Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life

15. "No Goddamned Award"

man, said another psychologist. Other doctors testified that she had been diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder for at least ten years. Her husband testified that she had for years abused a variety of prescription drugs—“an absolutely appalling jumble of chemicals”— and that after Kevin’s verdict, suicide had seemed to “loom on the horizon.” The prosecution’s case in response was straightforward enough: forget about all the psychiatric mumbo-jumbo—Ruth was motivated strictly by old-fashioned revenge and hate. The first dramatic moment arrived early when the hit-man tapes were played in court. For the first time, the world heard that Ruth Coe wanted Don Brockett in diapers. Ruth was not present during the playing of the tapes; Maxey had convinced the judge to let her leave the courtroom. But the drama’s biggest twist came a few days later: the complete nervous breakdown of the defendant. It started when prosecutor Mary Kay Barbieri gave copies of the Ruth Coe hit-man tapes to local NBC affiliate KHQ. The tapes had already been played in open court and complete transcripts had been published two days earlier in the Spokesman-Review.Yet when the judge heard that KHQ had the tapes, he issued an order that they not be broadcast. Doctors had warned the judge that broadcasting them would “facilitate a fullscale psychotic breakdown” in the defendant. KHQ promptly aired the tapes anyway, on both their radio and television stations, citing its First Amendment rights. Ruth and Maxey were walking back to the courthouse after a lunch break when she heard about the broadcast. She immediately “suffered a total fit of emotional prostration” and became hysterical, Maxey told Bonino. Maxey managed to get her to his office and immediately summoned psychologist Anna Kuhl, who had been testifying that morning. Kuhl found Ruth to be “over the edge and into the pit and [didn’t] feel she [could] come out again.” Maxey went into his front office and told Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Timothy Egan, “I’ve got a sick woman on my hands who collapsed back there and refuses to go on with the trial.” When Maxey saw a KHQ reporter, he angrily barked, “Go in the back room and take a look at my client. You guys don’t give a shit about humanity.” Kuhl later said that the public airing of 216 ruth coe’s greek tragedy the tapes had “made them concrete” in Ruth’s mind, a reality she couldn’t tolerate in her manic-depressive state. Judge Bibb reconvened the trial that afternoon and, clearly incensed, immediately cited KHQ for contempt of court (overturned two years later by the state supreme court). Maxey moved for a mistrial, saying in an affidavit that “my client refuses to allow me to present any evidence on her behalf.” Barbieri publicly worried about “how this [was] going to play,” and it played sensationally. “Suicidal Coe Hospitalized ; Lawyers Asking for Mistrial,” shouted Spokesman-Review headline . On a practical level, her breakdown meant that Ruth did not take the stand that afternoon as planned. Instead, she was placed on suicide watch in the psychiatric unit of Sacred Heart Medical Center. “I don’t know if I can strongly enough relate to you the seriousness of the problem,” Kuhl told the judge. “The potential for her to commit suicide . . . is extremely high.” Kuhl said Ruth needed at least fortyeight hours of intensive therapy before doctors could even decide whether she could stand trial. Bibb recessed the trial for the weekend. He later admitted to Olsen that he was a bit skeptical about all of Ruth’s histrionics, but “didn’t want blood on my hands” if the psychologists turned out to be right. When court reconvened on Monday—the mistrial motion denied— Ruth looked as if she had spent a restful weekend in the hospital. “To reporters, Mrs. Coe seemed more at ease than at any time since the since the trial had begun,” wrote Olsen. However, the defense soon announced that Ruth would not be taking the stand after all, implying that this was Ruth’s decision, not the lawyers’. The prosecution called another psychiatrist, who testified that the tapes showed a woman who was not psychotic at all, just “clearly preoccupied with her task.” That witness also pointed out the obvious: Ruth Coe had a very, very “heavy” relationship with her son. Barbieri, in her summation, hammered away at what Ruth had revealed on the tapes: “Anger, revenge and...