APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS CONVICTION OF QUARTZ HILL FATHER.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - An appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Quartz Hill man who held his three children captive in their home, bit off part of his daughter's ear and tore a clump of hair off another before deputies freed them at gunpoint.

Douglas Greer claimed his constitutional rights were violated when the judge allowed a psychiatrist's testimony suggesting Greer fabricated his defense that prescription medication was to blame for his actions.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal said it is not probable that excluding the psychiatrist's testimony would have altered the jury's guilty verdict.

``Fairly read, (the psychiatrist's) testimony states that appellant was suffering from an alteration in his mental status at the time of the offense, and therefore, that in (the psychiatrist's) opinion, appellant believed that his best defense was to claim prescription medication overdose,'' the ruling said.

``(The psychiatrist) went on to opine at length that appellant did not know what he was doing at the time he committed the offenses and (the psychiatrist) did not believe that appellant was fabricating all of this for some kind of defense in court, thus bolstering appellant's defense theory,'' the ruling said.

``Appellant also testified that he may have told his mother that his best defense was to claim the crimes were committed as a result of taking prescription medication. Therefore, any error in admitting (psychiatrist's) statements was utterly harmless,'' the ruling said.

Greer was convicted of mayhem on a victim under the age of 14 and false imprisonment in connection with the December 2003 incident and was sentenced to 10 years and four months in prison.

Greer was at home with his three children ages 12, 11 and 10 and was acting strangely, telling his mother who had come to the house that ``Jesus was going to come to the house and take all of them to heaven,'' the ruling said.

The mother went to a neighbor's house and called 911, the ruling said.

Responding deputies knocked on the doors and after getting no response broke through the back door and found Greer sitting on the couch, clutching the children with his eyes closed, the ruling said.

The children were crying and pleading with their father to loosen his grip because they could not breathe. The deputies repeatedly ordered Greer to release the children but he did not.

The deputies first freed two children, but not before Greer bit down on one daughter's hair and tore some of it out of her scalp. The deputies then attempted to free the third child, whose earlobe Greer bit and spit out. When deputies threatened to shoot Greer, he released the girl.

Greer in an interview with investigators blamed his behavior on methadone and prescription pills and said he thought his neighbors and ex-wife were trying to take his children away from him.

At trial, Greer testified that he had been prescribed various painkillers and opiates since an automobile accident in 2000 and smoked about two marijuana joints per day to ease the pain.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com