Judge: Ft. Salonga suspect needs treatment
Police mug shot of Kathleen Prisco (Oct. 30, 2009) Credit: SCPD
After her eldest child promised to support her on a "speedy road to recovery," Kathleen Prisco was ordered Tuesday to continue treatment for the mental illness that led her to stab her husband to death last year.
During a Suffolk County Court hearing, the Fort Salonga mother of three wept as her eldest son, Matthew, 23, called his parents "two very undeserving victims" of the tragedy that left his father dead and his mother charged with his murder.
Doctors said Kathleen Prisco, 49, suffered from paranoia and delusions when she stabbed Ralph Prisco, 54, more than a dozen times at their home on Oct. 29, 2009.
"Both my mother and my father had always been the most kindhearted and kind-spirited individuals you could ever want to meet," Matthew Prisco said. "It is heart-rending beyond words that a lurking mental illness could present such an obstacle to an otherwise blissful family life, and furthermore that it could manifest itself so tragically."
State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle said Kathleen Prisco suffers from a "dangerous mental disorder" and ordered her confined to a state psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors and Kathleen Prisco's attorney, Thomas Liotti of Garden City, had agreed before Tuesday's hearing that she is dangerous and requires continued treatment.
She will be re-evaluated in June. Prisco will undergo treatment and evaluations until a judge believes she is well enough to be released.
In October, Kathleen Prisco pleaded not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect in connection with her husband's death. Prosecutors and Doyle accepted the plea, making it the equivalent of a jury verdict.
Matthew Prisco said he believes his mother will achieve "a full rehabilitation."
About a dozen of Kathleen Prisco's friends and family, including her other children, Melissa, 20, and Christopher, 18, attended the hearing. Some waved to her as she was escorted from the courtroom.
Kathleen Prisco did not speak at the hearing. Another attorney, Jennifer McCann of Garden City, gently stroked Prisco's arm as her son addressed the court.
Matthew Prisco said that in the months before his father's death, his mother had developed "an all-encompassing paranoia" that she would lose her family. That fear, he said, "had no basis in reality."
He said his father's death was "heartbreaking and presents a gaping void in our lives that will not soon be filled."
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Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
