CATHERINE CRIER has seen her share of notorious, even bizarre cases in a three-decade career that has taken her from district attorney to civil litigator, judge, legal analyst and now host of Court TV's "Catherine Crier Live." Posted on 03/07/2007 8:39:06 AM PST by SmithL
CATHERINE CRIER has seen her share of notorious, even bizarre cases in a three-decade career that has taken her from district attorney to civil litigator, judge, legal analyst and now host of Court TV's "Catherine Crier Live."
Yet, even she couldn't imagine a more extraordinary case than that of Susan Polk.
From day one, Crier was intrigued by the case of the Orinda housewife convicted in June of second-degree murder in the October 2002 stabbing death of her therapist-turned-husband, Felix Polk.
"They live in this beautiful, million-dollar home," she explained Monday while in San Francisco promoting the book. "The husband is a therapist and a university professor. Susan has a 159 IQ. And they have three strapping, intelligent, handsome boys -- but when you begin to pull back the curtain, you see the entire picture of not only increasing psychological and possible physical abuse going on in the relationship, but also the psychological histories of both Susan and Felix."
"Final Analysis" is the first of two books on the East Bay's high-profile case. Former San Francisco Examiner writer Carol Pogash is slated to release her version, tentatively titled "The Patient Murderer," this fall.
What began as intrigue led Crier repeatedly back to the Contra Costa County Courthouse for Polk's trial and ended -- even before the official sentencing last month, with the publication of her book, "Final Analysis," co-written with Cole Thompson.
Though its subtitle is "The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case," Crier's account offers few surprises from a case extensively covered by the Times and other local media.
What she does give readers, however, is a provocative look at the Polks' psychologically troubled history, including their issues of abandonment stemming from their childhoods, the events that led Susan to Felix for therapy and their respective suicide attempts.
She also provides a deeper understanding of the Polks' three sons and the repercussions they suffered. In striking detail, she allows readers to accompany Gabriel Polk as he discovers his father's body and sits in a police interrogation room. She also fleshes out Eli Polk's repeated run-ins with the law.
"The three boys really grabbed my heart," Crier said. "We look at criminal events and so often focus on the one moment in time. It's the ripples that carry on that I find equally compelling."
"Final Analysis" also recounts Susan Polk's vivid "delusions and conspiracy theories" along with the jarring courtroom antics that often derailed her trial.
Polk fired a handful of attorneys and decided to serve as her own counsel, refusing to seek a defense that claimed any form of mental illness.
Crier said she believes good counsel could have delivered Polk's defense more effectively, likely ending in an involuntary manslaughter conviction.
It was a surprising decision but not out of character for someone who believed herself to be a battered woman, Crier added.
"As a therapist at her trial testified, she had a strong need to control her environment," Crier said. "This therapist was not surprised that Susan would repeatedly dismiss lawyers and ultimately decide she was going to direct the show herself. She wanted to control her condition, her future, and she was willing to suffer the consequences."
By the time this development occurred, Crier was already hooked on the case, with an eye toward writing the book. She was there when the crime was reported, the witnesses were deposed and the court shenanigans unfolded.
"I felt I might have a better perspective, having vicariously lived through a lot of the story," she said.
By chance, she happened to be there for the twists, too.
A week into the first trial in 2005, Polk's defense attorney, Daniel Horowitz, returned to his Lafayette home to find his wife, Pamela Vitale, murdered. The judge declared a mistrial.
When the second trial began, Polk fired her attorneys and decided to represent herself. Polk often interrupted and baited District Attorney Paul Sequeira in the courtroom. She frequently ignored rules and openly criticized Judge Laurel Brady. And she turned cross-examinations of her sons into drawn-out, often irrelevant testimony.
Crier found Polk to be the most surprising component of the case because of her complexity as a defendant.
"There were moments, as Paul Sequeira said, where Susan displayed courtroom brilliance," Crier said. "She would be doing an extraordinary job cross-examining a detective and then she'd begin to ask him about psychics -- and she would lose her audience."
Murder had drawn Crier to California once before, when she wrote "A Deadly Game" after Scott Peterson of Modesto was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner.
That, too, was an intriguing case, Crier said, though that alone doesn't always lead her to pen a book. Take, for example, the case of Anna Nicole Smith, whose death has already unleashed a slew of court appearances.
"Nothing," Crier said, "would tempt me to join that stampede to the publishing house."
Ann Tatko-Peterson is a Times features writer. Reach her at atatko@cctimes.com or 925-952-2614.
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