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Jury Determines Psychiatrist is Responsible for Failing to Prevent his Patient's Murderous Crime

In April 2003, a Superior Court jury in Santa Clara County, California found psychiatrist Cecil Bradley civilly liable for failing to prevent a patient's violent crime.

For five years Dr. Bradley treated Bryan Christopher Vaca, who had a history of psychiatric troubles, substance abuse and an obsession with hurting and/or killing others with his vehicle. State regulations require doctors and mental health professionals to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles if their patients are incapable of driving safely, which Dr. Bradley failed to do. In 1997, Vaca followed through on his murderous impulses and deliberately ran over two men, killing one and causing severe injuries and brain damage to the other.

The jury awarded more than $11 million to the man who survived the attack, ordering Dr. Bradley to pay $8.6 million of the award, after determining that he should be punished for failing to comply with the state regulations and for essentially not preventing Vaca's crime.

The court decision points to a major failing of psychiatry itself. In courts, case after case proves the inability of psychiatrists to predict acts of violence or dangerousness, yet they are constantly put in this position. Psychiatrists cannot predict dangerousness, which they, themselves, admit. Dr. Jeffrey Metzner, chair of the American Psychiatric Association committee on psychiatry and the law, stated,"Trying to predict dangerousness when a person is making general threats, the science just isn't there."

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