Prosecution: Luke Wenke needs forced inpatient mental health treatment
In the following memorandum (Document #193), Assistant U.S. Attorney Franz Wright asserts that Luke Wenke is suffering from a “mental disease or defect for which treatment at a suitable facility is appropriate.” He bases his argument largely on three separate evaluations of Wenke that Dr. Corey Leidenfrost performed over a year-long period starting in early 2024.
More specifically, Wright highlights Dr. Leidenfrost’s opinion that Luke Wenke is delusional and at a high risk for physical violence, and that he suffers from schizoaffective disorder. The document focuses extremely heavily on the belief that Luke Wenke is plagued by delusions and needs medication and “treatment.”
Furthermore, the memorandum urges the court not to subscribe to the defence’s argument that Dr. Leidenfrost spent less time evaluating Luke Wenke than other mental health professionals and is therefore more liable to be inaccurate with his findings. In a nutshell, the document implies that Dr. Leidenfrost is the premier authority on aspects of Luke Wenke’s mental state that are relevant to the case and whether he needs inpatient care.
AUSA Wright joined Luke Wenke’s case as the main prosecutor in late February. He’s at least the third or fourth prosecutor to oversee the case because the court seems to go through prosecutors like underwear. His argument that mental treatment should be the top priority in Luke Wenke’s case stands in stark contrast to that of Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff, who strongly urged the judge to send Wenke back to prison for a year following his first probation violation conviction in mid-2023. Mr. Rudroff conceded that Luke Wenke needs mental help but argued that he needed discipline first. Unfortunately, his argument was rejected.
Things in the Memorandum that I Agree With:
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Dr. Corey Leidenfrost is an extremely qualified evaluator.
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Luke Wenke sends lots of letters, and he fixates on “certain individuals” in these letters (p. 2).
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Luke Wenke is at a high risk for serious physical harm and imminent violence (p. 4).
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Luke Wenke is abnormally fixated on certain topics (no pun intended, if you know about Topix) and people, including myself.
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Luke Wenke experiences persecutory (see below), grandiose, and paranoid thoughts/tendencies (p. 7).
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Luke Wenke experiences erotomanic delusions (p. 7).
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Luke Wenke’s psychiatric symptoms have been untreated since 2019 or 2020 (p. 8).
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Luke Wenke seems to inaccurately and irrationally believe that numerous people are out to get him, conspiring against him, etc. (p. 8).
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Luke Wenke “clings to certain beliefs even when there is contradictory information that conflicts with this belief” (p. 13).
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My website has no influence on professional opinions regarding Luke Wenke’s mental state and court outcomes, despite his apparent belief to the contrary (p. 13).
Luke Wenke is off-base in his belief that I’m conspiring with or influencing anyone involved in his case. I prefer to avoid interacting with any of those parties, and the only one I have a great deal of appreciation for, at this point, is the U.S. Marshal assigned to the case. I have only talked to him a handful of times, but I felt like he took me seriously, was more willing than others to explain things when I had questions, and cares about victims.
On another note, I find it ironic how I’m getting this much airplay in the court documents after losing my victim status. That speaks volumes about who gets heard, who gets listened to. I would’ve given my right arm to have this much of a voice earlier on in the case. Why do I suddenly matter so much after being brushed off like an inconsequential backwater for so long? I mean, I’m flattered, but…
Things in the Memorandum that I Disagree With:
Luke Wenke needs inpatient mental health treatment due to his “disease or defect.”
You know that saying about how you can lead a horse to water, but…? At this point, it seems like the prosecution is forcefully dunking Luke Wenke’s head in that water and holding it under while he kicks, screams, and otherwise makes it abundantly clear that rehabilitative/therapeutic treatment is completely fucking useless.
What is the prosecution’s hope with this? Do they think he’ll make meaningful enough progress to function in society? Treatment will be completely pointless in a non-forced, non-institutionalised setting. Mark my words.
Does the prosecution think Luke Wenke will have an “aha” moment and start voluntarily taking medication and cooperating with therapy after he realises it helps in some clinical but mind-dulling sense that makes him dearly miss his symptoms? Because there’s no fucking way he’ll get on board with this.
Luke Wenke doesn’t think anything is wrong with himself and no one on Earth can convince him that there is. For anyone to think they can make Luke Wenke “see the light” or have some sort of epiphany that makes him start cooperating with treatment is a delusional and grandiose belief.
Luke Wenke needs psychiatric medication.
It might be beneficial if the plan is to keep him in a mental facility for the rest of his life, but otherwise, it’s completely unrealistic. Luke Wenke will stop taking medication the moment he’s A) no longer required or under a perceived obligation to take it, or B) thinks he can get away with not taking it. Don’t believe me? I’ll bet you, and I’m a staunch anti-gambler.
Luke Wenke has been saying, over and over and for nearly two years, that he’s going to fight treatment every step of the way. What’s the point of sending him to a place where he’ll be forcibly medicated, then eventually cut loose, thereby throwing any meaningful progress straight in the trash? Because that’s the only way this will turn out.
If you envision a situation where Luke Wenke embraces outpatient care and follows orders or advice to take medications in the absence of being strictly forced, I definitely think you haven’t spent enough time in his company. You’re overestimating him and you’re expecting a miracle from the people tasked with treating him, which is unfair and benefits no one.
The only thing this mental treatment and medication approach will do is needlessly delay the case even more. It’s futile, and this endless dragging out is getting fucking ridiculous. This dilly-dallying has put so many peoples’ lives on hold, and for what? This 15-page blurb about how Luke Wenke is dangerous because he believes in psychics on a level that supposedly exceeds “cultural congruency”?
Me, while reading that: ‘Please be satire. Please be satire. Please be satire. Please be fucking satire.’
Dr. Leidenfrost is a more qualified authority on Luke Wenke’s mental state than other professionals who evaluated him.
Mr. Wright argues that the experts who evaluated Luke Wenke in Chicago were essentially only there to analyse him for one very niche, specific requirement. Why would the government waste so much money sending him nearly halfway across the country, for six weeks, just to find out one teeny-tiny, little thing? That would be incredibly stupid, wasteful, and frivolous.
Evaluating Luke Wenke on three separate occasions over a one-year span is a more accurate measuring stick than spending time with him on a daily basis for 47 days.
Go spend even a week straight in Luke Wenke’s company and tell me that it did less for your understanding of him than sporadic, short interviews. No disrespect to Dr. Leidenfrost, but he didn’t get to know even 1/100th of the inner workings of Luke Wenke’s mind. Less than one one-hundredth. Is that really all he needs to know in order to make an all-knowing, expert opinion? Why is the prosecution so snottily shutting down other viewpoints? Lawyers, man.
Dr. Leidenfrost is extremely qualified and I understand that he’s too busy to invest substantial time into figuring Luke Wenke out, but at the end of the day, I think the prosecution is cuckoo-bananas for
downplaying the insight to be gained from establishing a more in-depth, extended rapport. It seems to me like they’re saying it was a complete waste of time and taxpayer money to put him on Con Air and fly him to Chicago for a month-and-a-half long evaluation.
Luke Wenke’s belief in psychics and mediums is a defining factor of his level of dangerousness.
My only complaint regarding Luke Wenke’s supernatural beliefs is that it seems like some of the random online people he consults encourage the Ryan obsession. I’ve never felt threatened or unsafe because Luke Wenke likes to go to fucking Lily Dale and drop stupid money on fortune-telling services that I personally don’t believe in and think are silly. That’s his life and it isn’t my money, so I don’t give a shit.
A friend of mine maxed out her credit cards, fell behind on her rent and utilities, and went flat broke because she became addicted to calling those pay-per-minute psychic hotlines. She called until someone told her what she wanted to hear. She called for constant reassurance.
Was this normal behaviour? No. Did she put way, way too much stock into what some quack told her over the phone? Yeah. Did she seriously need to get her shit together? Yeah. Did her amount of faith in these soothsayers concern me? Sure. Did she belong in a mental institution? No. Definitely not.
Luke Wenke is dangerous due to his delusions.
I don’t disagree that Luke Wenke’s delusions can be dangerous, especially when it comes to the Ryan obsession. But I think the prosecution is over-relying on the claim that Luke Wenke is delusional. They’re making him sound far less coherent and lucid than he actually is. Not all of his unusual thoughts and beliefs are delusions. The prosecution said it themselves in this memorandum, yet they focus so heavily on convincing the judge that Wenke is overwhelmingly delusional. Seems kind of hypocritical.
Moreover, I mainly believe Luke Wenke is dangerous due to the things he says and does knowingly and deliberately, with a complete understanding of (and lucid disregard for) right and wrong. In the grand scheme of things, I find it far more alarming that Luke Wenke seems to take pleasure in harming people and does extremely diabolical things in his efforts to ruin lives (which requires a level of coherency and planning that a completely delusional person would arguably lack)
Memorandum 193