But high-priced shrink cites success
trist has also spent part of his career creating the Depravity Standard, a crowd-sourced index for measuring how evil a crime is. Welner’s hope is that the index will one day contribute to fair and evidence-based criminal sentencing.
He has previously worked as a consultant on ABC News and was an early supporter of President Trump. He describes the commander-in-chief as an “exceptionalist.”
“President Trump’s exceptionalism is the embodiment of healthy narcissism,” Welner said in the email exchange.
This spring, Welner was in the running to be the country’s mental health czar in the Trump administration. Ultimately, the assistant secretary post in the Health and Human Services Department went to Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, a psychiatrist who focuses on drug addiction.
When Welner was under consideration, a forensic psychologist, Dr. Xavier Amador, publicly criticized him and his work as an expert witness.
Amador has worked closely with defense attorneys who have gone up against Welner in past. He said Welner’s testimony is biased and not based on scientific research.
“Dr. Welner is scary to me,” said Amador, the director of the Leap Institute, which trains mental health and police professionals. “He presents with an air of authority and he certainly has a medical degree, but he does not have the scientific and clinical background that is needed to provide reliable opinions in these cases.”
Welner called Amador “an attention-seeking wannabe.” Welner defended his work, noting that many of his opinions have had an impact on verdicts in criminal cases. Not one of the verdicts has been reversed based on his opinions, he said.
The Manhattan DA’s office also agreed that Welner’s input is priceless, especially in helping to bring closure to the city’s most infamous cold case.
“Ask the parents of any murdered kid whether too much money was spent prosecuting their child’s killer,” said DA spokeswoman Joan Vollero.
“In this enormously complicated case, after a murder committed nearly 40 years ago, a jury unanimously concluded Pedro Hernandez was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Dr. Welner is an independent medical professional, and we were very satisfied with the expert analysis he provided over the five-year period this case was in court.”