Families Demand Day in Court With Murderer

What the families of the people Charles Cullen murdered want now is that he be present at his sentencing, so they can tell him to his face what pain he’s caused and what a coward they think he is.

But Cullen -- a former nurse who has admitted killing at least 29 patients -- has no intention of showing up at the sentencing scheduled Thursday unless New Jersey authorities give him what he wants, which is to donate one of his kidneys to help save a life.

The emotions in the case were already high. Cullen is New Jersey’s most prolific killer ever, having confessed to injecting fatal doses of drugs into patients in five counties in the state, and in two Pennsylvania communities, over a 16-year period. But the rhetoric and tensions have escalated with the approach of his sentencing, as his request to donate a kidney to the relative of a former girlfriend has become linked to the issue of whether he has a right to boycott his sentencing.

New Jersey Atty. Gen. Peter C. Harvey has tried to forge a compromise under which the victims’ families would be given the catharsis of confronting Cullen in court, and he would be allowed to donate the organ. But such negotiations have angered some of the survivors, who see them as a final power trip by a murderer still trying to portray himself -- in the manner of many “angel of death” serial killers -- as a compassionate caregiver.

“They think he’s using the system, that he’s exerting power, that it’s a publicity stunt, that it’s blackmail,” said Somerset County, N.J., Deputy Public Defender Johnnie Mask, who represents Cullen. “Some of them claim that he’s using this to get inside a hospital room to kill again -- all kinds of stuff. Or to kill himself. And then the victims won’t have anyone to yell at.”

When Cullen, 45, was arrested in December 2003 in Somerset County, where he’d worked at Somerset Medical Center, he estimated that he had killed 40 patients during his nursing career. Within months, he agreed to plead guilty and be sentenced to life in prison without parole and to go through medical records to help officials identify his victims.

Though Cullen agreed quickly to plead guilty -- and to keep doing so as more killings were tied to him -- he also indicated that he felt no need to attend his sentencing. New Jersey law says that “sentence shall not be imposed unless the defendant is present or has filed a written waiver of the right to be present.”

Despite that language, the Somerset County prosecutor maintains that Cullen must appear. “We get prisoners from the jail every day. They don’t get invitations; they’re just brought to court,” Forrest said.

Cullen had filed papers to waive his right to appear at sentencing, but authorities persuaded him to agree to appear in exchange for permission to donate his kidney.

Like numerous medical killers before him, Cullen maintained that he had killed to relieve suffering.

“He started his career in a burn unit,” Mask said. “As a nurse, he had to scrape and peel the charred skin, [and] they would give morphine to make the patients more comfortable. Probably it happened by accident -- the patient was overmedicated and expired. That may have set off a chain of events that continued for his career.”

But Mask acknowledges that “in some instances, [patients] were not terminal. Some were young and expected to recover.” And Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest noted that Cullen had “tried to cover his tracks” like most any criminal, lying about what drugs he was seeking in hospital computers.

Medical killers are abundant on the lists of serial killers in part because hospitals and nursing homes are places where people die under normal circumstances, making it easier to get away with murder. But investigations often have found motives that are anything but compassionate.

In one recent case, a Veterans Affairs nurse in Massachusetts murdered a patient so she could leave for a date. Dr. Michael Swango, who poisoned patients on Long Island and several other locations, wrote of relishing the “close smell of indoor homicide.” In California, Glendale respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar, who estimated that he had killed more than 60 patients with paralyzing drugs, complained that he was overworked and said: “When I was only at my wits’ end on the staffing, I’d look on the board. ‘Who do we got to get rid of?’ ”

Cullen “believes that he was some kind of angel of mercy,” said Harvey, who has met with him. “Of course it’s ridiculous, but ... I suppose any person who has killed a number of others has got to rationalize it in some way.”

Two victims rights’ organizations have filed a motion to force Cullen to appear. Written by Sparta, N.J., attorney Richard Pompelio, who became a victims’ advocate after his son was murdered, it argues that their rights “far outweigh the rights of the defendant,” and includes statements from relatives of four of Cullen’s victims.

“As an individual who held himself out as a nurse, a healer, he looked into our eyes as we looked to him for help and compassion,” said Mary Strenko, whose son Cullen killed. “My husband, Tom, and I ask this court tell Charles Cullen that he is no longer in control”

Mask said Cullen had offered to meet privately with victims’ family members and answer their questions. “We were basically told, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ ” he said. “They want the public aspect. They want to be seen on television saying: ‘How dare you? You’re a monster.’ ”

The dispute became more complicated a few months ago, when Cullen got a letter telling him of the medical condition of his ex-girlfriend’s relative.

“This recipient is in a bad way -- on dialysis for years,” Mask said. Cullen “was happy to do the testing, and his organ is medically suitable.”

“He really wants it to happen,” the defense attorney added. “It’s ironic, as it seems it’s a matter of life or death.”

But local authorities were not about to let him out of their jurisdiction -- the patient reportedly lives on Long Island -- or undergo a medical procedure before sentencing.

Enter Harvey, who said he feared that the battle over whether Cullen had to be in court would leave “victims sitting out there for years waiting for courts to rule.” Over the last few weeks, he worked out the agreement for Cullen to appear, and for the state not to oppose his organ donation.

But much remains unresolved. Investigators from two counties were still going through patient files with Cullen last week to see if he would have more counts to plead to before sentencing. “We have a working date of Jan. 5. It may move a couple of days,” Harvey said.

Forrest, the local prosecutor, said he knew nothing of the deal negotiated by the attorney general. Forrest continued to maintain that Cullen would have to appear for sentencing with no quid pro quo. The judge has tentatively scheduled a Wednesday conference on the kidney matter.

Mask warns that the victims may not get what they want even if Cullen appears. The defense attorney said he wanted to avoid a repeat of the recent “circus” sentencing of BTK murderer Dennis Rader in Kansas.

“BTK went on for a day and a half, and it was almost obscene,” Mask said. “Even though [Cullen] is being forced to show up ... there’s nothing he can say to satisfy them. There’s not a word I can say that will modify the sentence. All we can do is try to make it as dignified and brief, basically by being nonparticipants.”

But, he said, “a lot of people are going to be left with empty feelings and thoughts.”