Doctor Held in Pedestrian Death in Massachusetts
Manslaughter charges were filed in Massachusetts Tuesday against a retired Van Nuys doctor who authorities said ran down two pedestrians--killing one and injuring the other--and then checked into the psychiatric ward of a New York hospital.
John F. Kappler, 60, a former anesthesiologist at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, is accused of killing a Boston psychiatrist and injuring another person after he lost control of his car and it veered onto a footpath near a roadway in Cambridge on Saturday, said Tom Samoluk, deputy district attorney of Middlesex County.
Police said Kappler disappeared after the incident. He checked into the New York hospital for treatment of an “acute episode of mental illness that we believe caused the accident,” said Jonathan Shapiro, a Boston attorney hired by Kappler’s family. Shapiro would not elaborate on Kappler’s condition and declined to comment on whether his client has a history of mental illness.
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