Daily News (New York)

February 4, 2003, Tuesday

SHRINK’S A SHARK, L.I. COURT HEARS

BYLINE: BY Mike Claffey

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 24

LENGTH: 292 words

The Long Island shrink accused of plotting to murder his patients planned to chop them up and feed them to sharks, a prosecutor charged yesterday.
Dr. Richard Karpf sought information about shark-infested waters off Long Island and boasted to a patient he could get away with murder if he made chum out of his victims, Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said.
“He said if people are missing, nothing would happen if their bodies are never found,” Biancavilla alleged at a hearing in which the psychiatrist was denied bail.
Karpf, 50, of Great Neck, told the client he planned to kill as many as six patients – boasting that his “medical training would make it easy for him to dismember the bodies of his victims” the prosecutor said.
The patient, whom Karpf asked for help getting a gun, went to cops, who set up a sting.
Karpf, who appeared in court in arm and leg irons, was busted Jan. 8 after showing up at a Long Island Home Depot to buy a gun, a silencer and four clips of ammunition from an undercover cop, authorities said.
The psychiatrist also is facing a malpractice lawsuit from a former patient who claims he conducted a year-long romance with her at his office. That relationship ended a day before Karpf’s arrest, authorities said.
His attorney, Stephen Scaring, said Karpf needs a shrink of his own. He added that Karpf’s elderly parents would put up their house to secure his release.
“I’m asking for reasonable bail so we can deal with the problems he has in a proper setting,” Scaring said.
Karpf is charged with second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, which could land him behind bars for 15 years. But Biancavilla said he would seek murder conspiracy charges in the next two weeks.