” if an individual is referred by an attorney when charges are pending.
The fact that Barisone remembered what happened prior to the shooting and afterward, but not the incident itself is “a red flag. Why isn’t everything blacked out?” Schlesinger wondered.
He maintained, “There’s no memory disorder that is selective just for criminal conduct. So what does he not remember? Lauren comes out (of the farmhouse) and then he has no memory for anything else until he wakes up in the hospital with a big light on him.”
When something like that happens, Schlesinger suggested, “the first thing you say is `Where the hell am I? Why am I here?’ He didn’t say that.”
Schlesinger mentioned dissociative amnesia “that can occur in a trauma, so I considered that.”
But he added, “I don’t think that is correct. I think this is malingered amnesia” noting it is “very common in criminal cases.” He observed, “There is no memory disorder that is selective just for criminal conduct.”
Although Barisone owned several guns, the weapon used in the shooting was a pink and black 9 mm Ruger belonging to Ruth Cox, who co-owned horses at the farm. She would travel up from North Carolina to visit with a gun in her car because she was concerned for her safety while traveling.
Barisone asked her for the gun after she arrived in early August and put it in his office safe because “he felt it wasn’t safe in the car with Lauren there,” Schlesinger reported.
“Does it show anything with respect to whether he know or appreciates the nature and quality of his actions,” asked Morris County Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn.
Morris County Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn and Assistant Prosecutor Alex Bennett.( Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
When Cox arrived on Aug. 2, 2019, “The gun was in a case and the ammunition was not loaded,” the psychologist said. But the gun was out of the case and loaded when Barisone drove to the farmhouse where the confrontation with Kanarek and Goodwin took place on Aug. 7, 2019.
Schlesinger commented on “Michael’s belief that Kanarek was going to kill him, Mary Haskins (his former girlfriend) and her children.”
He said, “It’s not delusional, it’s based on what was going on at the time.” He noted that Haskins felt their lives were in danger and thought Kanarek’s father, Jonathan, was going to kill her.
But Schlesinger contended that had nothing to do with the shooting. Instead, he maintained it was sparked when an investigator from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency came to the farm to speak with Mary Haskins, who, like Barisone feared the children would be taken from her.
“Who wouldn’t be upset if he incorrectly thought Lauren called Child Protection? She didn’t, but that’s what he thought,” said Schlesinger.
“My understanding is that SafeSport called DCPP.”
However, earlier in the trial, it was brought out that Kanarek had twice looked up the anonymous reporting number for DCPP.
Drs. Hasson and Schlesinger disagreed on methodology involving a series of psychological tests, which left a question mark on which accurately assessed Barisone’s mental condition.
The issue, according to the judge “is what’s in the defendant’s mind.”