With Permission
Dr. Toor & son
Judge Patrick J. Clifford said in state Superior Court in New Haven yesterday he will keep trying to “light a fire under the public defender’s office” to get the Dr. Lishan Wang murder case moving.
Clearly exasperated by the apparent failure of Dr. Wang’s stand-by public defender to make progress in lining up experts for the long-delayed trial, the judge said in open court he intends to keep the pressure on until he sees some results.
Dr. Wang, 48, is accused of gunning down Dr. Vanjinder Toor, then a post-doctoral fellow at Yale-New Haven Hospital and formerly Dr. Wang’s boss when both worked at the Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in New York. Their workplace dispute eventually led to Dr. Wang’s firing. Dr. Wang is accused of shooting Dr. Toor outside Dr. Toor’s Branford condo on April 26, 2010. Dr. Wang also shot at Dr. Toor’s then pregnant wife, but missed.
Dr. Wang has insisted on representing himself, which has led to years of delays and pre-trial deliberations, continuing with Thursday’s 90-minute hearing in the Church Street courthouse.
During the hearing, Judge Clifford said he intends to keep monthly appearances for Dr. Wang until an actual trial date is set. Judge Clifford will not be the trial judge; the case is expected to be turned over for trial to Thomas V. O’Keefe, Jr., a senior judge who listened in on part of the hearing yesterday. O’Keefe Thursday sat in the spectator section, not far from Jeffrey La Pierre, the assistant public defender who works on a stand-by basis with Dr. Wang.
The judge expressed his frustration with Dr. Wang.
“I don’t understand why it is taking so long,” he said at one point.
Dr. Wang called that “a very good statement.”
Defense Needs To Line-Up Experts
To get to trial Dr. Wang needs experts selected. From the time the judge sought a way to have experts funded in the late fall of 2013, to June 9, when the state’s highest court ruled that the Public Defender’s Service Commission will approve and fund requests from indigent defendants not represented by the public defender’s office, the judge has spent months in court on the experts Dr. Wang might need.
In July, the judge approved Dr. Wang’s motions in a variety of areas requiring expertise, including ballistics, DNA, gunshot residue, the medical examiner’s autopsy report, the GPS navigation system, psychiatric evaluation, and certain out-of-state subpoena requests.
The next step was up to LaPierre because the state’s Supreme Court decided in June that indigent defendants are entitled to experts paid for by the state, in this case the public defender’s arm of the court system. LaPierre said after the court session was over that he will assist in the expert selection.
Getting experts lined up isn’t difficult. The public defender’s office has lists of potential experts. Just who will select the actual expert witness remains to be seen. Will it be Dr. Wang or will it be LaPierre or perhaps both?
The judge noted that the high court’s decision came down June 9. Actually the judge has been discussing the expert issue since December, when he and the prosecutor first moved to resolve the payment issue before the state’s highest court. If Dr. Wang was entitled to an expert then the judge clearly seemed to be saying to line them up in anticipation of the decision. The judge said it had been months since the discussion on experts had begun and yet no lists of names have been produced.
A New Letter
Produced in court yesterday was a letter Dr. Wang sent to Thomas J. Ullmann, the chief public defender, a letter apparently outlining his needs. The letter is dated July 22. From La Pierre’s point of view, the letter is recent; from the judge’s point of view the lists of experts should have been ready to file the minute the state’s highest court ruled in June. (Click here to read an interview with Ullmann last month.)
At the outset of the hearing, Senior State’s Attorney Eugene Calistro, Jr., told the judge that he had been included in Dr. Wang’s July’s 22 letter to Ullmann, a letter Calistro described as a “work-product,” for the defense. As such Calistro said he was not entitled to it. Nor was the judge, to whom Dr. Wang also sent a copy of the letter.
There was again a discussion of getting additional information via subpoena from Kingsbrook Hospital in Brooklyn, where Dr. Wang worked under Dr. Toor. Much of this information has been obtained but Dr. Wang noted he wanted a video to show that after a particular confrontation with Dr. Toor he did not leave the hospital but returned to the ICU to attend to patients from 6 to 9 p.m. on a particular date.
“I want to prove that Kingsbrook fired me for no reason,” Wang told the judge.
The request was a bit far afield, the judge noted.
“We are at a stalemate,” said the judge at one point. Another time he observed “we are crawling around.” The judge said his purpose was “keep a fire going” so the public defender’s office would act to get experts.
Then he turned to Dr. Wang.
“Have you met with any experts yet?” the judge asked.
“No, not yet, “ Dr. Wang replied.
“I don’t understand why it is taking so long for a ballistics expert,” the judge said. “It’s been almost two months since the Supreme Court decision.”
“Your honor,” said Dr. Wang, his arms outstretched, “that’s a very good statement.”
LaPierre, who was not seated next to Dr. Wang but instead found a place on a long bench of seats outside the well of the courtroom, did not look up. He looked down, at his smart phone. The judge observed that one of his jobs as judge was to oversee the movement of the case. “I am calling it every month to find out from Mr. La Pierre where we are at.” The next court date was set for September 30 at 11:30 a.m.
The judge noted again that while Dr. Wang was entitled to represent himself, this was not an easy process. It would be easier, he said if he agreed to representation by the public defender’s office. Dr. Wang did not reply.
Just when this trial will finally begin is any one’s guess.
In July, Calistro, the prosecutor, asked Judge Clifford to set Jan. 1, 2015, as the trial date. No date was set, but Calistro noted that victims have the right to a timely disposition of a case under Connecticut law. However, a Jan 1 trial date may not be realistic, defense attorneys said, because Dr.
Dr.Wang has indicated he wants psychiatric evaluations, which typically take time to produce.
At the end of the court session, LaPierre, told reporters, that in the best scenario a trial might happen in spring.
Perhaps by April, the fifth anniversary of Dr. Toor’s murder.
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