An Everett police detective said William Bergen Greene’s mannerisms and choice of language changed several times during a 1994 interview in a hospital room just hours after Greene attacked his therapist.
Detective Jim Phillips, the primary investigator in the attack, told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury Monday that Greene appeared to come forward as a variety of characters, including Willie, Sam and Auto.
"I don’t know if I believed it or not," Phillips said to defense attorney Marybeth Dingledy. "I just asked to talk to somebody else."
Greene is on trial for kidnapping and indecent liberties for the April 29, 1994, attack on a therapist who was treating him for multiple personality disorder. Greene won a new trial because he was not allowed to use the multiple-personality defense in 1995.
His defense lawyers will argue either diminished capacity or that Greene is not guilty by reason of insanity.
His claim is that one of the more destructive personalities, Tyrone, presented itself at the time of the attack. His therapist, who continues to stand behind him, says that Greene needs treatment instead of prison.
Greene had been in a hospital bed in 1994 because he stole the therapist’s car after the attack and had been pursued by an Everett patrolman when it crashed into a light standard.
Phillips said he went to the emergency room of what was then Providence Hospital on Pacific Avenue to interview the therapist. He also went to Greene’s apartment, which was nearby, and later returned to the hospital to interview Greene after he was nabbed by police following the crash.
Phillips was in a somewhat unusual position of being called as a defense witness in the trial where he’s the prime investigator. He had testified earlier for the prosecution, answering questions of deputy prosecutor Paul Stern.
During the hospital interview, Greene was sometimes not responsive, with his eyes focused on the ceiling, Phillips said.
Then the mannerism would change, and Greene would talk readily, start using street slang or he would seem to "tense up," Phillips added.
Stern asked a series of questions designed to indicate anyone could speak differently or tense up, and Phillips didn’t think it was unusual.
"The way he was acting changed," the veteran officer testified. "I see the same thing in a lot of people."
Other testimony focused on Phillips’ treatment of the therapist the night of the attack. She told the jury earlier that she just wanted to go home, and the detective wouldn’t let her until she gave a statement. The statement was one thing police used to get a search warrant of Greene’s apartment, the officer testified.
On Monday, Phillips said he spent a half-hour or less with the therapist. He acknowledged that he had to order a friend out of the hospital room because the friend interfered with questioning.
Phillips also testified that the therapist had been reluctant to talk about what happened and was concerned that some of her confidential files were in the car Greene stole.
The prosecution maintains Greene faked the multiple personality disorder to avoid being held responsible for a crime that in 1995 earned him a life prison sentence under the state’s persistent offender, or three-strikes, law.
The trial, in Judge Richard Thorpe’s courtroom, has been under way since mid-October and could go to the jury by the middle of next week.
Greene’s case has drawn national attention from the newsmagazine "Dateline NBC," which is recording the testimony for a future broadcast.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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