Dr. John Howard Lutz
MEDICAL BOARD RECORD—D08774
LICENSE STATUS/DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS—license expired in 1980
Death raises questions of safety
Man charged with stabbing counselor to death
Last week’s slaying of a mental health counselor in White Oak who police believe was stabbed several times by a client who visited his home has raised questions on whether the safety of caseworkers can be guaranteed.
“Safety is always a concern … because many of them have to go into clients’ homes alone,” said Daryl Plevy, acting chief of Montgomery County’s Department of Adult Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
But Plevy said that it was important “not to stigmatize the mentally ill” because incidents are rare. “The incidents of violence among the mentally ill is equally to or lower than the general public, depending on which study you look at,” he said.
On Friday, John H. Lutz, 64, of the 11500 block of February Circle was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nicole Castro, 23, of Silver Spring. Castro, a counselor for Threshold Services, was found stabbed to death near a dumpster last Thursday in the parking lot of Lutz’s apartment complex, the day after she was scheduled to meet with him at his residence.
“Without a doubt we believe he is responsible for her death,” said Officer Derek Baliles, a spokesman for Montgomery County Police. “How the mental illness plays into it will be something the state’s attorney’s office will look at in the future.”
Threshold Services is a private, non-profit organization that helps people with severe, persistent mental illnesses.
According to charging documents filed in District Court, Lutz suffered from a delusional disorder and was a former patient at Springfield State Hospital. Castro was assigned to his case after a fellow coworker went on leave, according to the documents.
Castro had been meeting with Lutz every Wednesday at about noon for less than a month. On her third visit, March 20, Castro left her office to visit Lutz, but never returned.
The following day at about 3:30 a.m., police received a call from a resident of February Circle who reported seeing a person on the pavement beside a dumpster. When police arrived, they found Castro’s body wrapped in two bloodstained sheets, charging documents said. Police said she had stab injuries to her face, neck, hands, and arms.
Castro’s work-issued car was also found 100 feet from her body, but no bloodstains were reported in or around the car, charging documents state.
When police learned that Castro was scheduled to visit with Lutz, they got a search warrant for his apartment and found a fresh bloodstain under the couch in Lutz’s living room, a key ring with a single key to Castro’s car splattered with blood in the bedroom and sheets similar to those found on Castro, the documents said.
Castro’s death has devastated her family, friends and co-workers, said Craig Knoll, a friend and executive director of Threshold Services.
“She was made to be a social worker. She was planning to go to graduate school this summer to get a master’s degree in social work,” said Knoll, who attended Castro’s funeral on Tuesday.
“She cared about other people just as much as she cared about herself. Everybody liked her – that’s why social work was a calling rather than a job to Nicole,” Knoll said, nearly breaking down into tears.
Knoll said part of Threshold Services’ procedure is to review medical records to determine whether the client has a history of violent behavior before a counselor visits.
“All of our staff think about safety and do things to maximize safety. That is part of the work,” Knoll said.
“For example, there are known risk factors for violence, so people who want to know can keep themselves aware of whether or not someone has any history of violence or expressed anger toward a particular group of people.
"Once you become aware of these factors, sometimes counselors won’t be alone with certain clients. It depends on what you know about that person and what the person’s condition is at that time. But when a person with a minimal risk for violence, whether or not they have a mental illness, does something like this, it surprises you. ”
Because of patient confidentiality, Knoll is not permitted to discuss Lutz’s medical history.
Evelyn Burton, vice president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Montgomery County, said the laws need to be changed so as mental health services can intervene in cases where a client appears dangerous.
“We introduced a bill to change the standards for involuntary evaluation and hospital admission and add a gravely disabled standard,” Burton said.
Burton’s group would like for counselors to be able to make a recommendation that a client receive an evaluation and/or hospitalization if that client presents a threat of danger to the counselor.
As the laws stand now, “just to have the evaluation there has to be a threat of imminent danger. They can’t get them into treatment before they become dangerous,” Burton said.
Knoll said despite the circumstances surrounding Castro’s death, many of his employees have continued go out to clients’ homes.
“Some counselors have said they are jumpy, but most people have just gone right back out,” Knoll said. “A lot of our counselors’ clients are being the source of reassurance and comfort to them as well as the other way around.”
Threshold Services and the county and state mental health department plan to review the case to see what steps can be taken to ensure safety.
“The state is going to do a thorough review of this case and look at things that we can do that we haven’t done in the past to make this situation safer,” Plevy said.
“And we’re going to work with them to do that,” Knoll said. (LINK) — 3/26/2002
Former Montgomery doctor Lutz is ruled mentally fit to be tried in 2002 slaying
John Howard Lutz, now 76, has been locked up ever since the 2002 fatal stabbing of Nicole Castro. But because of his paranoid schizophrenia, the one-time physician has never gone to trial.
Nearly 13 years ago, John Lutz was accused of attacking a mental health counselor who had arrived at his apartment in Montgomery County for a noon therapy session. He stabbed her in the face, neck, arms and hands, according to police, before he wrapped her body in a pair of bedsheets, carried it outside and left it next to a trash bin.
Lutz, now 76, has been locked up ever since. But because of his paranoid schizophrenia, the onetime physician has never gone to trial.
That stands to change, based on a written order this week by a Montgomery judge who ruled that, among other factors, antipsychotic drugs have helped Lutz better understand his surroundings. Lawyers in the case are due in court Friday to schedule hearing dates.
“He is not delusional and does not suffer from auditory or visual hallucinations,” Circuit Court Judge Ronald Rubin wrote, describing Lutz as a well-behaved patient at a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Maryland. “The defendant is not, and has not been, a management problem.”
The case, in the extreme, shows the challenges faced by doctors, lawyers and judges as they sort through whether a mentally ill defendant is “competent” to understand court proceedings, talk to his or her lawyer, and face trial.
For seven years, starting in 2002, doctors said Lutz was incompetent. That opinion changed, briefly, in 2009, before Lutz was again declared incompetent.
Then, in late 2012, a doctor opined that both conditions were possible: Lutz’s competency would depend on the defense he pursued.
Judges such as Rubin have the ultimate say. After reading the 2012 report, Rubin ruled Lutz incompetent, saying he wanted to see more evaluations — and setting the stage for a recent court hearing and his ruling.
“It certainly is true that the defendant’s mental status has waxed and waned, and that various doctors, at various times, have reached differing conclusions,” Rubin wrote. “The important question for the court, however, is whether he is competent today to stand trial.”
The judge ordered Lutz to be served with a copy of his murder indictment and set him on the path for a trial as soon as next year.
Experts such as Larry Fitch, a University of Maryland law school instructor, said one key indicator in competency cases is how well a defendant can communicate with his or her lawyer. The Lutz case “speaks to how patients can go in and out of competency, depending on their symptoms and their response to treatment,” said Fitch, who until recently headed the forensic services division of the state mental health agency.
To family members of victims, the combination of differing opinions and legal limbo has been devastating.
“My world can be divided between my life before March 21, 2002, and my life after that,” the mother of victim Nicole Castro told Rubin in court last week, recalling her daughter’s commitment to her work. “She was a kind, loving young woman who became a social worker because she wanted to help people.”
The morning of March 20, 2002, Nicole Castro drove a Chevrolet Cavalier to Lutz’s apartment in Montgomery’s White Oak area. The onetime internist, then 64, had a long and significant history of mental illness, having formerly been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility west of Baltimore.
It isn’t clear from court records what authorities think prompted Lutz to allegedly beat and stab Castro. Her body was found early the next morning, less than 100 yards from Lutz’s apartment.
Police went to the apartment, knocked and heard movements inside but got no answer. They got a search warrant and found Lutz, a fresh bloodstain under his sofa and a key to the Cavalier, with blood spatter on the key ring.
Lutz’s mental health quickly became an issue, setting off a transfer from the county jail to the maximum-security Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital.
For many years, according to court records, Lutz was deemed so strident in his defense strategy that it impeded his ability to talk with defense lawyers. He claimed that police didn’t have a valid search warrant, violated his Miranda rights and injected him in the neck with a mysterious truth drug.
In the spring of 2009, Lutz sent a two-page, handwritten letter to Circuit Judge Ann Harrington, recalling that among other topics on the day of his arrest. “One of the officers pressure injected my postero-lateral cervical trapezius fossa with a drug,” Lutz wrote. “There were ten injections on the right side, nine injections on the left side. As a consequence, I was mentally impaired and suggestible.”
Two months later, doctors at Perkins noted that Lutz seemed more open-minded about his defense. “Lutz’s thinking has become more flexible, in terms of his ability to work with an attorney, and the possibility that he may be convicted,” the doctors wrote, opining that he was competent.
But the position didn’t last long, according to court records, as Lutz slipped back into incompetency. That changed, slightly, in late 2012, when Lutz was evaluated. He was pleasant and scored well on a cognition exam. He could name the current U.S. president and spell the word “world” backward.
But Lutz was disheveled, with long, unwashed hair. He moved slowly behind a walker.
As for the criminal case, he was guarded but spoke about Castro. “I feel sorry for her and the people she left behind,” Lutz said.
He denied killing Castro but then said: “I must have done it. She was in my apartment. I was the only one there. I’m sorry. I don’t kill people.”
The evaluating psychiatrist, Danielle Robinson, wrote that if Lutz pursued a strategy of “not criminally responsible” — meaning he was so insane at the time of the killing that he didn’t know he was committing a crime — he would be competent. But if Lutz went to trial saying he’d been sane, that would make him incompetent.
Rubin, the judge, studied the report, questioned the doctor and ruled Lutz was incompetent, saying he wanted to revisit the issue in 2014. In December, Robinson evaluated Lutz, finding he was suffering from “unremitting psychosis” and noting that he had fallen back to a more rigid defense strategy.
Rubin wasn’t convinced, saying there wasn’t much new in Robinson’s report. Lutz’s belief in the neck injections, the judge noted, could have been the result of police having used a device such as a stun gun. In the end, Rubin said, Lutz seemed capable of sorting out such matters with a lawyer.
“He’s going to trial,” the judge said. (LINK) — 12/18/2014
John Lutz, former Maryland doctor, convicted in 2002 slaying of his mental health counselor
John Lutz, now 78, was convicted Friday in the 2002 fatal stabbing of Nicole Castro.
A former Maryland physician who killed his mental health counselor 14 years ago was convicted of first-degree murder Friday by a jury that waded through a long history of his schizophrenia and concluded he was legally sane at the time of the slaying.
John Lutz, 78, who sat in a wheelchair during the two-week trial, showed little emotion as the verdict was announced in Montgomery County Circuit Court. The conviction means he will be moved from a high-security state psychiatric hospital, where he has been held since his 2002 arrest, to the Maryland prison system.
“It has been a long and painful road,” the family of the victim, Nicole Castro, said in a statement after the verdict. “We have waited 14 years for this trial. Finally, today, justice was served.”
Prosecutors said they will seek the maximum penalty.
“We look forward to a sentence of life without parole for this murderer,” said Montgomery State’s Attorney John McCarthy.
Castro came to a therapy session at Lutz’s apartment, where he brutally attacked her, stabbing her in the face, neck, arms and hands, prosecutors said. He then wrapped her body in a pair of bedsheets, carried it outside and left it next to a trash bin.
McCarthy called it “a horrible crime” and said Castro “was a magnificent young woman trying to help others. She did not realize she had fallen prey to Dr. Lutz.”
During his trial, Lutz’s attorneys argued that at the time of Castro’s death, Lutz’s mental illness made him not criminally responsible for the crime.
The delay in bringing the case to trial reflects what can be the complicated question of whether a defendant is mentally “competent” to stand trial.
A key issue is whether the accused can communicate with their defense lawyer.
[From 2014: Lutz ruled mentally fit to stand trial]
Lutz has long asserted that after his arrest, police had injected him in the neck with a mysterious truth drug. For seven years, starting in 2002, doctors said Lutz was incompetent. The medical opinion of his competency changed briefly, in 2009, before Lutz was again declared incompetent.
Judges have the ultimate say in proceeding to a trial and in late 2014, Circuit Court Judge Ronald Rubin ruled that Lutz could be tried fairly.
“He is not delusional and does not suffer from auditory or visual hallucinations,” Rubin wrote.
Lutz, a onetime internist, had a long and significant history of mental illness that included being hospitalized in a psychiatric facility west of Baltimore.
On the morning of March 20, 2002, Castro drove a Chevrolet Cavalier to Lutz’s apartment in Montgomery’s White Oak area for a noon therapy session.
After Castro’s body was found less than 100 yards from Lutz’s apartment, police went to his door. They knocked and heard movements inside but received no answer, court filings showed.
They got a search warrant and found Lutz with a fresh bloodstain under his sofa and a key to the Cavalier with a blood spatter on the key ring.
Lutz’s mental health quickly became an issue, setting off a transfer from the county jail to the maximum-security Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital.
In the spring of 2009, Lutz sent a two-page, handwritten letter to Circuit Judge Ann Harrington, recalling a number of topics on the day of his arrest.
“One of the officers pressure injected my postero-lateral cervical trapezius fossa with a drug,” Lutz wrote. “There were ten injections on the right side, nine injections on the left side. As a consequence, I was mentally impaired and suggestible.”
For many years, according to court records, Lutz was deemed so strident in his defense strategy that it impeded his ability to talk with defense lawyers.
McCarthy called the judge’s decision to bring Lutz to trial “courageous.”
The jury began its deliberations Thursday night and finished Friday. (LINK) — 12/16/2016
John Lutz sentenced to life in prison for 2002 murder of social worker
ROCKVILLE – Former medical doctor John Lutz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday after he was convicted in the murder of social worker Nicole Castro.
Lutz, 78, was convicted of first-degree murder in December after it was previously determined that he could not stand trial by examiners at the Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital. Lutz, who said at the sentencing that he had schizophrenia, was eventually declared fit to stand trial in the 2002 murder of Castro.
Judge Ronald B. Rubin sentenced Lutz at the Montgomery County Circuit Court.
“The jury got it right, and Judge Rubin got it right,” said State’s Attorney for Montgomery County John McCarthy. “And the sentence he gave today of life without the possibility of parole was the only appropriate sentence.”
In 2002 Lutz was a client of Threshold Services and was in the care of several social workers. According to prosecutors, on March 13, 2002, Lutz stabbed Castro, who was filling in for a co-worker to take care of Lutz, after she denied several sexual advances.
Prosecutors said Lutz stabbed Castro 30 times and left her body next to a dumpster near his apartment in Silver Spring.
“The facts of this crime can only be described at horrific,” Rubin said before he sentenced Lutz.
In court, Castro’s family described her as a caring person who got into social work because she wanted to help people, and she was accepted to a master of social work program at the University of Maryland weeks before her murder. Her sister, Joanna Castro, describer her as having a beautiful smile and a quiet laugh.
“Today’s sentencing finally brings an end to the legal process,” Joanna Castro said after the sentencing.
During the sentencing hearing, Lutz rocked back and forth and covered his face with his hands. Before he was sentenced, Lutz went on what Rubin described a “lucid” rant, where he said he was sorry for Castro’s murder but claimed that the medical examiner added wounds to Castro’s body that he did not do.
McCarthy said that if Lutz was not sentenced life in prison without the possibility parole, it would have been possible that he would have been released in a few months given that he has already served 15 years, which means that he would have been eligible for parole.
“He would have been in a position where another person, like Ms. Castro, would have had to try to monitor him,” McCarthy said. (LINK) — 1/19/2017
