The Trial
The defense argued for an insanity plea. A defense psychiatrist, Robert L. Sadoff, stated that soon after Dr. Hagen returned to her home on Fairmount Avenue, Chatham New Jersey. She had chronic depression deepened because of the two failed marriages, the loss of her medical career, her fears about her parents' health, and her own fears that her depression would lead to institutionalization.
Both Dr. Sadoff and Dr. Steven Simring, who testified for the prosecution, said Dr. Hagen's depression deepened significantly in August 2000, to the point where she thought she was receiving messages from televisions ads, traffic lights and playing cards. They both also said she also heard a male voice she took to be her father's commanding her to commit the murders, because once they occurred, she and her parents would go to what Dr. Simring called a childlike, magical sphere where they'd regain their happiness.
Deborah Factor, an assistant Morris County prosecutor, asked the psychiatrists if they considered the patricide-matricide acts of vindictiveness or mercy killings, and they both answered no.
Read more about this topic: I. Kathleen Hagen
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