“Although he is flawed, he is fundamentally decent,” Barry Wm. Levine said as his client sat quietly at the defense table. “This man is not dangerous. The evidence shows he is not dangerous.”
Levine’s assertion came during opening statements of hearings before U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman, who must decide whether to grant a request by St. Elizabeths Hospital to expand Hinckley’s visits to his mother’s home. Hinckley has been held at the hospital since being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and three other men in 1981 outside the Washington Hilton hotel.
In recent years, Hinckley has been granted more freedom and has been visiting his mother for up to 10 days unaccompanied by hospital personnel. The graying 56-year-old — who wore a brown-striped tie and brown jacket to the hearing and revealed no emotion during testimony — has even recently obtained a driver’s license.
The hospital is asking to expand Hinckley’s visits to as many as 24 straight days. If those trips go well, doctors are also asking Friedman for the authority to allow Hinckley to live as an outpatient in Williamsburg.
As they have in the past, federal prosecutors are aggressively fighting the expansion of those privileges, arguing that Hinckley remains dangerous and cannot be trusted with the new privileges. They have raised questions about his relationships with women and accused him of being deceptive about them and other matters.
Hinckley has enjoyed incremental freedom from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington. Ultimately, Hinckley wants to live in the community, his lawyer at Dickstein Shapiro, Barry Wm. Levine, said today in court.
Hinckley waved to supporters this morning in a crowded courtroom before taking a seat next to Levine. Hinckley occasionally flipped through court documents. He rarely looked around the courtroom. Levine, a Dickstein partner, said Hinckley’s family members, including his mother, are expected to attend the hearing, which is scheduled to continue into next week.
In his opening statement, Levine described Hinckley as “flawed” and said he has not always been truthful. But Levine insisted that perfection in character is not the standard by which Friedman must assess Hinckley.
Hinckley, despite his transgressions, is not a dangerous person, the lawyer said. “The risk of danger,” he said, “is decidedly low.”
Levine, co-leader of Dickstein's white-collar criminal defense group, argued in support of a proposal from St. Elizabeths that would give Hinckley additional unsupervised time away from the psychiatric hospital. The proposal calls for two visits in his mother’s Williamsburg, Va., hometown of 17 days, followed by six visits of 24 days.
Chasson said Hinckley’s lack of candor means that his psychiatrists likely don’t know what he's really thinking. She described what she called a long history of deception and lies. Levine said the government is unfairly playing into public fear.
Friedman chastised prosecutors at the start of the hearing for the government’s failure to turn over the names of U.S. Secret Service agents who are expected to testify in the coming days about their surveillance of Hinckley during his trips away from the hospital.
Friedman said he had already told prosecutors to provide the names to Hinckley’s lawyers. “Just do it,” the judge said, raising his voice.
It remains unknown whether Hinckley will testify during the hearing. Levine said in recent court papers he is unwilling to allow Hinckley to testify if prosecutors are allowed to question him. Levine said Friedman should be allowed to question Hinckley one-on-one.
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