tearful Rick Todd publicly apologized to Singapore

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/201...-trusts-court/

Tearful Father of Shane Todd Says Family Trusts Court


A tearful Rick Todd publicly apologized on behalf of his wife who had called the Singapore court system “corrupt” as a much-watched inquiry into the death of their son, an American scientist working on sensitive research, finished its fourth day.

“We’d just seen a lot of pictures of our son – our dead son – and it was a very emotional morning. We’re sorry the word ‘corrupt’ came out, and we have faith in the Singapore court system,” he said Thursday to reporters.

His wife Mary had called the Singapore court process “corrupt” when speaking to reporters earlier Thursday.

Shane Todd’s body was found in his apartment last June 24, days after he had quit his job with the Singapore-run Institute of Microelectronics. Singapore police and forensic investigators have presented evidence to the court inquiry suggesting that Mr. Todd hanged himself. Mr. Todd’s parents say they believe he was murdered and will have a chance to lay out their case next week, which is the second and final week of the inquiry. A coroner’s determination of the cause of death is expected in late June.

On Thursday, a psychiatrist who had treated Shane Todd told the court he hadn’t seen signs Mr. Todd was contemplating suicide.

Nelson Lee, a private psychiatrist who treated Shane Todd two months before his death, said he diagnosed the 31-year-old American with major depression.

But Mr. Lee told the court that at the time of that meeting, he did not consider Mr. Todd a suicide risk.

“No suicidal ideation, no plans of self-harm,” Mr. Lee wrote in an April 2012 letter to the physician who had referred Mr. Todd to him.

Lawyers for the Todd family said Thursday that evidence found in Shane’s apartment showed that he had been packing and making arrangements to sell furniture. Their questions in court focused on indications that Mr. Todd’s stress and anxiety was job-related, which could have been relieved when Mr. Todd left his job at the Institute for Microelectronics.

In addition, on June 21, three days before his body was found, Mr. Todd was offered a job by Nuvotronics, a Radford, Va.-based developer of radio frequency and defense technology, according to a letter presented in court Thursday. He accepted the job offer.

A California-based technology company rejected Mr. Todd’s job application around the same time, Mrs. Todd told The Wall Street Journal.

The inquiry continues Friday.


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.