Pleading PTSD

Novel defense for Viet vets

Michael Tindall got two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two bronze stars and 32 air medals during his year as an Army helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. Now he faces a September trial in Boston, where his attorney, Joseph Oteri, will use footage from The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now to try to convince a federal jury that even if Tindall did smuggle drugs into the U.S. nearly six years ago, as the Government contends, he should not be held responsible. The reason: the war turned his client into an "action junkie" unable to resist opportunities to enjoy thrills.

Such a defense is not as desperate as it might seem. Both the Veterans Administration and the American Psychiatric Association have officially recognized what is called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and lawyers have used it to seek acquittals or reduced sentences in nearly two dozen cases involving Viet Nam veterans. With experts estimating that as many as 700,000 people who saw combat in the war may suffer the disorder in varying degrees, many prosecutors fear that PTSD may become a common, and successful, defense for crimes.

The symptoms of PTSD include mental flashbacks rooted in combat experiences, guilt pangs and feelings of helplessness. While not all authorities believe PTSD is very different from the shell shock or combat fatigue suffered by soldiers in earlier wars, those who do cite the uniqueness of Viet Nam. Says Jeffrey Steinberg, a Santa Rosa, Calif., lawyer who parlayed a PTSD defense into an acquittal for a client accused of assault: "The vets were viewed by the public as baby killers, as a bunch of losers. They found difficulty in justifying themselves."

An ex-G.I.'s PTSD may not show up for years. When it does, notes Psychologist John Wilson, there is usually some precipitating stress, like divorce or loss of job. Occasionally, says Wilson, who has aided the defense in 16 PTSD cases, the veteran responds with combat instincts, sometimes to the extent of donning fatigues and grabbing a rifle.

It was a divorce that apparently triggered a 1979 outburst by former Marine Charles Pettibone. He went to the Santa Rosa office of Congressman Don H. Clausen and was distressed to find him out. He held a knife at a security guard's neck for two hours until FBI officers got him to surrender. Attorney Steinberg got Pettibone acquitted on the argument that a sense of helplessness had catapulted him back to his Viet Nam days, rendering him effectively "unconscious."

In Rockville, Md., in 1979 Stephen Gregory got probation instead of a jail term thanks to a PTSD defense. Brandishing two rifles, he had held patrons in a Maryland bank hostage for 6 1/2 hours after yelling, "This is not a stickup." His lawyer argued that Gregory was reliving a wartime event in which his best friend was killed; the policemen outside the bank became the Viet Cong in Gregory's mind, while the hostages were the comrades he sought to lead to safety.

So far, the PTSD claim has been used only in cases involving violence. But in Tindall's drug-smuggling trial, Lawyer Oteri will try to stretch this defense much further. He contends that his client, now a charter airline pilot whose avocations include diving off cliffs and exploring underwater caves, has continually sought out thrills since his Viet Nam days. If juries buy the PTSD defense in this and other cases, prosecutors worry, many veterans will conclude that they can commit crime with impunity.

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