San Diego

Police Agent Donovan Jacobs’ version of the incident with Sagon Penn, which left another officer dead, differs from those of other witnesses because “that’s the way he wants to remember it,” a psychiatrist testified for the defense Thursday.

“A person creates a new reality because he wants to believe it and wants others to believe it,” Dr. Haig Koshkarian said.

“(Jacobs’) distortion of memory was purposeful, intentional and psychological because that’s the way he wants to remember it, not because of any hits on the head, emotional strain or anything else.”

Penn, 25, is charged in the March 31, 1985, shooting death of Agent Thomas Riggs and the wounding of Jacobs and of civilian Sarah Pina-Ruiz, who was riding with Riggs.

A jury acquitted Penn last year of murder and attempted murder charges in the shootings of the two officers. He is being retried on charges of manslaughter, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon after the first jury couldn’t reach a decision on those charges.

Koshkarian testified that Jacobs created a new memory of the confrontation between Penn and police and the events leading up to it because, psychologically, he doesn’t want to blame himself for Riggs’ death.

“Whether consciously or unconsciously, it is preferable for Jacobs to say to himself, ‘My partner was killed in a battle in which I came to his aid,’ rather than ‘My partner died in a battle where he came to my aid.’ ”

Koshkarian’s evaluation came after Superior Court Judge J. Morgan Lester denied a prosecution request that the psychiatrist not be allowed to testify.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter argued that jurors don’t need a psychiatry expert to help them decide whether Jacobs’ memory was correct when he testified that he stopped Penn’s truck after it made a U-turn and that Riggs was the first one to confront Penn after Jacobs pulled the truck over.

Other witnesses have said Jacobs made first contact with Penn, and several people riding in the back of Penn’s truck have testified that Penn didn’t make a U-turn.

“The average lay person that our jury is made up of doesn’t need to be educated on whether Jacobs was right or wrong on these issues,” Carpenter argued.

Koshkarian was the 30th defense witness presented in the 10-week-old retrial.