NEWS > 02 February 2006

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Albany Times Union - Albany, N
02 February 2006

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Sister recalls cop's despair

Trial testimony starts in malpractice suit after Schenectady officer killed himself in 2001

SCHENECTADY -- The sister of a city police officer who killed himself during a corruption probe sobbed in court Wednesday as she told of her brother's deepening depression, despair about the future and repeated talk of suicide.
William F. Marhafer II mentioned taking his own life for weeks as he grew distant from his family, lost his appetite, couldn't sleep and was placed on leave from the job he loved, Danielle Ryan testified.

"As long as I can remember, he always wanted to be a police officer, from childhood on," she said.

Moments before he shot himself in the station-house locker room on Oct. 6, 2001, he phoned Ryan to get her to promise she would look after his wife, Anna, and their young son.

Ryan was called to the witness stand by Albany attorney Kevin A. Luibrand as testimony opened before acting state Supreme Court Justice Felix J. Catena in the medical malpractice case brought by Marhafer's widow and son against Saratoga Hospital, two psychiatrists and a social worker.

Relatives took the 30-year-old cop, over his protests, to Saratoga Hospital on Oct. 1, 2001, when they felt they couldn't keep him safe, Ryan testified. The family had removed a large gun collection from his Ballston Lake home, not knowing he had a handgun in his locker.

The lawsuit alleges the hospital and staff failed in its treatment of Marhafer for depression and suicidal thoughts, and that his discharge after four days lacked "proper medical foundation."

In a motion to dismiss the complaint, which Catena denied last October, the Albany lawyers for doctors Sujana Reddy-Kurrie and Walter E. Niedzwiadek said they based their decisions of his condition on their examinations of Marhafer and examinations by others in the mental health unit, that he was not suicidal and should receive outpatient therapy.

Karen A. Butler represents the hospital, Reddy-Kurrie and social worker Rudolph J. "R.J." Stutzman. Jeffrey J. Tymann is defending Niedzwiadek.

On Sept. 18, 2001, Marhafer testified before a federal grand jury probing police corruption, Ryan said under cross-examination by Tymann. She said she knew her brother had been questioned by the FBI about his own conduct. The three-year investigation of the force ended with four officers going to prison.

Ryan said her brother was told by his attorney, Thomas J. Neidl of Albany, that "if he cooperated, everything was going to be just fine," but his depression got worse.

Yet because he wished to "protect Anna, I'm sure he didn't talk about his suicidal thoughts with her," said Ryan, a registered nurse at Ellis Hospital.

The day after he was released, Marhafer went to the station and called Ryan and her husband, Roy. He told her he went to the station to pick up a paycheck, but she soon realized he was calling to say good-bye and said he couldn't keep his promise not to commit suicide.

"I told him nobody would be better off without him here, especially his son," she said, and that she would not take care of his family. "It's your job to do it," she told her brother.

"Yes, you will," he answered, Ryan said, sobbing and catching her breath. "You're the best sister in the world, and I know you will do it."

Meanwhile, she said, her husband was rushing to the station from their Burnt Hills home after calling her parents, William and Sheila Marhafer, to alert them.

"I thought he was in his car, all the time, in the parking lot, and that my dad would get there, but Willy was inside."

The trial resumes today.

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Article sourced from

Albany Times Union - Albany, N02 February 2006

Sister recalls cop's despair

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Albany Times Union - Albany, N
02 February 2006