Once `Role Model' Now A Suspect -- Lawyer Whose Battle With Schizophrenia Gained Attention Is Accused In Killing

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - Michael Laudor, a lawyer whose achievements while battling mental illness had made him an inspiration to fellow schizophrenics and the subject of a Hollywood movie project, was charged yesterday with killing his girlfriend.

The body of Caroline Costello, who was pregnant, was found a day earlier in the apartment they shared in Hastings-on-Hudson, a suburb north of New York City.

Police had been alerted by a call from Laudor's worried mother. When they arrived, Costello, 37, was dead from stab wounds.

Laudor, 35, had fled the riverside village for Cornell University in Ithaca, 170 miles away, where he once attended a summer workshop for high-school high achievers. He surrendered there and was driven back for arraignment on a charge of second-degree murder.

With his hands cuffed to his waist, Laudor was escorted into police headquarters, just across the street from the crime scene.

Laudor did not enter a plea and was sent to the Westchester County Jail without bail.

Officials would not say whether Laudor's very public struggle with schizophrenia - The New York Times profiled him in 1995 and he sold his life story for $1.5 million - had anything to do with the killing.

"That's up to his attorneys . . . to bring up to the court if and when that's appropriate," prosecutor Jeanine Pirro said.

Prosecutors said Laudor had been working as an ethics consultant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, a mental-health research center. Jill Daniels of the institute said that it was a volunteer role and that he had never attended a meeting.

Laurie Flynn, a spokeswoman for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said the charge against Laudor was particularly deflating because of his high-profile story.

"We thought, what a wonderful and courageous thing it was for him to step up and say people of talent and accomplishment can have schizophrenia and they can manage it and keep moving forward," she said. "It was a very inspiring story of accomplishment and hope."

The cause of schizophrenia is unknown. There is no cure for the disease and no simple test to diagnose it. Many researchers believe that it results from a mixture of genetic and environmental factors. The illness is characterized by profound thought and mood disturbances. It is treated with powerful anti-psychotic drugs.

Flynn said people with schizophrenia sometimes "are prone to outbursts of agitated or violent behavior." She said medication usually works, but schizophrenics often stop taking the drugs when they think they're better.

"When people with schizophrenia are receiving treatment, those symptoms are under control. We saw that with Mr. Laudor," she said. "When people are not in treatment, sometimes those symptoms lead to tragedy."

The 1995 New York Times article described Lauder as "by all accounts a genius." He got through Yale University in three years but at age 24 became paranoid and delusional and had to be hospitalized for eight months. After treatment and on medication, he graduated from Yale Law School and lectured there, but could not get high-level jobs because "he could not handle the pressure or long hours," the story said.

When he decided to be honest about his illness, Lauder said, he encountered barriers; one interviewer asked if he was violent. He called that "a painful stereotype."

"People with schizophrenia are negated constantly," he said. "and I can be a role model."

In recent months, Laudor had agreed to write an autobiography and sell the movie rights for a reported $1.5 million to Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Costello was associate director of technology at the Edison Project in New York, a private company that helps manage individual public schools in 12 cities.

"She was smart, kind, wonderful, helpful," said Debra Doorack, editor in chief of the company. "We're stunned here."

Information from The Washington Post is included in this report.