-Caveat Lector- The Seattle Times August 27, 2003, Wednesday Fourth Edition SECTION: North Zone; The Times of Snohomish County; Pg. H7 LENGTH: 688 words HEADLINE: Retrial may hinge on insanity plea; Multiple personalities could have played a role in a man's attack on his therapist. BYLINE: Jennifer Sullivan; Times Snohomish County bureau DATELINE: Everett
EVERETT It's been eight years since William Bergen Greene was convicted of tying up and sexually assaulting his mental-health therapist. Greene was sentenced to life in prison, but because the therapist wasn't allowed to testify about her belief that one of Greene's multiple personalities was responsible for the attack, his conviction was later reversed, prompting a second trial. That trial is scheduled to get under way today with jury selection in an Everett courtroom. The trial is expected to last a month. Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern said Greene, 49, faces life in prison if he is convicted of kidnapping, indecent liberties or both. Because a conviction would be Greene's "third strike," state law mandates he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars if he is found guilty. Stern said he expects to hear from the defense that "Tyrone," one of Greene's alleged alternate personalities, is responsible for attacking the therapist on April 29, 1994. Tyrone is a 4-year-old child, according to Greene's former therapist. "He (Greene) has filed a notice of an insanity defense," Stern said, adding that this would give jurors the option to find Greene not guilty by reason of insanity. Public defender Mary Beth Dingledy said she will present evidence of her client's multiple-personality disorder. Greene's then-therapist diagnosed him with multiple-personality disorder after he was convicted of earlier assaults. She and other women who were attacked by Greene are expected to testify during the trial. According to court papers, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge wouldn't allow the therapist to testify during the first trial because Greene's disorder was too controversial to be included in scientific evidence. The therapist, who started working with Greene in April 1990, had diagnosed 24 personalities in him, as well as 15 "fragment personalities," including a dragon named Smokey, according to police documents. Greene's former therapist said three personalities were responsible for attacking her when she stopped by his Everett apartment to check on him. He had just been released from prison for his second indecent-liberties conviction. She said that "William" binged on cocaine, loosening Greene's control of the personalities, that "Otto" held her down and that "Tyrone" molested her while saying, "Mom, please don't hurt me." Greene was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. But six years later a U.S. district judge threw out his conviction. In March 2002, a federal appeals court agreed with the District Court ruling. Greene's first conviction for sexually assaulting a woman came in 1984. He was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison and paroled in March 1988, according to police documents. He assaulted another woman the next month and was convicted of indecent liberties. In all the cases, Greene knew his victim, got her alone in an apartment, bound and gagged her, and forced her to fondle him, according to police reports. Greene, as part of his therapy, wrote a letter to his 1988 victim in which he said female relatives had sexually abused him when he was 4 or 5, according to court papers. Though Greene's trial will focus on his alleged multiple-personality disorder, Snohomish County jurors will not hear about charges filed against Greene a year ago in the 1979 strangling of a Seattle woman. King County prosecutors filed a first-degree-murder charge against Greene last August. Recent testing on evidence collected at the scene of the strangulation showed a 1-in-850 billion chance that Greene's DNA was on 25-year-old Sylvia Durante's body and inside her clothes. Durante was found in her Capitol Hill apartment Dec. 14, 1979. Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said Greene had been scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge in Durante's death today. But because Greene will be in trial here, he probably won't be inside a King County courtroom until after the Snohomish County charges are resolved. Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] <><><><><><><><> ABErnathy, MARtin F. >> Providence, RI >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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