joan richardson

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SUNDAY » APRIL 1, 2012 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840 50¢ SUMNER A.M. © 2012 GANNETT CO., INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SUBSCRIBE: 1-800-520-9286 GallatinNewsExaminer.com MetroMix.com 233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week. HOLT ATTENDS EMERGENCY TRAINING EVENT 2M NEWS state of mind, meaning that she was not aware of what she was do- ing and could not be held respon- sible. If she had planned to kill her husband, she could have done a better job of planning it. She wouldn’t even be sitting here if she had that culpable state of mind,” said Richardson’s de- fense attorney, David Ridings. She could have gotten away scot-free.” A Sumner County jury was de- liberating on Friday the fate of a Gallatin woman for the 2010 shooting death of her husband. Fifty-nine-year-old Joan Rich- ardson was charged with first-de- gree murder in the death of her husband David. O. Richardson Sr. During the prosecutor’s clos- ing arguments Friday morning, the jury heard the 911 call Rich- ardson made after she shot her husband. He can be heard in the background moaning in pain. Joan, Joan, why did you shoot me?” he said on the tape. Call the doctor.” During the call, Joan Richard- son told the operator, I was going to kill him. I was going to kill him, so that he won’t be mean to me any more. I’m so sorry David.” The defense argued that Rich- ardson, who was abused by her husband, was not in a culpable Joan Richardson (left) heads out of the courtroom Thursday after testifying in her first-degree murder trial. ALEXANDER QUINONES/SUMNER A.M. Wife claims abuse in Gallatin murder trial By Alexander Quinones Sumner A.M. » MURDER, 3M School system employees fur- loughed three days in December will not lose wages for the third day they were required to be off. The Board of Education on March 27 voted 9-2 to restore the lost wages for one day of missed work in December. The furlough, which affected 376 classi- fied and certified employees, was ap- proved by the board in September as part of a cost-saving measure designed to save $237,000 in the district’s 2011-12 general purpose budget. The plan called for deducting one day of pay from employees’ paychecks in January, February and March. Westmo- reland school board member David Brown in February proposed deferring the March deduction so the board could consider canceling the final deduction. I had several people come to me and tell me how sad they were,” Brown told board members at the March 27 meet- ing. They had bills and credit card bills after Christmas. They couldn’t pay their bills.” Bethpage member Will Duncan agreed, saying the board shouldn’t have allowed the furlough in the first place because some of the school system’s lowest-paid employees were hit hard by the pay cut. Fairness is the best policy we can have,” Duncan said. I’m going to do whatever needs to be done to satisfy these people.” School employees will not see 3rd pay cut Board to discuss outsourcing Tuesday By Jennifer Easton Sumner A.M. » PAY CUT, 4M Anyone looking to subscribe to the Gallatin News Examiner is in luck. On Friday, April 13, we will again run our popular Friday the 13th promotion for one day only. Readers can subscribe for one year to the News Examiner for just $21, which is 50 percent off the regular rate of $42 a year. The subscription in- cludes home delivery of the Wednesday and Friday editions, as well as the Sun- day Gallatin News Examiner/Sumner A.M. edition and Sunday’s Tennessean at no extra charge. The Friday, April13 promotion, avail- able for Sumner County addresses only, will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our of- fices at 1 Examiner Court in Gallatin, or via credit card over the phone at 452- 2561. This promotion is also available to current subscribers looking to extend for an additional year. This is your perfect opportunity to enjoy the News Examiner’s award-win- ning coverage of Gallatin and Sumner County, as well as the hundreds of dol- lars in coupons offered most weeks. Mike Towle, general manager/Sumner A.M. Friday the 13th promotion returns Three Sumner charities can help more people after a benefit at a local funeral home on Tuesday. Donations helped raise $225 for the Good Neighbor Mission, HomeSafe and Gallatin C.A.R.E.S. at the Soup for Sumner fundraiser initiated by and held at Crestview Funeral Home in Gallatin. Crestview also matched the proceeds for a total of $450 for the three charities. For a $5 donation, attendees could have a steaming bowl of chicken noo- dle, roasted red potato or tomato bisque soup, crackers, tea or coffee and an assortment of cookies for des- sert. Each guest also received a ticket to vote for a favorite charity. Initially funeral home officials had planned to SOUP’S ON Vic and Jackie Leathers joke around during the soup benefit they organized that raised $450 for Good Neighbor Mission, HomeSafe and Gallatin C.A.R.E.S. at Crestview Funeral Home in Gallatin on March 27. PHOTOS BY DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/SUMNER A.M. Gallatin soup event benefits 3 local charities Nicolas Crocco, 5, hesitates at the thought of eating tomato bisque soup, one of his least favorite meals. » CRESTVIEW, 6M By Dessislava Yankova Sumner A.M. Local dogs are invited to bring their owners to the sev- enth annual Dog Daze of Hen- dersonville celebration, scheduled for Saturday, April 14. Just for the day, center court at the Streets of Indian Lake will double as a dog gath- ering of sorts, with the oppor- tunity for pooches to mingle with other canine friends, and their owners to browse a varie- ty of vendor booths related to animal care. It’s a place they can come with their pets and this is something they can both enjoy with no cover charge,” said Di- ana Townsend, founder of Safe Place for Animals, the non- profit that is sponsoring the event. A lot of the people just look forward to doing it be- cause it has gotten to be such a big event.” The event draws hundreds of residents each year for a day filled with dog-themed contests, demonstrations and seminars on health and animal well-being. Several rescue groups and shelters including SPA will bring pets who need owners. Dog Daze to be at Streets of Indian Lake Dogs and owners can participate in many activities at Dog Daze on April 14. SHERRY MITCHELL/FILE PHOTO By Sherry Mitchell Sumner A.M. » DOG DAZE, 4M

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Wife first-degree murder trial

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Page 1: Joan Richardson

SUNDAY » APRIL 1, 2012 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840 50¢

SUMNER A.M.

© 2012 GANNETT CO., INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SUBSCRIBE: 1-800-520-9286GallatinNewsExaminer.com MetroMix.com

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

HOLT ATTENDSEMERGENCYTRAINING EVENT2M

NEWS

state of mind, meaning that shewasnotawareofwhatshewasdo-ing and could not be held respon-sible. If she had planned to killher husband, she could havedonea better job of planning it.

“She wouldn’t even be sittinghere if shehad that culpable stateof mind,” said Richardson’s de-fense attorney, David Ridings.“She could have gotten awayscot-free.”

ASumnerCounty jurywasde-liberating on Friday the fate of aGallatin woman for the 2010shooting death of her husband.Fifty-nine-year-old Joan Rich-ardsonwaschargedwithfirst-de-gree murder in the death of herhusbandDavid.O.RichardsonSr.

During the prosecutor’s clos-ing arguments Friday morning,the jury heard the 911 call Rich-

ardson made after she shot herhusband. He can be heard in thebackground moaning in pain.

“Joan, Joan,whydid you shootme?”he said on the tape. “Call thedoctor.”

During the call, Joan Richard-son told theoperator,“Iwasgoingto kill him. Iwas going to kill him,so that he won’t be mean to meany more. I’m so sorry David.”

The defense argued that Rich-ardson, who was abused by herhusband, was not in a culpable

Joan Richardson (left) heads out of the courtroom Thursday aftertestifying in her first-degree murder trial. ALEXANDER QUINONES/SUMNER A.M.

Wife claims abuse inGallatin murder trialBy Alexander QuinonesSumner A.M.

»MURDER, 3M

School system employees fur-loughed threedays inDecemberwill notlose wages for the third day they wererequired to be off.

The Board of Education onMarch 27voted 9-2 to restore the lost wages forone day of missed work in December.The furlough,which affected 376 classi-fied and certified employees, was ap-proved by the board in September aspart of a cost-saving measure designedto save $237,000 in the district’s 2011-12general purpose budget.

Theplancalled fordeductingonedayof pay from employees’ paychecks inJanuary, February andMarch.Westmo-reland school board member DavidBrown in February proposed deferringthe March deduction so the board couldconsider canceling the final deduction.

“I had several people come tome andtell me how sad they were,” Brown toldboard members at the March 27 meet-ing. “They had bills and credit card billsafterChristmas.Theycouldn’t pay theirbills.”

Bethpage member Will Duncanagreed, saying the board shouldn’t haveallowed the furlough in the first placebecause some of the school system’slowest-paid employees were hit hard bythe pay cut.

“Fairness is the best policy we canhave,” Duncan said. “I’m going to dowhatever needs to be done to satisfythese people.”

Schoolemployeeswill not see3rd pay cutBoard to discussoutsourcing TuesdayBy Jennifer EastonSumner A.M.

» PAY CUT, 4M

Anyone looking to subscribe to theGallatin News Examiner is in luck. OnFriday, April 13, we will again run ourpopular Friday the 13th promotion forone day only. Readers can subscribe forone year to the News Examiner for just$21, which is 50 percent off the regularrate of $42 a year. The subscription in-cludes home delivery of theWednesdayand Friday editions, as well as the Sun-day Gallatin News Examiner/SumnerA.M.editionandSunday’sTennesseanatno extra charge.

TheFriday,April13promotion, avail-able for Sumner County addresses only,will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our of-fices at 1Examiner Court in Gallatin, orvia credit card over the phone at 452-2561. This promotion is also available tocurrent subscribers looking to extendfor an additional year.

This is your perfect opportunity toenjoy the News Examiner’s award-win-ning coverage of Gallatin and SumnerCounty, as well as the hundreds of dol-lars in coupons offered most weeks.

–Mike Towle, general manager/SumnerA.M.

Friday the 13thpromotionreturns

Three Sumner charities can helpmore people after a benefit at a localfuneral home on Tuesday.

Donations helped raise $225 for theGood Neighbor Mission, HomeSafeandGallatin C.A.R.E.S. at the Soup forSumner fundraiser initiated by andheld at Crestview Funeral Home inGallatin. Crestview also matched theproceeds for a total of $450 for thethree charities.

For a $5 donation, attendees couldhave a steaming bowl of chicken noo-dle, roasted red potato or tomatobisque soup, crackers, tea or coffeeand an assortment of cookies for des-sert. Each guest also received a ticketto vote for a favorite charity. Initiallyfuneral home officials had planned to

SOUP’S ON

Vic and Jackie Leathers joke around during the soup benefit they organized that raised $450 for Good Neighbor Mission,HomeSafe and Gallatin C.A.R.E.S. at Crestview Funeral Home in Gallatin on March 27. PHOTOS BY DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/SUMNER A.M.

Gallatin soup eventbenefits 3 local charities

Nicolas Crocco, 5, hesitates at the thought of eating tomato bisque soup, one of hisleast favorite meals.

» CRESTVIEW, 6M

By Dessislava YankovaSumner A.M.

Local dogs are invited tobring their owners to the sev-enth annual Dog Daze of Hen-dersonville celebration,scheduled for Saturday, April14.

Just for the day, centercourt at the Streets of IndianLakewill double as a dog gath-ering of sorts, with the oppor-tunity for pooches to minglewith other canine friends, andtheirowners tobrowseavarie-ty of vendor booths related toanimal care.

“It’s a place they can comewith their pets and this is

something they can both enjoywith no cover charge,” saidDi-anaTownsend, founder of SafePlace for Animals, the non-profit that is sponsoring theevent. “A lot of the people justlook forward to doing it be-cause it has gotten to be such abig event.”

The event draws hundredsof residents each year for aday filled with dog-themedcontests, demonstrations andseminars on health and animalwell-being.

Several rescue groups andshelters including SPA willbring pets who need owners.

Dog Daze to be at Streets of Indian Lake

Dogs and owners can participate in many activities at Dog Dazeon April 14. SHERRY MITCHELL/FILE PHOTO

By Sherry MitchellSumner A.M.

»DOG DAZE, 4M

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Page 2: Joan Richardson

SUMNER A.M. SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2012 • 3MNEWS

The prosecution arguedRichardson was aware ofher actions.

“The proof is clear thatJoan Richardson picked upthat gun,” said AssistantDistrict Attorney TaraWyllie. “She picked up thatgun with the intention tokill.”

Richardson takesthe stand

Joan Richardson tookthe stand on Thursday. Shetestified that she did notmean to kill her husbandand did not remembermuch about the incident.

“I don’t remembershooting him,” she said. “Ijust remember the soundof the gun. I remember thesmell (of the gunpowder),and I remember I called911.”

Richardson testifiedthat she asked him severaltimes for a divorce but herefused.

Lynne D. Zager, a psy-chologist hired by the de-fense to evaluate Richard-son, saidRichardsonwas ina dissociative state whenshe shot her husband, andwas thereforenot responsi-ble for his death. Expertsexplained a dissociativestate is a serious mental

state in which a person los-es touch with reality andhas something commonlycalledan “out ofbodyexpe-rience.”

Zager, who met withRichardson three times be-tweenMarch 2011 and Feb-ruary 2012, diagnosedRichardson with post-trau-matic stress disorder, apsychological conditionusually brought on by thestress of a traumatic event.

Zager said she could notpinpoint a specific trau-matic event that wouldhave caused PTSD but saidthat the abuse she enduredfrom her husband, as wellas previous abuse fromherfather, brother and a boy-friend growing up, was toblame.

Richardson was beingtreated for anxiety and de-pression since1972 but hadnever been diagnosed withPTSD. Zager argued thatshewas not diagnosedwitha mental illness becauseshe never talked about theabuse she suffered in hermarriage.

Acoupleof timesduringher testimony, Richardsonaddressed her husband’ssister, Susan Addison, whowas sitting in the court-room and said, “Susie, I’mso sorry.”

When she stepped downfromthewitnessbox,Rich-

ardson, who is out on a $1.5million bond, walked overto Addison and hugged her.

Gun cocked

The incident occurredon Dec. 16, 2010 at around1:30 p.m. at their home onUniversity Drive.

According tocourt testi-mony, Richardson hadmade her husband lunchthat day, and he fell asleepinareclinerchair in the liv-ing room. She then wentinto their bedroom andgrabbed a gun she had in-herited from her father.She testifiedThursday thatshewas feeling very lonelyand very depressed. Shepulled the hammer back onthe gun. She said she initia-lly thought about killingherself but instead wentinto the living room.

Zager said cocking thegun was a significantevent. Even though the gunwas Richardson’s, Zagersaid her husband never lether touch it. When shecocked the gun, she real-ized she didn’t know how todecock it and thought shewouldget into trouble. Zag-er argued Richardson wasin a dissociative state andtherefore had a diminishedmental capacity to thinkra-tionally.

“Her capacity flickered

when she pulled the ham-mer (of the gun) back,” shesaid.

Zager said Richardson’sagitated state stemmedfroman incident aweekbe-fore when David Richard-son got upset over a phar-macy not getting his pre-scription order correct andassaulted his wife. He gotangryatRichardson, threwthe medicine bottle at her,grabbed her by the neck,choked her and then threwher against the dresser andaround the room. She hither head and passed out.

Richardson said thatwhen she awoke, she had aheadache and felt like shewanted to throw up. Theyboth agreed that she mighthave a concussion. Herhusband did an onlinesearch for advice insteadof taking her to the hospi-tal. Richardson ended upstaying in bed three days.

Richardson also testi-fied that her husbandwould hit her, once whenshe was pregnant, andcalled her names, such as“idiot” and “stupid.”

After she cocked thegun on that day, shewent tothe living room and shother husband once in the ab-domen.

PTSD vs. depression

To counter the defense’smain argument that Rich-ardson suffered fromPTSD, District Attorney L.Ray Whitley called Dr. Ro-keya Farooque, a govern-ment psychiatrist who wasasked to evaluate Richard-son’s ability to stand trial.

Farooque had spokenevery day to Richardsonfor 27 days and had con-cluded she was fit to standtrial, did not suffer fromdissociative states and didnot have PTSD, which shesaid is what some veteranssuffer from after witness-inghorrific acts ofwar. Shedid, however, diagnoseRichardson with a moder-ate form of depression.

When asked what evi-dence she had to show thatRichardson was aware ofher actions, Farooquepointed to the fact thatRichardsonwas able to runerrands earlier that morn-ing, and that, when theyspoke, Richardson told hershe shot her husband in theabdomen so he would sur-vive thegunshot.Thesearenot the reasonings of a per-son out of touch with reali-ty, Farooque argued.

“She wanted him to gethelp,” Dr. Farooque said.“That’s why she didn’tpoint to the head or chest.

That shows to me she wasin touch with reality.”

David Richardson diedat Vanderbilt UniversityMedical Center during sur-gery the same day he wasshot.

When asked why shedidn’t think Richardsonhad PTSD, Farooque saidshe didn’t suffer from sig-nature symptoms of thedisorder, including flash-backs, emotional numb-ness and avoidance of situ-ations that would remindher of the initial trauma.

“It’s lots of problemsyou have to have to get thatPTSD diagnosis,” Fa-rooque said. “I didn’t see orhearanyflashbackbyher. Ididn’t see any numbness. Ididn’t see any symptoms ofPTSD.”

The prosecution alsopointed to a phone callRichardson made to hermother from jail, duringwhich Richardson said, re-ferring to the incident, “Ithought about it, and Ithought about it, and I shothim.”

Richardson faces a sen-tence of up to life in prisonif convicted.

Go online to Gallatin-NewsExaminer.com for thelatest in the case.

Reporter Alexander Quinonescan be reached at 575-7114.

Expert: no symptoms of PTSD exhibited» MURDER FROM 1M

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