Judge Delays Mental Tests for Young Robbery Suspect

A teen-ager charged with robbing two San Fernando Valley banks was ordered Wednesday to remain in custody at Sylmar Juvenile Hall instead of being turned over to a psychiatric treatment center until his case can be tried.

Citing testimony by a court-appointed psychiatrist, who countered earlier expert testimony that the boy may suffer from a hereditary “mood disorder,” Juvenile Court Judge Burton S. Katz denied a request by the family of Michael Morrison, 16, of Tarzana, that he be transferred from the juvenile facility.

“He does need therapy. I don’t think there is any question about it,” Katz said. “But I think it is premature at this point.”

‘Hired Finest Lawyers’

The judge also said he made the ruling because of “strong indications” that young Morrison, who reportedly told a psychiatrist that his father “has hired me the finest lawyers,” believes that the court system can be “manipulated.”

“If he believes he has manipulated the system to his own benefit, it would impede and impair his ability to be rehabilitated in the future,” Katz said.

Morrison and a friend, Mark Berman, 16, are charged with the May 23 armed robbery of more than $4,000 from Encino Savings & Loan Assn. Morrison also has been charged with the Jan. 3 armed robbery of $1,200 from Barclays Bank in Tarzana. Both youths also have been charged with stealing three cars at gunpoint. The two face a fitness hearing June 24 to decide whether they should be tried as adults.

Morrison’s attorney, Steven Rein, argued that the boy should be sent for testing to an in-patient psychiatric treatment program at Coldwater Canyon Hospital in North Hollywood. Rein said the tests would help psychiatrists decide whether the boy suffers from a hereditary “mood disorder” which could link his emotional instability to “mood swings” reportedly suffered by his father when he was young. Morrison’s father pleaded guilty in 1963 to bank robbery and served time in federal prison.

Child psychiatrist Noel Lustig testified Monday in favor of releasing Morrison to a hospital. He said there is a “70% probability” that the boy has a hereditary mental illness treatable with antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. Lustig said the youth may have been “seeking role identification” by imitating his father’s criminal behavior “during an acting-out phase” of his mood disorder.

‘Conduct Disorder’

But Tarzana psychiatrist Stephen J. Wilson, appointed by the court, concluded that there is a “very, very low possibility” of such a disorder. Instead, Wilson said, Morrison may have less severe conditions known as “conduct disorder” and “narcissistic character disorder” which lead him to do things that are “foreign or alien to the norms of society.”

“There is a sense of self without the sense of care and compassion and taking into consideration the wishes and needs of other people,” Wilson testified. “I found evidence of sadness there. I did not find any clear-cut evidence of any manic depression or any major affective illness.”

When asked whether Morrison discussed the charges with him, Wilson said the boy told him he wondered if he “could pull off a stunt like this” and that he was planning “to do one more quote-unquote ‘job’ in order to get enough money to open his own business, because he wasn’t going to get rich earning $100 a week. He reflected that in retrospect it was probably pretty stupid.”