"Justin can no longer meet the expectations that have now become his identity." On Nov. 18, Chapman took Justin to see the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Just after it started, Justin began screaming in pain because of a headache. Chapman took her son to St. Anthony Hospital North. She said doctors gave Justin liquid Motrin and sent him home. Later that day, Chapman found her bottle of Motrin, empty, on the floor of Justin's room. She said she had hid the Motrin in a cupboard above the stove. She took her son back to the emergency room. Tests came back negative for any overdose, she said. In speaking of the episode, Chapman said she interpreted Justin's actions as a "cry for help" rather than a suicide attempt. She expressed regret at taking Justin to St. Anthony's a second time. The hospital placed the child on a 72-hour mental health hold. And Chapman was reprimanded for trying to leave the emergency room with her son. "Justin wanted to go home," Chapman said. "I tried to take him out of the hospital. I tried to sign him out and leave." Justin was transferred to the Devereux Cleo Wallace inpatient hospital in Westminster on Nov. 19 and placed on a 72-hour mental health hold for suicidal ideation, or fantasizing about killing himself. Founded in 1943, Devereux Cleo Wallace treats psychiatric, emotional and behavioral problems in those ages 5 to 21. Devereux psychiatrist Cathy Collins wrote in her report that Justin was mentally ill, "a danger to himself" and "gravely disabled."
Chapman provided the report to the News. Several key findings of the report became elements of Broomfield's neglect case against Chapman, including this one:
In a letter provided by Chapman to the News, Collins wrote: "It is my impression that he is gravely disabled as evidenced by his violent tantrums, regression to infantile-like behaviors and suicidal ideation." She suggested that Justin might have bipolar disorder. In defending herself against the complaint, Chapman said that Justin had given only seven speaking presentations in 19 months, and that he enjoys the engagements. Justin was transferred Nov. 28 to Children's Hospital, where he remained until the week before Christmas. Of the suicide attempt, Justin told the staff at Children's he had consumed only one Motrin. "He alleges that his cats ate the rest," the report states. There, the neurology department found Justin to be "without any apparent neurological deficit." A child depression index found that Justin was having "excessive tearfulness," according to a report by attending psychiatrist Harriet Stern. Justin said he felt tearful only since being in the hospital and not before that. As he was given an intelligence test, Justin became frustrated when he did not know the correct answer, and he would hide under a piece of furniture, Stern reported in a document Chapman gave to the News. Justin's performance on the Wechsler test indicated he had "an approximately average intelligence level," Stern wrote. Chapman responded by defending her son's results on the Wechsler test. She said Justin could not possibly do well, because he was traumatized. She also said the Wechsler test is inappropriate for gifted children because the ceiling of the test is not high enough. But the dramatic change in test results raised a red flag for Stanley at Johns Hopkins. "People like that don't deteriorate to average on a Wechsler," Stanley said. "They don't peter out in that sense at all." Chapman's own mental health also came under scrutiny at Children's Hospital. In Justin's discharge report, Stern noted that Chapman had "unsupportable beliefs" that Justin could move objects using his mind and "possibly alter the outcome of the future, including the future of the world associated with World War III." Chapman said Justin does believe in telekinesis and is concerned about the fate of the world. Staff at Children's found Justin to be "adjustment disordered with mixed anxiety and depression." But, upon discharge, Justin's mood was described as "cheerful and he was without apparent psychotic process." Doctors at Children's said that Justin should be reunited with his mother at some point if she is "assessed as mentally fit and appropriately able to care for Justin."
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