WrongPlanet.net Shooter's Psychiatrist Absolved

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http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/04/13/Psychiatrist_Isn_t_Liable_for_Patient_s_Shooting.htm

Psychiatrist Isn't Liable for Patient's Shooting

By JEFF GORMAN

(CN) - A California psychiatrist did not violate a duty of care to the survivors of a shooting perpetrated by one of his patients, a California appeals court ruled.

Psychiatrist ce Greenberg appealed after the Superior Court of Orange County denied his motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by and .

The s sought a judgment against Greenberg for wrongful death after his patient, Freund, shot and killed 's husband and daughter before turning the gun on himself.

Freund was a friend of . He suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism that affects a patient's social interaction skills.

Freund, 19, went on a support-group Web site called Wrong Planet and wrote that he had bought a gun and was going to "blast things away."

He complained on the site of his parents' controlling nature and of the "concoction of pills" that Greenberg had prescribed for him. However, neither Greenberg nor any members' of the family knew about Freund's Internet posts.

The s sued Greenberg for medical negligence, asserting that he should have monitored Freund more closely between his prescription of Lexapro and the shooting.

"Plaintiff's argument that petitioner's treatment of Freund was the actual cause of Freund's attack on the family skips over the issue of duty, i.e., whether petitioner owed plaintiffs a duty of care when making medical decisions regarding the treatment of his patient," wrote Justice Ikola of the Santa Ana-based appeals court.

The plaintiffs argued that the case was similar to Calderon v. Glick (2005), but Ikola noted that in that case, the girlfriend was an identifiable target of the killer's rage.

"Freund exhibited no violent tendencies or motives against the family," Ikola wrote. "As plaintiff's stress in their argument, Freund was not already noticeably deranged."