A Queens doctor blew a chance to help put away a psychotic mama’s boy just 11 days before the deranged man allegedly butchered an Upper East Side shrink, sources said yesterday.
Dr. Reddy Bezwada, a psychiatrist at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, could have deemed suspect David Tarloff mentally unfit and helped keep him locked up on Feb. 1 after Tarloff assaulted a security guard there.
Instead, Bezwada told the court in his written evaluation of Tarloff that the madman did “not require further psychiatric treatment.”
Less than two weeks later, police say, Tarloff killed beloved psychologist Kathryn Faughey.
It was Bezwada’s evaluation that led the Queens DA not to ask for bail during Tarloff’s Feb. 2 arraignment on charges of assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, sources said.
Bezwada could have checked off one of three boxes on the official psychiatric-report form he submitted to the court, including one presenting the option for the defendant to be denied bail because he posed an “imminent danger to self and others.”
Another box called for “further psychiatric care” but no hospitalization.
Instead, Bezwada checked off the third option, which concluded that Tarloff was not mentally ill and could be taken to Rikers Island “if remanded in custody.”
Tarloff was released on his own recognizance on Feb. 2.
Ten days later, police said, Tarloff went to the East 79th Street office of Dr. Kent Shinbach – who he claimed had committed him to a mental ward in 1991 – and ended up slashing Shinbach’s office colleague, Faughey, 15 times with a meat cleaver and a 9-inch knife, police said. Tarloff also allegedly attacked Shinbach.
During Tarloff’s arraignment on the assault rap in Queens, Judge Barry Kron warned the suspect – who was trying to visit his mother, Beatrice, when he attacked security guard Joel Leroy – to “stay out of trouble,” according to a court transcript.
“Thank you very much,” Tarloff replied. “God bless you.”
Bezwada, who lives on Long Island, did not return a call for comment. He later sped away from his home after spotting reporters.
In 2001, he settled a malpractice lawsuit out of court while working at a hospital on Long Island. Details were not available.
Bezwada’s diagnosis of Tarloff followed that of a Staten Island doctor who six months earlier had also deemed the suspect mentally fit, according to a source familiar with Tarloff’s mental-health history.
That incident occurred after Tarloff’s father, Leonard, called cops to his Staten Island home last Aug. 3, saying his son was “off his medication,” police said.
Tarloff was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was deemed delusional, prone to violent behavior and sedated because of his aggression, the source said.
He was given various drugs, including Haldol, typically used to treat patients with paranoid schizophrenia, the source said.
Despite his condition, a doctor inexplicably recommended that Tarloff be released after three weeks of treatment.
A hospital spokeswoman would not comment on Tarloff’s case or provide the name of the doctor who signed off on his release.
Although Tarloff had been mentally evaluated three separate times over the past eight months, he could not be committed against his will unless deemed dangerous, officials said.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli and Selim Algar