The defense has rested in the case of Danvers teen Philip Chism, who charged in the death of his math teacher, Colleen Ritzer. The prosecution called rebuttal witnesses Thursday who challenged the premise of Chism’s defense.
Psychologist Kelly Casey of William James College gave Chism an ink blot test three months ago. She told the jury she saw no signs of psychosis, although she did see depression, and put him on suicide watch. Casey concluded Chism retreats into fantasy, but that he can tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
The prosecution’s second witness was Dr. Nancy Hebben, a neuropsychologist in private practice who tested Chism for exaggerating or faking symptoms of mental illness.
“He achieved a score that had a positive predictive accuracy of 100 percent for feigning mental illness," Hebben said. "I believe the score for a clinical population — that is individuals who have true mental illness, documented mental illness — I believe the cut off was 10, and his score was 16.”
Hebben used other tests to corroborate the finding that Chism was faking. Defense attorney Denise Regan argued that those tests were originally designed for adults, and should be excluded. Judge David Lowy ruled against that.
