FORENSIC SERVICES

Evaluations for Tort Claims
Capacities
Psychiatric Disability

Employment Related Evaluations
Correctional & Psychiatric Institutions
Criminal Forensic Evaluations

Certification & Licensure

Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
  • Added qualifications in forensic psychiatry 12/94
    * recertified 12/04, 4/12
  • Certificate in psychiatry 11/87
Diplomate, American Board of Forensic Psychiatry 10/92
Medical Liscensure
  • Pennsylvania 3/02
  • Florida 2/02
  • Maryland 8/82

Honors

Paul R. McHugh Teaching Award, Department of Psychiatry
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 6/06
Distinguished Fellow
  • American Psychiatric Association 1/03
Fellow
  • American Psychiatric Association 12/95
Rappeport Fellow
  • American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law Appointed 1985
Lifetime of Service Award
  • Maryland Psychiatric Society, 4/22

Current Teaching Appointments

Associate Professor of Psychiatry
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
  • University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Postgraduate Training

University of Maryland Hospital

Baltimore, Maryland

  • Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry 7/86-6/87
Johns Hopkins Hospital

Baltimore, Maryland

  • Resident in Psychiatry 7/85-6/86
  • Assistant Resident in Psychiatry 7/83-6/85
Baltimore City Hospitals (now Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center)

Baltimore, Maryland

  • Psychiatry Intern 7/82-6/83

Education

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, Maryland

  • M.D. 5/82
  • B.A. with Honors 5/79
Emory University

Atlanta, Georgia

  • Student 1975-1977

Clinical Practice

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Part-time volunteer faculty, 1/24-present
  • Director of Program In Psychiatry & the Law 7/92-12/23
  • Outpatient attending physician on the Community Psychiatry Service 2016-2023
  • Inpatient attending physician on the Community Psychiatry Service 1987-2016
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry, 1987-present

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Academy of Psychiatry & Law
  • Medical Director 11/13-12/23
  • Task Force to Revise the NGRI Practice Guidelines
    • Chair 2011-2013
  • President 2007-2008
American Psychiatric Association
  • Council on Psychiatry and Law
    • Consultant 2015-12/23
  • Commission on Judicial Action
    • Chair 5/08-5/10
    • Consultant 5/10-5/12
  • Committee on Advocacy & Litigation Funding (CALF)
    • Chair 5/02-5/08

American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology
  • Committee on Subspecialty Certification in Forensic Psychiatry
    • Vice Chair 2016-12/23
    • Member 3/00-12/07, 2013-2016
Maryland Psychiatric Society
  • Ethics Committee
    • Member 5/90-Present
    • Chair 5/94-4/08
  • Council Chair 5/04
  • President
    • Installed 5/98

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Excited Delirium, Ketamine Use and Death During Police Restraint
Extreme Overvalued Beliefs
The Important Role of a Psychiatrist Whistleblower
Practice Resource for Forensic Training in General Psychiatry Residency Programs
The Threat of Violence in Health Care Settings
The Tarasoff Pendulum Swings Back: Expansion of Washington State Psychiatrists' Duties to Protect Third Parties
Texas, Intellectual Disability and the Death Penalty
Hospital Security Officer Weapons Use in Behavioral Emergencies: Is it Ever Appropriate?
Justice Kennedy Takes On Solitary Confinement In The Correctional System
Arrests and the Police: Does the ADA apply?
Practice Guideline for Forensic Psychiatric Evaluation of Defendants Raising the Insanity Defense
Transferring juvenile defendants from adult to juvenile court: How Maryland forensic evaluators and judges reach their decisions
Competency to practice and licensing
Reducing inpatient suicide risk: Using human factors analysis to improve observation practices
Resource document on the use of restraint and seclusion in correctional mental health care
Lies and coercion: Why psychiatrists should not participate in police and intelligence interrogations
Diversion to the Mental Health System: Emergency Psychiatric Evaluations
Practice guideline: Forensic psychiatric evaluation of defendants raising the insanity defense
Reply to Shafer: Exploitation of criminal suspects by mental health professionals is unethical

Resource document on peer review of expert testimony
Group dynamics in forensic pretrial decision-making
Insanity defense pleas in Baltimore City: An analysis of outcome
Clinicians’ judgment of competency of nursing home patients to give informed consent
The Mental Health System and the Law
Competency assessment of medical and psychiatric patients under the Health Care Decisions Act
The Munchausen Syndrome in civil forensic psychiatry
The request for assistance in dying: The need for psychiatric consultation
Prevalence of advance directives and guardianship in nursing home patients
The Hopkins Competency Assessment Test: A brief method for evaluating patients’ capacity to give informed consent
The emergency petition process in Maryland
Assessing competency in the elderly
Defendants pleading insanity: An analysis of outcome
Psychiatrists’ accuracy in predicting violent behavior on an inpatient unit
Munchausen Syndrome in a mother and daughter: An unusual presentation of folie à deux
Assessment of risk in research on children

SELECTED LECTURES & PRESENTATIONS

2023
  • Extreme overvalued beliefs: Thoughts, Actions, and Blame
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
  • Psychiatric Inpatients and Violence Towards Staff
    • Spring Grove Hospital Grand Rounds, Baltimore, Maryland

2022

2020
  • Error in medicine
    • Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2019
  • Impact of DSM-5 Intellectual disability on the death penalty
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland
  • AAPL at 50: A look at how the past informs the future
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Updates from the Council on Psychiatry and the Law: APA Position Statement on Hospital Weapons Use
    • American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California

2018
  • Extreme overvalued beliefs or delusions
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas
  • AAPL as amicus curiae: Retrospect and prospect
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas
  • Minimizing suicide risk
    • American Physician Institute for Advanced Professional Studies, Chicago, Illinois
  • Dangerousness to others: Minimizing risk
    • American Physician Institute for Advanced Professional Studies, Chicago, Illinois
  • Legal and fiduciary issues impacting the older adult
    • Fourth Annual Service Members and Veterans: Treatment Methods, End-of-Life Considerations and Changes in Cognitive Function for the Aging Patient, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

2017
  • The Suicide Prescription: Practical and Policy Problems
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado
  • Evaluating risk in mental health crises and resources for resolutions
    • 2017 NAMI Delaware Inspiring Hope Conference, Wilmington, Delaware
  • Presidential Symposium: Improving police response for persons with mental illness
    • American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, California

2016
  • AAPL Practice Guidelines on competence to stand trial
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
  • Hospital Security Officer weapon use: Is it ever appropriate?
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
  • Psychiatric inpatients and violence towards staff
    • Saint Elizabeths Hospital Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
  • Forensic psychiatry
    • Annual Lecture PGY-III Series, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Ethics and psychiatry
    • Annual PGY-III Lecture Series, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Baltimore, Maryland

2015
  • Presidential Symposium, Current developments in forensic Psychiatry: Reducing inpatient suicide risk, Improving observation practices
    • American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada
  • Forensic curbside consults
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Forensic psychiatry and the death penalty
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Suicide risk assessment and prevention, Grand Rounds
    • Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2014
  • AAPL as Amicus Curiae
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
  • Management of violence on an inpatient psychiatric unit, Grand Rounds
    • Saint Joseph’s Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Civil commitment and medication over objection, The Maryland experience
    • Saint Elizabeths Hospital Annual Forensic Conference: Involuntary Civil Commitment, Updates and Controversies,Washington, D.C.
  • Suicide risk assessment and prevention, Grand Rounds
    • Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2013
  • Inpatient violence: Risk mitigation strategies
    • American Academy Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, San Diego, California
  • Involuntary hospitalization and treatment
    • NAMI of Metropolitan Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Psychiatric inpatients and violence towards staff
    • Buffalo Psychiatric Center, SUNY at Buffalo Grand Rounds, Buffalo, New York
  • Reducing Suicide Risk, Grand Rounds
    • St. Josephs Medical Center, Towson, Maryland

2012
  • Updating the AAPL Practice Guidelines on the Insanity Defense
    • American Academy Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada
  • Developments in forensic psychiatry in the United States and France: Vive la difference!
    • American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Psychiatry and the Courts: Hot issues
    • American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2011
  • Reducing inpatient suicide risk
    • Caro Center, Caro, Michigan
  • Psychiatric inpatients and violence towards staff
    • Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2010
  • Suicide risk assessment and prevention
    • Grand Rounds, Spring Grove Hospital Center, Baltimore, Maryland

2009
  • Juvenile waivers: Which factors influence decisions
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland
  • National security, the Hippocratic oath, and the war on terror
    • American Psychiatric Association, Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California
  • Reducing inpatient suicide risk: Improving observation practices
    • Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2008
  • Mandated outpatient care in NYC: Two roads more traveled by
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington
  • President's address: Reducing inpatient suicide risk: Improving observation practices
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington
  • The ethics of coercion
    • Ethics Forum, Baltimore County Medical Association and The Maryland Psychiatric Society, Towson, Maryland
  • Psychopathy
    • Maryland Psychiatric Society Personality Disorder Symposium, Towson, Maryland

2007
  • Forensic psychiatry fellowships: Faculty competencies
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Miami, Florida
  • Operationalizing the insanity defense
    • ASTAR National Judges Science School – Neuroscience & Bio-Behavioral Technologies, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Suicide and violence risk assessment
    • Grand Rounds, Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Lies and coercion: Why psychiatrists should not participate in police and intelligence interrogations
    • Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2006
  • Disciplinary actions against psychiatrists in Maryland
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
  • Competency assessment instruments: The state of the art
    • Maryland Judiciary Workshop for ASTAR judges, Baltimore, Maryland

2005
  • Update on forensic psychiatry ethical issues
    • APA Ethics Workshop, Washington, D.C.
  • The impact of Department of Juvenile Services interventions on future juvenile delinquency
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada
  • Psychiatric malpractice
    • Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Suicide and violence to others risk assessment
    • Annual Meeting, National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Las Vegas, Nevada

2004
  • Emergency evaluations: Clinical outcomes
    • APA Ethics Workshop, Washington, D.C.
  • Assessing competency in medical and surgical patients
    • Medical Grand Rounds, St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, Maryland

2003
  • Confidentiality and privacy
    • APA Ethics Workshop, Washington, D.C.
  • Civil commitment: From court to hospital
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas
  • Current psychiatry and the law issues at the APA
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas

2002
  • Involuntary hospitalization and treatment
    • Mid-Shore Health Systems, Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Maryland
  • Capital punishment, the insanity defense and psychiatry
    • Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2001
  • Capital defendants: Psychological mitigating factors
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Mental illness and dangerousness to others
    • Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

2000
  • Practice guidelines for not criminally responsible evaluations
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
  • When patients say no to needed treatment: From persuasion to coercion
    • Guttmacher Forensic Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Crucial training in emergency petitions and involuntary hospitalizations
    • Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Maryland
  • Safely managing psychiatric patients in the emergency room
    • Kent and Queen Anne’s Hospital, Chestertown, Maryland

1999
  • Models of overturning the right to refuse treatment
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Espionage, psychological exploitation and entrapment
    • American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland