Jailed New York City's former police chief Bernard Kerik is in a psychiatric unit and on suicide wat Kerik is displaying worrisome, risky behavior in jail, a federal judge said Friday after speaking with the jail's psychiatric director
BigNews.Biz - Oct 30,2009 - Jailed New York City's former police chief Bernard Kerik is in a psychiatric unit and on suicide watch.
By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. Oct 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM PDT
Former New York commissioner and police chief, Bernard Kerik who was hailed a hero after the September 11 2001 attacks, was jailed on Oct 20, 2009, a federal judge revoked his bail ahead of a corruption trial that was set for Nov 9, 2009. Sources close to the case told this reporter that Kerik is in a psychiatric unit and on a suicide watch and most likely will not be able to make the court date.
Kerik is displaying worrisome, risky behavior in jail, a federal judge said Friday after speaking with the jail's psychiatric director.
Judge Stephen Robinson said the pretrial session Friday in U.S. District Court that he received a memo from Dr. Robert Mahler, medical psychiatric director of the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, then spoke with the doctor by phone. The doctor reportedly said Kerik, 54, was "at risk."
He said Mahler felt there was more behind Kerik's problem than just the normal stress of incarceration. Kerik has been jailed since Oct. 20 to await trial on corruption charges.
"There were things, unexplained, described to me that were either said or done ... that raised the level of concern," the judge said. "I left the conversation with Dr. Mahler feeling this was an issue that cannot be ignored."
The judge also expressed doubt that Kerik's trial could still begin Nov. 9
Bernard Kerik, a prostitute’s son once nominated to become America’s homeland security chief, by Former President George W. Bush found himself behind bars after a New York judge revoked his $500,000 bail pending his corruption charges.
Kerik is accused of secretly accepting more than $250,000 in renovations to his apartment from a construction firm with suspected mafia ties while he was Corrections Department commissioner under Giuliani.
Kerik, who pleaded guilty in a state court last year to accepting the work, is also accused of not declaring a total of $236,000 in rent he received on an luxury apartment in New York's posh Upper East Side.
Other payments allegedly not declared include a total of $100,000 received from a software company and a book publisher.
He is also accused of making false statements at the time he was being considered as head of the US Department of Homeland Security in 2004.
His career began to unravel when President Bush nominated him to become Homeland Security Secretary in 2004.
His nomination was derailed by a string of scandals, ranging from tax problems involving a former nanny to his overlapping extramarital affairs with two women at a flat set aside for rescue workers at New York’s “Ground Zero”.
Kerik is the first police chief in New York City's history to be thrown into jail.
In a hearing in White Plains, New York, Judge Stephen Robinson said he was revoking the $500,000 bail granted to Kerik,
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