Deb Brunet

Articles from The Boston Globe regarding Deborah Brunet-Tuttle

1990

DOCTOR GETS LIFE SENTENCE IN CAMBRIDGE HIT-AND-RUN DEATH

Author: By Paul Langner, Globe Staff

Date: 12/22/1990 Page: 30
Section: METRO

A PUBLISHED CORRECTION HAS BEEN ADDED TO THIS STORY.

CAMBRIDGE -- Dr. John F. Kappler, a California anesthesiologist, was sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison yesterday after he was found guilty of second-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of a Boston City Hospital psychiatrist. CORRECTION: Because of a reporting error, Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, a psychiatrist killed by a car while jogging in Cambridge last year, was incorrectly identified in several stories as having been a resident in psychiatry at Boston City Hospital. He was a resident at New England Medical Center.

A Middlesex Superior Court jury deliberated about two hours after two weeks of trial before reaching its verdict. Kappler was also convicted on two assault charges in the wounding of a second pedestrian on Alewife Brook Parkway in Cambridge on April 14. Judge Robert A. Barton imposed the life sentence and also gave Kappler two concurrent sentences, one of 10 to 15 years for armed assault with intent to murder and a second one of eight to 10 years for assault and battery with a deadly weapon, a car. Evidence introduced by assistant district attorney Marcia Jackson showed that Kappler drove his car off the road and struck Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, a Californian who was a third-year resident in psychiatry at Boston City Hospital, and Deborah Brunet-Tuttle of Cambridge, a staff member for a service agency for elderly people. Mendelsohn was killed. Brunet-Tuttle, who was scooped up by Kappler's car, suffered broken bones and must use a wheelchair. She said she expects to be in therapy for years before she can walk again unassisted and without casts on her arms or legs. Kappler's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, argued that Kappler, now 61, was insane that day when, Shapiro said, voices in Kappler's head commanded him to run the two pedestrians down. Evidence at the trial showed that Kappler had suffered psychotic episodes as far back as 1975, and that he had attacked people, once injecting a pregnant woman with potentially harmful medication and another time removing the intravenous tubes from a bedridden patient. In an emotional plea, Shapiro told jurors that Kappler could not help himself, that "it was a voice speaking to him from his illness, from a nightmare world of his obsession," and that they should find him innocent by reason of insanity. But Jackson, pointing out that the mental health experts called as witnesses by Shapiro had testified that Kappler was able to choose which of his inner voices to obey, and that he had disobeyed voices urging him on to suicide, concluded, "The problem is that this tragedy has gone on too long." Kappler's family left without commenting. Shapiro said he was "shocked at the verdict, given the evidence," and said he would appeal. Betsy Grossman, Dr. Mendelsohn's cousin, said she blamed the medical profession for "letting Dr. Kappler down. They sent him back to work time and again, to put people in jeopardy." Jackson said she felt that "the verdict speaks well of the jury's common sense."

LANGNE;12/21 CORCOR;12/23,17:08 KAPPLE22

ACCUSED OBEYED VOICES, SAYS WITNESS

Author: By Paul Langner, Globe Staff

Date: 12/18/1990 Page: 33
Section: METRO

A PUBLISHED CORRECTION HAS BEEN ADDED TO THIS STORY. CAMBRIDGE -- The retired California anesthesiologist charged with killing a jogger on a path off Alewife Brook Parkway obeyed voices in his head, according to testimony yesterday in Middlesex Superior Copurt.

Dr. John F. Kappler, thought one of the voices was that of the devil, a psychologist testified, and other times he thought the voices were those of God or a robot. Kappler, 60, is charged in the death of Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, a Boston City Hospital psychiatrist, and with injuring Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, both of whom were struck by Kappler's car on a footpath near the parkway April 14. CORRECTION: Because of a reporting error, Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, a psychiatrist killed by a car while jogging in Cambridge last year, was incorrectly identified in several stories as having been a resident in psychiatry at Boston City Hospital. He was a resident at New England Medical Center. Dr. Ronald Ebert, psychologist on the staff of McLean Hospital in Belmont, testifying for the defense, said that Kappler heard voices in his head that commanded him to try to injure people. Jonathan Shapiro, Kappler's attorney, is trying to persuade the jury that Kappler was insane when his car left the roadway and struck the two pedestrians. Shapiro maintains that Kappler was at the time incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his actions or of conforming his actions to the requirements of the law, the standard legal test of whether a person should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Assistant District Attorney Marcia Jackson questioned Ebert long and sharply, asking repeatedly whether Kappler might not be a cunning defendant who is trying to persuade everyone that he is insane. Ebert replied that he did not think so. Citing reports by Ebert and other professionals who examined Kappler, Jackson pointed out that Kappler had told differing and inconsistent stories to various examiners and asked Ebert whether he still believed him. Ebert said he did. Addressing Kappler's statement that the devil had spoken to him, Jackson asked whether Kappler had told him where the devil was located. Ebert replied that Kappler believed it was Woburn. That drew smiles from jurors, some of whom laughed when Judge Robert A. Barton remarked that no one should take the testimony as a fair characterization of that well-regarded city. Ebert later elaborated under Jackson's questioning. Kappler, he said, had told him that when he was driving on April 14, he saw a sign giving directions to Woburn and he conceived of the name in two parts, as Woe and Burn, which then initiated a sequence of thoughts that converted these two words into the concept of hell, whence the devil's voice emanated. Jackson also asked Ebert whether he believed that Kappler's actions after the two pedestrians were struck showed he was insane. She cited the evidence that Kappler apparently left the scene and abandoned his car in a nearby alley. She recalled that he then made his way to New York, where his son lives. He turned himself in there, accompanied by his son.

LANGNE;12/17 NIGRO ;12/18,13:13 KAPPLE18

VICTIM DESCRIBES LASTING INJURIES FROM CAMBRIDGE HIT-RUN

Author: By Tom Coakley, Globe Staff

Date: 12/11/1990 Page: 23
Section: METRO

CAMBRIDGE -- On a bright day in April, Deborah Brunet-Tuttle told a jury yesterday, she was run down on a jogging path next to the Alewife Brook Parkway in North Cambridge by a blue Hyundai Sonata and propelled into days of pain and disability.

Testifying at the Middlesex Superior Court trial of the man who admits driving the car, Brunet-Tuttle said she was on her way home to her 3-year-old daughter, Sarah, with eggs for an Easter egg hunt. She had just put on her wool overcoat against the chill that April 14 when her world collapsed. "The next thing I remember is a sense of impact," said Brunet-Tuttle, 32, speaking from a wheelchair. "It was like being sucked into a black hole. Everything went black. "I remember a sense of someone talking to me. I remember not seeing anything. I remember trying to remember what day it was . . . not being able to remember if Sarah was with me." Later, Brunet-Tuttle would learn that the driver of the car was John F. Kappler, 61, a retired anesthesiologist from California. She would also learn that, seconds before she was hit, Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, 32, a psychiatrist from Arlington, had been struck by the same car. He died of his injuries early the next day. Testimony from a police officer yesterday and comments made by the prosecutor in opening remarks last week indicate Kappler apparently did not try to stop while he drove on the path. In fact, he accelerated, leaving the scene after hitting Brunet-Tuttle. Kappler, who is being held at Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Last week, Kappler's lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, said that his client had, in April, been suffering from the latest manifestation of a 24-year psychosis. Kappler was ordered to run over Mendelsohn and Brunet-Tuttle by a demonic voice over which he was powerless, Shapiro said. Before Judge Robert Barton, Kappler stipulated to the fact that he was driving the car that struck Mendelsohn and Brunet-Tuttle. Brunet-Tuttle said yesterday that she had spent over two weeks at Massachusetts General Hospital being treated for her injuries, and almost two months at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, undergoing painful therapy. She said she had suffered head injuries, had a gaping hole in her neck, two breaks in her clavicle, a ripped shoulder joint, a fractured pelvis, a shattered left leg and serious bruises on her body. "There was tar from the path on my face, in my nose and hair for about 10 days afterward," said Brunet-Tuttle under questioning from prosecutor Marcia Jackson. "Daily a nurse or my sister would just remove it." Brunet-Tuttle, who now is an intake officer for Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, spoke of the lasting effects of the accident, such as the headaches she feels in her forehead. "What's difficult about the closed head injury is that I sometimes don't remember new information," she said. "I have to work at it." At times, she has trouble "putting words together." "For someone who had been a public speaker that's something difficult to deal with." Brunet-Tuttle said her shoulder still aches. "On a good day it's very achy; on a bad day, it's painful," she said. She testified that she still has a steel rod in her leg, which she kept elevated, that was surgically implanted to ensure that the bones heal properly. After her testimony, Brunet-Tuttle said she currently lives in Cambridge housing designed for handicapped assistance. Her sister, Jane, lives with her and, together with friends and other relatives, helps her with Sarah and daily life. "Three families, his Kappler's included, two generations of three families will never be the same because of this," said Brunet-Tuttle. "It's not just my body hurting, it's about my daughter getting angry

because I can't get to her in the tub." "It just gets sadder and sadder," she said. "The fallout from this doesn't end."

COAKLE;12/10 NIGRO ;12/11,14:12 KAPPLE11

TRIAL BEGINS FOR MAN CHARGED IN DEATH, INJURY ON JOGGING PATH

Author: By Tom Coakley, Globe Staff

Date: 12/07/1990 Page: 29
Section: METRO

CAMBRIDGE -- A California retiree was in the psychotic grip of a demonic voice April 14 when he killed a man and injured a woman by running them down with his car on a jogging path off Alewife Brook Parkway, the doctor's lawyer said yesterday.

"He did what he did because he was completely and incredibly insane at the time," attorney Jonathan Shapiro told a jury in opening remarks in the second-degree murder trial of Dr. John F. Kappler, 61, of Van Nuys. Kappler, a retired anesthesiologist who is being held at Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, has pleaded not guilty to killing 32-year-old Arlington psychiatrist Dr. Paul Mendelsohn and seriously injuring Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, also 32, of Cambridge. He had never met either victim. In addition to the murder charge, Kappler faces counts of armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the trial before Middlesex Superior Court Judge Robert Barton. Shapiro said Kappler's lapse into insanity last April was the latest manifestation of a mental illness that had caused the defendant to break with reality nine previous times over 24 years. In each case, therapy, drug treatment and hospitalization brought Kappler back for a time before he suffered another episode. "He would be transported into another world, during which time he believed he was controlled by an external force, by the devil himself," said Shapiro, who did not dispute that Kappler drove the car that struck Mendelsohn and Brunet-Tuttle. The lawyer said his client, though competent to stand trial, was not criminally responsible for his actions last April. "He was powerless to resist the voice that was commanding him," Shapiro said, as Kappler, his wife and daughter looked on. But Marcia Jackson, an assistant district attorney, told the jury that the state intends to prove Kappler was criminally responsible. "The commonwealth will prove that the death and injury caused . . . were the conscious, deliberate and intentional acts of the defendant," said Jackson. According to Shapiro, Kappler's illness began in 1966 when the doctor, in the midst of a successful medical career, was hospitalized and treated for psychosis after he exhibited paranoid tendencies, spoke of delusions and complained that the CIA was following him and that his house was bugged. In a number of the psychotic episodes, the voice instructed Kappler to do things such as administer the wrong drug during surgery in 1980 and turn off life support to another doctor's patient in 1985, Shapiro said. In the first case, the patient went into cardiac arrest but was saved; in the second, a nurse rescued the patient by turning the respirator back on, Shapiro said. A spokesman for one of the hospitals where Kappler worked told the Globe in April that the doctor retired after a 1985 incident involving the alleged interruption of life support to a patient. Kappler faced attempted murder charges, which were later dropped, the spokesman said. In two cases, the psychosis led to serious traffic accidents, Shapiro said. In 1975, Kappler smashed his car into another auto on a southern California freeway. He then got into the car he hit and drove it into another accident, before getting out of the second car and trying to leap in front of a bus, the defense attorney said. In 1984 he was seriously injured when he rammed his car into the rear of a parked auto, Shapiro said. The prosecutor, in her opening remarks, said she will present evidence that last April Kappler drove his car down the jogging path at 30 to 40 miles per hour and took aim at Mendelsohn, who was jogging. Then he continued down the path until the car hit Brunet-Tuttle, who was bringing groceries home for an Easter party, she said. The prosecutor said Brunet-Tuttle, who spent two weeks in the hospital, two months in rehabilitation, and still suffers from her injuries, will testify that "she felt an impact so severe, so incredible . . ." Jackson also said Kappler, who was being sought by police, intentionally left the scene and went to New York. There, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital before Shapiro notified authorities of his whereabouts. But Shapiro said his client was still undergoing the psychotic episode after the accident. Shapiro said his client left his car in a nearby driveway and wandered around the area of the accident and throughout the Boston area before taking a bus to New York, where he tried to strangle his son, Jack, who was helping him into the mental hospital. After the accident, Shapiro said, Kappler walked by the scene in Cambridge, watching paramedics and police. "He thought the whoop-whoop of the sirens was a congratulation," said Shapiro. "That's how deep he was into this illness."

COAKLE;12/06 CORCOR;12/07,13:56 MXMXMXMX

MURDER ALLEGED IN JOGGER'S DEATH

Author: Date: 06/01/1990 Page: 22
Section: METRO

NEW ENGLAND NEWS BRIEFS A murder indictment was filed yesterday against a California doctor who allegedly drove his car onto a jogging path in Cambridge April 14 and struck and killed a man and injured a woman. A Middlesex County grand jury indicted Dr. John F. Kappler, 60, an anesthesiologist from Van Nuys, Calif., with driving off Alewife Brook Parkway and killing Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, 32, of Arlington, who was on a jogging path. Kappler continued to drive down the path and allegedly struck Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, 32, of Cambridge. Kappler, who has been undergoing court-ordered psychiatric observation since his arrest April 20, was ordered Tuesday to undergo a second round of testing at the Metropolitan State Hospital.

CUNNIN;05/31 LDRISC;06/01,20:23 NENIBS01

HIT-RUN SUSPECT HELD FOR OBSERVATION

Author: By Paul Langner, Globe Staff

Date: 04/21/1990 Page: 23
Section: METRO

CAMBRIDGE -- A California anesthesiologist, accused of killing an Arlington psychiatrist and seriously injuring a Cambridge woman last Saturday in a hit- and-run accident, yesterday was ordered held for 20 days' observation to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

Dr. John F. Kappler, 60, of Van Nuys, was arraigned before East Cambridge District Judge Lawrence F. Feloney on a manslaughter charge in the death of Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, 32, who died 3 1/2 hours after allegedly being struck by Kappler's Hyundai as he jogged on a path about 30 feet off Alewife Brook Parkway in North Cambridge. A plea of not guilty was entered on Kappler's behalf by his attorney, Jonathan Shapiro. Kappler is also charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, his car; driving so as to endanger; and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident. According to court statements by Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Marcia Jackson, Kappler had just visited his daughter in Medford that day and was driving to New York. A witness told police that Kappler, who was driving about 50 m.p.h., ran a red light shortly before his car veered off the parkway, apparently without slowing down. The car jumped a 6-inch curb, missed some trees that line the roadway near the jogging path, and then traveled straight along the path, striking Mendelsohn, whose body struck the car's windshield. Mendelsohn was carried on the hood of the car for several hundred feet, Jackson said, before being thrown to the ground. About 1,000 feet along the path, she said, the car struck Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, 32, who was walking home, carrying a bag of groceries. She also was carried for a few hundred feet on the hood of the car before being thrown to the ground. Brunet-Tuttle was reported in stable condition yesterday with multiple fractures to legs and collarbones. Jackson said pins had been inserted into Brunet-Tuttle's legs to stabilize the fractures. After Brunet-Tuttle was thrown from the hood of the car, Jackson said, Kappler drove his car off the path and turned right onto Massachusetts Avenue, while the witness watched. The witness lost sight of the car as it passed over a bridge, Jackson said, and the car was later found in a driveway off a side street near Massachusetts Avenue. Between 10:30 a.m., when Brunet-Tuttle and Mendelsohn were struck, and 1 p.m., Kappler called his daughter, Elsie Kappler, to say he needed a ride. Jackson said in an interview later that police do not know how Kappler got to New York, except that he checked into a New York hospital in the company of his son, who lives in New York.

About 36 hours after the accident, Jackson said, Shapiro contacted her and police and told them Kappler had checked into the hospital.

LANGNE;04/20 JOBE ;04/21,11:26 KAPPLE21

HIT-RUN SUSPECT'S RETURN TO MASS. FROM N.Y. HOSPITAL CALLED IMMINENT

Author: By Andrew Dabilis, Globe Staff

Date: 04/18/1990 Page: 21
Section: METRO

Prosecutors seeking the California doctor who checked into a New York City hospital for what was described as a mental illness after the hit-and-run death of a Boston psychiatrist in Cambridge say his return is imminent.

The Middlesex district attorney's office is trying to bring back Dr. John F. Kappler, 60, of Van Nuys, Calif., who police say ran down Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, 32, who was jogging on a footpath off Alewife Brook Parkway Saturday morning. After Kappler's car hit Mendelsohn, who died later, the vehicle ran over Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, 32, who was carrying a bag of groceries. She suffered serious injuries and is hospitalized in Massachusetts General Hospital. The car continued to speed along the path, about 30 feet from the road, before turning onto Massachusetts Avenue toward Arlington. The vehicle was abandoned, but Kappler was not located until his family notified police Monday he had been checked into the undisclosed hospital for what his attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, described as "an acute episode of mental illness." Thomas Samoluk, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said they believe Kappler's return is imminent and said it was possible, but unlikely, Kappler could be brought back today to face arraignment. Yesterday, State Police obtained warrants in Cambridge District Court charging Kappler with manslaughter, a more serious charge than vehicular homicide, the original charge. Other charges include assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and operating to endanger. Samoluk said, "We are still working out the process by which the defendant will be brought back to the commonwealth for arraignment." He said they are negotiating with Shapiro for a voluntary return, which would be quicker than initiating formal extradition with New York authorities. Samoluk also said that Kappler's treatment in a mental health facility had complicated the return, but that "our goal is to get him back as expeditiously as possible. Every defendant has certain rights, and it is another jurisdiction . . . but we know where he is, and we are intent on getting him back up here." Samoluk said when Kappler is arraigned, investigators will release more details about the case, while an accident reconstruction team tries to determine how the car veered off the road, hit two persons but missed poles and trees, and went about 1,000 feet on the footpath parallel to the parkway. Metropolitan Police, who responded to the accident, said they have uncovered some evidence, but could not disclose details. Kappler had driven cross-country with his wife to visit a daughter in Medford, and was en route to New York City to visit a son when the accident occurred. A memorial service for Mendelsohn, who was a resident at New England Medical Center, will be held tonight in Belmont.

DABILI;04/17 NIGRO ;04/18,12:47 DOCTOR18

HIT-RUN SUSPECT IN NYC HOSPITAL

Author: By Andy Dabilis and Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff

Date: 04/17/1990 Page: 1
Section: METRO

A California doctor wanted by police in connection with the hit-and-run death of a Boston psychiatrist was located yesterday in a New York City hospital, where he is being treated for a mental illness, police and his attorney said. An arrest warrant had been issued Sunday for Dr. John F. Kappler, 60, of Van Nuys, Calif., who police believe drove off Alewife Brook Parkway in Cambridge at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, striking and killing Paul Mendelsohn, 32, who was jogging on a footpath about 30 feet away, and then striking and severely injuring Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, 32, who was waiting at a traffic light about 300 feet farther along the path. Brunet-Tuttle is at Massachusetts General Hospital awaiting surgery for two broken legs, among other injuries. A hospital spokesman said doctors believe her life is not in danger. Kappler's 1989 Hyundai Sonata was found abandoned nearby on Lafayette Street shortly after the accident. Kappler's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said his client voluntarily entered the hospital "suffering from an acute episode of mental illness which we believe precipitated the fatal accident." Yesterday, as police accident reconstruction teams pored over the scene, examining debris including squashed chocolate Easter bunnies and egg dye from the bag of groceries Brunet-Tuttle was carrying, authorities, witnesses and friends of the victims said they remain puzzled by the case. Kappler apparently did not attempt to stop or slow down before hitting the two victims and drove at least 1,000 feet along the path, according to police.

Neither police nor his attorney would say how he made his way to New York nor give the circumstances under which he checked into the hosptial. Neither Shapiro nor police would identify the hospital where Kappler was being treated or specify the type of illness. They also declined to say whether Kappler had been taking any medication at the time of the accident. Kappler had been visiting a daughter in Medford and was driving to New York to visit a son when the accident occurred, police said. Shapiro said as soon as Kappler's family learned of his whereabouts, they notified Metropolitan Police. "When physicians treating Dr. Kappler believe he can be discharged, he will voluntarily surrender to the authorities in Massachusetts,' Shapiro said. Metropolitan Police spokesman Brian Hermes said that law enforcement officers expected that Kappler would turn himself in and that they were not planning extradition proceedings. Hermes said police are following up on many theories. "Until there is evidence to support a theory or until there is evidence to contradict a theory, all things will be considered," he said, noting that the footpath is so far from the parkway that police have to consider whether Kappler deliberately veered onto it. A spokeswoman at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles said last night that Kappler had been an anesthesiologist on the hospital staff from the mid-1970s until the mid-'80s. He retired shortly after he faced charges of attempted murder, later dropped, for allegedly improperly removing the life-support systems of a patient, she said. The charges were late dropped. According to the spokeswoman, nurses at the LA hospital had reported that Kappler had shown unusual interest in the condition of a 28-year-old man who was on life-support systems following a suicide attempt. They testified that on April 29, 1985, Kappler, who was not involved in the care of the patient, had entered the unit and stared for a long time at the patient and that he had returned six hours later. One nurse testified that she saw a man wearing hospital clothes and wire- rimmed glasses similar to Kappler's approach the man's respirator moments before it stopped working. But the nurse's description was so vague that Los Angeles Municipal Judge Edward L. Davenport felt it could have applied to anyone, according to reports. In dropping the charges, Davenport said that Kappler's behavior was unusual, but, "I suppose the only motive was he wanted to put this person out of his misery. It's a little bizarre that he kept bouncing into that room. Maybe he's a strange and bizarre person." Saturday's accident occurred along a busy stretch of the parkway, between Woodstock Road in Somerville and Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Mendelsohn, who friends said was training to run in the San Francisco marathon, as he had three times before, was jogging on the footpath. He was on call that morning at New England Medical Center, where he was a third-year resident in psychiatry. Shortly before the accident, he telephoned the hospital to notify officials there he was going out for a run. He carried no identification except for a beeper. Police said they were unable to identify him until the pager sounded several hours after the accident and they called the hospital. He never regained consciousness and died at Massachusetts General Hospital at about 2 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Across the street from the accident scene is Immaculate Conception Church, where Brunet-Tuttle is well known as a parishioner. Her pastor, the Rev. Arthur Wright, was among the first at the scene because he was inside the church preparing for Easter Sunday service when he heard sirens. "I went outside and heard police say they needed a priest," he said. He said after trying to assist with Mendelsohn, he was called to Brunet- Tuttle, who was on the sidewalk and badly hurt. She recognized him, he said, but was asking for her 2-year-old daughter, who was being cared for by friends and was not walking with her mother when the accident happened. "I've been to a lot of accidents in 23 years as a priest but this was the first time I'd seen someone I knew," he said. "I had spoken to her just the day before." Witnesses, including workers at a nearby gas station, said that after hitting Mendelsohn and Brunet-Tuttle, the car continued for several hundred yards before turning right onto Massachusetts Avenue toward Arlington. Mendelsohn's colleagues at New England Medical Center yesterday remembered him as a physician who showed patience and kindness to both his mentally ill patients and his fellow health professionals. He and his wife had planned to move in January from Arlington to California, where he was to finish his residency, they said. He was a man of varied interests, they said, including jogging, reading, playing guitar and collecting records. But he always put the needs of his patients first, they said. On Sunday, Mendelsohn's colleagues at New England Medical Center began calling his patients to notify them that he had died. The director of his program, Dr. Carol C. Nadelson, said the hospital normally begins preparing patients for a change of doctor about six months in advance. This time, she said, the separation will be especially rough.

"He was just a terrific doctor," Nadelson said.

DABILI;04/16 LDRISC;04/17,15:07 HITRUN17

DOCTOR SOUGHT IN HIT-RUN DEATH

Author: By Andy Dabilis and Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff

Date: 04/16/1990 Page: 15
Section: METRO

Police yesterday identified a missing California physician as a suspect in a hit-and-run accident that killed an Arlington psychiatrist and severely injured a Cambridge woman.

Metropolitan Police said a car registered to Dr. John F. Kappler, 60, of Van Nuys, Calif., who had visited his daughter in Medford, veered off Alewife Brook Parkway near Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, striking Dr. Paul Mendelsohn, 32, who was jogging, and Deborah Brunet-Tuttle, 32, who was walking with an armful of groceries. Mendelsohn practiced at New England Medical Center. Officials said his colleagues there were too distraught to talk. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with extensive internal injuries and died about 2 a.m. yesterday, police said. Brunet-Tuttle was admitted there with extensive injuries to both collarbones and legs. She said in a telephone interview from her hospital bed that her legs were broken. Police reported she was in critical but stable condition. Police spokesman Brian Hermes said witnesses told police the car didn't stop after hitting either victim. The vehicle, a 1989 blue Hyundai, was found abandoned about a half-mile away on a dirt road off the parkway a few minutes later. Police were looking for Kappler, who was believed headed for New York City after visiting his daughter when the accident occurred. His daughter, Elsie, said "We're gravely concerned about the victim and his family and we're deeply concerned about my father's health." She said the family had retained a lawyer. Kappler was identified as having gray balding hair, a beard, and was last seen wearing a beige jacket, plaid shirt and dungarees. Hermes said police were investigating whether Kappler had a medical condition or was taking medication at the time of the accident because of the way the car suddenly veered off the parkway as it was headed north and hit the victims, who were on a footpath about 30 feet off the road. Hermes said the car apparently struck Brunet-Tuttle first, hitting her from behind, before traveling another 100 yards and hitting Mendelsohn from the rear as well. Hermes said witnesses said they believe "Mendelsohn may have turned to look over his shoulder just before he was hit." Brunet-Tuttle said she didn't remember being hit or what happened to her. ''I have no recollection of being hit or even seeing anybody or seeing a car," she said. She said she was taking a routine Saturday morning walk to a corner store to buy groceries and prepare for an Easter egg hunt. She said her 2-year-old daughter, who would normally walk with her, was with friends at her house at the time. "My thoughts were it wasn't raining and it was a pleasant Saturday morning. My last memory was that I looked at the church parking lot next to her home and noticed my friend's car was there and thought 'This is wonderful, they are here.' " Brunet-Tuttle said the next thing she knew, the priest of her church nearby and a friend were standing over her and saying she was going to the hospital. ''I certainly feel blessed my daughter wasn't with me," she said, adding she felt grief at the death of Mendelsohn. She said she apparently rolled onto the hood of the car, striking and cracking the windshield before falling off and being dragged for at least 100 feet. Until January, she worked as a coordinator of elder services in the state Department of Mental Retardation but said she was let go because of the state budget crisis.

CANELL;04/15 NKELLY;04/17,10:01 HITRUN16