This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For past coverage of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial, including testimony transcripts from Smart, visit http://breaking.sltrib.com/mitchell.
Ed Smart is still angry at the Utah State Hospital doctor who caused his daughter Elizabeth to storm from a federal courtroom two weeks ago during Brian David Mitchell's trial.
Hospital psychiatrist Paul Whitehead testified Dec. 1 that Mitchell, now 57, had discussed having a baby with the then-14-year-old Smart after abducting her in 2002 from her Salt Lake City home. Mitchell raped her almost daily until her rescue nine months later.
Following Mitchell's convictions for kidnapping and sexual assault on Friday, Ed Smart publicly criticized Whitehead, the hospital and a California psychologist.
On Monday, Ed Smart explained that his daughter, now 23, stormed out because she had no such conversation with Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who took Smart for a plural wife.
"For nine months she had to put up with Mitchell's 'badgering lies,' " Ed Smart told The Tribune. "This time she didn't have to."
He said his daughter left U.S. District Court in a fury and stayed away for about an hour because Whitehead — relying on information he should have known was untrue — gave undue consideration to Mitchell's comments as being truthful.
"There was not a conversation [about having a baby]," Ed Smart told The Tribune. "It's an absolute lie."
When Whitehead finished testifying, courtroom observers watched as Elizabeth Smart leaned in close and gave the psychiatrist a brief scolding.
Ed Smart declined to repeat what his daughter said to Whitehead, saying only that "she told him how disappointed she was."
Ed Smart also criticized Whitehead, who was Mitchell's treating physician for more than three years, for disregarding hospital staffers who noticed Mitchell appeared crazy in the presence of doctors and administrators but otherwise could appear quite normal.
During the trial, defense attorneys failed to prove Mitchell was insane when he committed the crimes. Jurors said that while they found Mitchell did have some mental problems, he also knew right from wrong.
Ed Smart said he felt Whitehead's opinion that Mitchell suffers from a delusional disorder based on religious ideas was one factor that caused the case to stall six years ago in state court, where Mitchell was found incompetent to stand trial.
He also said Whitehead's findings were indicative of potentially bigger problems at the state hospital. "There needs to be a complete re-evaluation about how that place works," he said following Friday's verdict.
Liz Sollis, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the hospital, said Monday that the facility "is designated to treat some of the states most mentally ill patients. We hire the professionals that are most competent to do the job, and we are confident in the work they do and we rely on their expertise."
Sollis added: "We would welcome any conversations with Ed Smart ... about what he feels we could have done differently or done better. We always welcome feedback because our goal is to improve the lives of those we serve and those out in the community."
Ed Smart also blamed California psychologist Jennifer Skeem for a 2004 competency assessment of Mitchell that helped to halt the state court case. Federal prosecutors indicted the defendant in 2008.
"She was a key," Smart said Monday of Skeem. "One day [Mitchell] was working on a plea agreement, then he decides he doesn't want to do it because he would be labeled as sex offender, and the next day he's found incompetent."
In September 2004, Skeem filed a report that said Mitchell was "situationally competent," meaning she felt he could get through the plea-deal process. But plea negotiations began collapsing, and Skeem subsequently found Mitchell was incompetent. Mitchell's now-infamous courtroom singing episodes started on Dec. 2, 2004.
Last year, during Mitchell's federal competency hearing, prosecutors attacked Skeem for changing her opinion of Mitchell's mental state at a "pivotal moment." Skeem objected to claims by prosecutors that the changes she saw in Mitchell's mental state were "made up, and that we taught him to sing."
Skeem testified in federal court that in her first assessment she did not consider that Mitchell's ability to testify was relevant. But after negotiations failed, she deemed him incompetent because Mitchell claimed "passive crucifixion" would be his only testimony.
Skeem was not called by the defense to testify at Mitchell's trial.
Despite his federal court convictions, Mitchell remains charged with kidnapping and sexual assault in 3rd District Court, where he is still considered incompetent.
"Legally we can't go forward, but we are not required to dismiss the case," said Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Alicia Cook, who was part of Mitchell's federal prosecution team.
Cook said any decision about disposing of the state charges could be put on hold until after Mitchell is sentenced in federal court.
"That is definitely a piece of information we would like to have," Cook said. "And I'd like to know what the appellate issues will be."
She added that prosecutors also want Elizabeth Smart and her family to be part of the state-court decision.
Smart is flying back this week to Paris, where she will complete a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was interrupted by Mitchell's trial.
Ed Smart said his daughter's mission will be ended in time for her to attend the sentencing on May 25 before Judge Dale Kimball, where Mitchell faces up to life in prison.
Smart, who plays the harp, plans to finish her music degree at Brigham Young University.
After that — as a direct result of watching Mitchell's trial unfold — she may attend law school, her father said.
"She was so impressed with the [prosecution] team," Ed Smart said, "that the morning before the verdict she was seriously considering going into law."
Her goal? "To give a voice for those don't have a voice," her father said.