Is Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital the best place to provide treatment for Michael Barisone, found not guilty by reason of insanity in his 2022 trial on a charge of second-degree attempted murder?
The dressage trainer’s legal team contended in court yesterday that he can’t get the therapy he needs at the state facility, maintaining he should receive it on an outpatient basis from a private hospital.
The Morris County, N.J., Prosecutor’s office, meanwhile, maintains Greystone is the venue that minimizes risk to the patient and society as Barisone gets treatment.
Those viewpoints were expressed yesterday in a daylong Krol hearing before Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor, who heard testimony from a psychiatrist and psychologists as each side presented its case. In New Jersey, Krol hearings are held periodically to judge the progress of a criminal defendant who has been confined to a psychiatric institution following a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Barisone, the alternate for the 2008 U.S. Olympic dressage team, was tried on attempted murder and several other charges in connection with the shooting of Lauren Kanarek, a tenant on his Long Valley, N.J., farm. The two and Kanarek’s fiancee, Rob Goodwin, had a long-running dispute that erupted into gunfire on Aug. 7, 2019.
Kanarek, a rider who came to the farm to be trained by Barisone, took two bullets in the chest and was rushed to Morristown Medical Center’s intensive care unit after the incident, which Barisone says he doesn’t remember. Kanarek’s parents, Kirby and Jonathan Kanarek, were in the courtroom monitoring Friday’s proceedings.
Following the April 2022 verdict, Barisone was sent to the state’s Anne Klein Forensic Center in West Trenton before being transferred to Greystone in Parsippany, N.J., six months later.
Citing the voluminous amount of testimony presented during Friday’s court session in Morristown, Taylor reserved decision until Wednesday, when the next steps for Barisone will be determined as he meets with lawyers for both sides, Morris County Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn and Chris Deininger on behalf of Barisone. Meanwhile, the outcome of the last Krol hearing in September, which kept Barisone at Greystone, is being appealed.
Michael Barisone and attorney Chris Deininger. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Attorney Edward Bilinkas, representing Barisone, noted in court that individual treatment for his client at Greystone did not get under way until March 2023, even though the defendant entered the hospital in October 2022.
Initially, Barisone was in group sessions where patients listened to music and filled in coloring books, according to Bilinkas. Barisone filed 15 requests to get the treatment that would help him. After the threat of a lawsuit, individual treatment began.
Dr. Sarah Pachner, a Greystone psychologist, stated from the witness stand that there were “significant delays” at the hospital across the board because the department is “considerably short-staffed, we are down a number of positions in the department, making it difficult to keep up with demand.”
Bilinkas told the judge that in regard to Greystone, his client was “being punished here. It has nothing to do with recovery.”
Schellhorn, citing comments from Greystone’s treatment team that Barisone often went off on tangents bringing up the “index crime” of the shooting and trying to “relitigate the case” instead of focusing on efforts to heal his mental health issues, suggested another Krol hearing should be held in six months “to see how the therapy treatment is going.”
He said the Greystone doctors “testified their goal is not to keep Michael Barisone at Greystone Hospital any longer than it needs to, but he has to participate and cooperate, and he has to understand these things before they are going to be able to make a recommendation to the court that it would be appropriate for him to go out into the community safely.”
Schellhorn stated that based on the testimony from Greystone team members, Barisone has “overall a lack of insight with respect to what is necessary for him to cope.”
The defense psychologist, Dr. Charles Hasson, characterized Barisone as narcissistic, which he described as a personality disorder, stemming from feelings of inadequacy dating back to his childhood and “a lot of trauma.”
According to Hasson, Barisone felt he was defective. To fight that, “he worked hard,” and was driven to become a perfectionist, the psychologist continued.
Psychologist Dr. Charles Hasson testifies. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
“It drove him to prove he was halfway decent.”
While feelings of shame occasionally surface and Barisone has struggled with depression, “he’s not a danger,” Hasson contended, taking issue with the type of the specific type of assessment tests used by the hospital.
“There’s a difference between mental illness and mental health,” he added, saying Barisone definitely needs therapy but could get it on an outpatient basis five days a week at a private treatment center if he lives with a friend in New Jersey. That dovetails with a previous recommendation by a defense psychiatrist.
Hasson advised that Greystone staff needs to listen to Barisone, but at the same time, “not react to the BS.”
Comments by Hasson and others who testified indicated there was frustration on the part of both therapists and Barisone. Hasson said narcissists can “turn off the therapist, make the therapist angry.”
Greystone psychiatrist Dr. Anthony Gotay said Barisone has “a sense of grandiosity and self-importance,” as well as a preoccupation with “success and power.”
Grandiose people think “rules don’t apply to them” and “they’re better than other people.”
He said Barisone also has obsessive/compulsive personality disorder, which is approached with therapy, rather than medication.
Psychiatrist Dr. Anthony Gotay. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
The doctor expressed skepticism when he recounted how Barisone mentioned a movie may be made about him, and insisted he had hosted late night comedian Stephen Colbert’s show.
Bilinkas pointed out to the doctor in his cross-examination that Barisone, the subject of a 48 Hours documentary on CBS, had been approached about a book and a movie–“I’m not aware of that,” Gotay replied. Bilinkas also noted that Barisone had done a show with Colbert in which he gave the comedian a dressage lesson. Gotay said he had not seen it.
Gotay mentioned Barisone is smart, but “keeps getting in his own way.”
He said Barisone should continue individual and group therapy so Greystone can “ease restrictions and see how he does.” If it goes well “we can give him more freedom.” That could include outings and overnight visits.
“He needs the safety and structure of Greystone or a 24-hour hospital. He needs to be able to go into the community and come back and be reassessed.”
If you missed last month’s story about the settlement in the civil lawsuit involving Barisone, here is a link.
