Chicago Sun-Times

January 20, 2001, SATURDAY, Late Sports Final Edition

‘Monkey doctor’ witness for Lemak

BYLINE: BY ART GOLAB

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4

LENGTH: 334 words

Prosecutors sparred Friday with lawyers for Marilyn Lemak over whether the Naperville woman should be allowed to offer testimony from a psychiatrist prosecutors belittled as “the monkey doctor.”
Dr. William McKinney hasn’t examined Lemak, who is accused of murdering her three young children. But her lawyers want him to testify that depression can make a person insane — her defense.
Prosecutors argued before Judge George Bakalis that most of the doctor’s research has involved monkeys, not humans. McKinney said he has written for a magazine called Mainly Monkeys but said his research into animals is separate from his extensive work in treating humans for depression.
McKinney, director of the Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders at Northwestern University, said he sees eight to 10 human patients a week.
“Almost all the patients that I see clinically do not come because of the animal research; they come because they have problems with depression,” he said.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Jane Radostit continued to focus on McKinney’s work with nonhuman primates. “I certainly don’t mean to demean him when I call him a monkey doctor, although the majority of his work has been involved in animal research,” she said.
“Have you seen suicide as a consequence of depression in monkeys?” she asked. “Have you seen monkeys kill their families because they were depressed?”
McKinney answered “no” to both questions.
His most recent research involves studying the effects of melatonin on monkeys treated with anti-depressant drugs.
Jack Donahue, Lemak’s attorney, said McKinney’s testimony is necessary to “lay the groundwork” for an insanity case. “The question is, can major depression be elevated to insanity, and we have the opportunity to present someone who knows what major depression really is,” he said.
Bakalis seemed sympathetic to the defense.
“I have no doubt he’s not a monkey doctor; his credentials are very good,” he said.