Bomb Building Prozac 12/01/1999 Washington Bomb Builder Was Also Involved in Stand-Off With Police: Was also Taking Lithium
 
 Summary:<br><br><div><font size="3">Paragraph 5 reads:&nbsp; <strong>&quot;He also was given prescriptions for the<u> anti-depressant <font size="3" color="#ff0000">Prozac</font></u><font size="3"> and the anti-psychotic drugs Haldol and lithium.&quot; <br /><br />Paragraph 21 reads:&nbsp; &quot;On Monday, the federal defender presented testimony from a psychiatrist, a neuro-psychologist and a psycho-pharmacologist - <u>all of whom said the prescription drugs triggered Tayloe&#39;s bomb-building paranoia.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></u>-----------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></font></strong></font><h3><strong>IMPAIRED JUDGMENT CAN&#39;T KEEP MAN FROM PRISON JUDGE GIVES BOMB-BUILDER 41 MONTHS, DECIDES DANGER EXCEEDS PILLS&#39; IMPACT</strong></h3><font size="3">Spokesman-Review, The (Spokane, WA) - January 12, 1999 <br /><br />Author: Bill Morlin Staff writer<br /><br />Taking Interferon and other prescription drugs ``significantly impacted&#39;&#39; a Colville bomb-builder involved in a daylong police standoff, a judge ruled Monday. <br /><br />But U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle also determined that the impact of the drugs on Robert Tayloe is exceeded by the danger he presents to the community. <br /><br />The judge sentenced Tayloe to serve 41 months in prison on a firearms charge after Federal Defender Judy Clarke asked that he be released from jail immediately and placed on probation. <br /><br />The 47-year-old former welder was prescribed Interferon alfa-2b in September 1997 after he was diagnosed with hepatitis C, a terminal illness that attacks the liver. <br /><br />He also was given prescriptions for the anti-depressant <strong>Prozac</strong> and the anti-psychotic drugs Haldol and lithium. <br /><br />``Truly, this is a case where this man wouldn&#39;t be before the court if it wasn&#39;t for the very dangerous drugs he was on,&#39;&#39; Clarke argued. <br /><br />To that, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice responded, ``The Interferon did not make Bob Tayloe make pipe bombs.&#39;&#39; <br /><br />The prosecution presented evidence from Dr. Vernon Cressey, a psychiatrist, who evaluated Tayloe immediately after his arrest last April 1. <br /><br />``I&#39;m sure he wasn&#39;t encouraged by the medicine to build bombs,&#39;&#39; Cressey testified. ``That&#39;s pretty far-fetched.&#39;&#39; <br /><br />The federal prosecutor said Tayloe knowingly violated federal firearms laws and should be sent to prison for 71 months, the maximum under sentencing guidelines. <br /><br />Van Sickle reduced the sentencing range to 41 to 51 months after ruling that the drugs significantly reduced Tayloe&#39;s mental capacities. <br /><br />``The use of Interferon along with the other drugs had a significant impact on the mental state of the defendant,&#39;&#39; the judge said. <br /><br />Some of the fully activated pipe bombs found in Tayloe&#39;s home in Colville were attached to propane tanks. His neighborhood was evacuated during the siege. <br /><br />Authorities seized 18 pipe bombs, eight grenades, a MAC-90 and AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition. <br /><br />Clarke said Tayloe thought he legally possessed the weapons and ammunition for hunting. <br /><br />``A MAC-90 with a fully-loaded 30-round clip is not a legal hunting weapon,&#39;&#39; Rice told the court. <br /><br />The April 1 standoff began when Tayloe and his wife had a disagreement and she called police, who set up roadblocks after shots were fired in their direction. <br /><br />No one was injured and Tayloe ultimately surrendered. <br /><br />He was sentenced to serve a year in jail after being convicted in Stevens County of two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in connection with the standoff. <br /><br />He pleaded guilty last September to the federal firearms charge after his attorney abandoned plans to present an insanity defense. <br /><br />On Monday, the federal defender presented testimony from a psychiatrist, a neuro-psychologist and a psycho-pharmacologist - all of whom said the prescription drugs triggered Tayloe&#39;s bomb-building paranoia. <br /><br />Last year, Clarke was on the defense team for Theodore Kaczynski, a more celebrated bomb-builder from Montana. <br /><br />She didn&#39;t mention that case in describing Tayloe&#39;s crime as one that was drug-induced. <br /><br />``These drugs left him alone inside a twitching and anxious body,&#39;&#39; Clarke told the court, quoting Dr. Ron Siegel of Los Angeles. <br /><br />The psycho-pharmacologist said the combination of drugs made Tayloe ``frightened and threatened his security.&#39;&#39; <br /><br />``He was lost in the catastrophe of his own world falling apart,&#39;&#39; Clarke said in reading Siegel&#39;s assessment. <br /><br />Craig Beaver, a neuro-psychologist in Boise, testified via telephone that Tayloe&#39;s problems with paranoid, delusional thinking began when he started taking Interferon. <br /><br />Beaver, who screens patients for a liver transplant program, said there are other documented instances of the drug causing aggressive, paranoid behavior. <br /><br />Clarke asked Beaver why the drug combination would lead Tayloe to bomb-building. <br /><br />``It was what was available to him,&#39;&#39; Beaver testified. <br /><br />Tayloe brought the ammunition and gun powder with him to Colville from Tennessee, where he was told he couldn&#39;t possess firearms or get a concealed weapons permit because of a felony <strong>fraud</strong> conviction. <br />Caption: Photo<br />Tayloe<br />Memo: Bill Morlin can be reached at (509) 459-5444 or by e-mail at billm@spokesman.com. <br />Edition: SPOKANE<br />Section: THE REGION<br />Page: B3<br />Record Number: 9901120026<br />Copyright (c) 1999 The Spokesman-Review<br />To bookmark this article, right-click on the link below, and copy the link location:<br /><a href="http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&amp;rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:SMRB&amp;rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&amp;rft_dat=0EAF48A7B5C4D021&amp;svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&amp;req_dat=0FC00B934DD580D0">IMPAIRED JUDGMENT CAN&#39;T KEEP MAN FROM PRISON JUDGE GIVES BOMB-BUILDER 41 MONTHS, DECIDES DANGER EXCEEDS PILLS&#39; IMPACT<br /></a></font></div> 
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