Johnny Lewis Was Bipolar, Not Drug Addict, Says Legal Expert
Sept. 29 2012, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Johnny Lewis was dealing with severe mental illness and was not primarily a drug addict, says Wendy Feldman, a prison consultant who was working with the Sons of Anarchy star, suspected of killing his 81-year-old landlady and assaulting two men, prior to plummeting to his death on Wednesday.
"I met Johnny to work with him on a potential alternative sentence that would keep him out of jail but into some sort of program," Feldman told EOnline "We maintained the relationship for a period of 2 months, but there was such an obvious need for a medical therapeutic approach."
Lewis, Feldman said, was dealing with "psychopathy or bipolar disorder…something that needed a psychiatrist rather than a therapist. Johnny denied to me he was taking drugs.
"I didn't see that profile. I really saw someone who had mental illness."
Lewis, a Scientologist who had a serious romance with Katy Perry several years ago, was just 28 when he fell from the roof of a house where he rented a room. His landlady, Catherine Chabot Davis was found dead inside the house, along with her cat that had been dismembered.
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As RadarOnline.com reported, Lewis had been in and out of jail, was estranged from his parents who had been desperately trying to get him help, and was in a custody battle over his daughter.
"He was brokenhearted about that," Feldman continued. "When he talked about his daughter, he talked about love."
"If anyone can get a lesson out of this tragedy, Feldman said...."He had the diagnosis of very serious mental illness that was not being treated, and that's why it becomes obvious that you're gonna have a tragic end result of some great magnitude."
Police suspect that Lewis may have been on a designer drug at the time of his death. Toxicology test results are pending.
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