Psychiatrist Says Colleagues Are Guessing About Genger : Predictions on Killer Unreliable, Judge Is Told

A court-appointed psychiatrist testified Wednesday that no one can predict whether a woman who killed her mother and attacked her daughter eight years ago will be violent in the future.

The opinion of Berkeley psychiatrist Lee S. Coleman contradicted the testimony of five other mental-health experts and clouded proceedings to determine whether Arlyne Louise Genger, 44, should be released from a state psychiatric hospital to a less secure, outpatient program.

The five mental-health experts, including one selected by the prosecution, testified in January that Genger, whose condition had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia, is rehabilitated and no longer poses a threat to society.

But, after listening to their testimony and to Genger’s, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge C. Bernard Kaufman said he needed still another opinion. He summoned Coleman to testify about the reliability of the opinions of the five experts.

“The opinions given by all mental-health professionals are not deserving of any weight or any reliability as expert,” Coleman said. “We have no specific skills to do this.”

Psychiatrists are trained to treat a patient’s current behavior, he said, not predict what that behavior will be.

After Coleman’s testimony, the judge postponed a decision on Genger’s release until April 21.

“This involves her future,” Kaufman said. “This involves her life. . . . I don’t want to rush.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. John K. Spillane argued against Genger’s release, saying her crime was particularly heinous and the court had no guarantee it would not be repeated.

But, if permitted a less secure environment, she should be forbidden to venture into the community unaccompanied, Spillane said.

Kaufman was assigned the case in January after a state appellate court ruled last year that Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp was governed by her emotions when she denied Genger’s second and most recent attempt to win release from Patton State Hospital in April, 1986.

Schempp said at the time that she lost sleep over the case, which she said she finally decided “by what I feel in my heart.”

Genger admitted that, on New Year’s Day, 1980, she stabbed her mother, Alice Louise Leidig, and slashed her daughter’s throat with a razor in the family’s North Hollywood apartment.

Her daughter, Selena, then 13, survived the attack. Her mother, who was stabbed 22 times, did not.

In January, 1981 a Superior Court judge found Genger not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered her committed to Patton, in San Bernardino, for life or until she is determined by a court to be sane.

Genger is eligible to apply for release every six months. Her first application was in October, 1985.