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Jordan Neely had severe schizophrenia, expert testifies at NYC subway
chokehold trial
By Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2024 at 6:23 p.m. ET
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Daniel Penny arrives at court on November 19, 2024 in New York City.
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A psychiatric expert testifying in Daniel Penny’s defense said Jordan
Neely had one of the most severe histories of paranoid schizophrenia he
has ever reviewed.
Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Bardey testified as a witness for Penny, who has
pleaded not guilty to charges that he caused Neely’s death when he put
him in a chokehold on an uptown F train for about six minutes last year.
Penny, who was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent
homicide, has said he was trying to restrain Neely — not kill him —
after Neely boarded the train and had begun shouting threats at
passengers. Prosecutors say Penny was reckless and disregarded Neely’s
humanity.
Bardey reviewed thousands of pages of Neely’s medical and psychiatric
records, which he said detailed more than a dozen hospital stays between
2015 and 2021. During that time, he said, Neely often experienced
paranoia and delusions. Sometimes Neely was afraid that hospital staff
wanted to hurt him, while other times he had grandiose delusions that
the rapper Tupac Shakur was instructing him to “change the world,”
according to medical records referenced in court and shared with Gothamist.
“He is caught in his own head, and that is what’s driving his behavior,”
Bardey said.
Before trial, prosecutors urged the judge not to allow the defense to
share Neely’s psychiatric records with the jury. They said in pre-trial
court papers that the defense was attempting to “smear” Neely’s
character “so that the jury will devalue his life.” Penny’s attorneys
have described Neely as “seething,” “psychotic” and “not in his right
mind that day.” They told jurors during opening statements that Neely’s
behavior was so “threatening” that Penny had no choice but to restrain him.
On Tuesday, Bardey told jurors about some of the patterns he observed as
he read through Neely’s medical records, which he said show Neely was
diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, a mental
health condition with similar symptoms to schizophrenia that also
affects a patient’s moods. He said Neely’s symptoms were exacerbated by
his regular use of synthetic cannabinoids, also known as K2, which he
said can sometimes cause patients to become psychotic. Even when taken
by people who don’t have schizophrenia, he said, synthetic cannabinoids
can affect the brain for days or weeks after.
In January 2021, records show, Neely told staff at Metropolitan Hospital
that he had smoked K2 that day and felt “depressed because I don’t got
no money.”
“I’m cold and I don’t have anywhere to go right now because the subways
are closed,” he said, according to the hospital notes.
Bardey said patients with schizophrenia also sometimes self-medicate
with K2 or other drugs instead of taking their prescribed medication. In
one note from a 2020 visit to Bellevue Hospital, a doctor wrote that
Neely refused to take his medication and said “he did not need it.”
“He stated that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia before but he does
not have a mental illness any more,” the doctor wrote. “Last admission
as per his report was [a] few months ago for not taking meds.”
Bardey said it’s “clear” that Neely’s situation was “complicated by the
existence of both schizophrenia and a K2 abuse issue.” Neely had
synthetic cannabinoids in his system when he died, the medical examiner
who performed his autopsy previously testified. But she said it was
unclear exactly when Neely had ingested the drugs or how much.
Penny’s defense attorneys have suggested at trial that Neely’s
schizophrenia and use of K2 could have contributed to his death —
theories that the medical examiner refuted. But on Tuesday Attorney
Thomas Kenniff asked Bardey more specifically about how Neely’s
schizophrenia and drug use could have affected his behavior on the
subway before Penny put him in a chokehold, citing the statements of
several witnesses.
Bardey said one witness’s description that Neely had a strong odor is
typical of patients with severe, untreated schizophrenia who can’t
properly care for their hygiene. He also said a witness’s account that
Neely’s screams on the train sounded “satanic” reflected notes in his
medical records that he had heard the “devil’s voice.”
Bardey answered questions for less than an hour and then slowly shuffled
off the witness stand, telling the judge that his feet had fallen
asleep. Prosecutors didn’t ask him any questions.
Earlier in the day, Penny’s defense attorneys brought in several of his
loved ones to tell jurors about his character, including his mother and
two of his former platoon sergeants in the Marine Corps. Later this
week, the defense is expected to call a forensic pathologist to testify.
Penny may also testify, though the defense has not confirmed whether he
will.
--
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