Seven years ago this week, a man named Cody Judy entered the crowded Marriott Center and terrorized a crowd of B.Y.U. students.
He held a fake bomb to the head of L.D.S. Church General Authority Howard W. Hunter and demanded the resignation of church leaders.
He's been in custody almost ever since.
And now in an exclusive interview, Judy claims he's in prison only because of his religious beliefs.
News Specialist John Hollenhorst has more.
Whether or not Cody Judy is mentally ill is the heart of a very complex set of issues. Officialdom says he is. He says he isn't. And because he won't accept treatment as prescribed, he wound up back at the Utah State Prison.
Cody Judy has spent seven years behind bars and, of course, he hates it.
Cody Judy: "As an inmate you're at the bottom of the totem pole."
Prison officials say Judy caused several disiplinary problems the first year or two, but he's been trouble free for five years. He made the dean's list in education progams and has excellent work reports.
The incident at BYU seven years ago, Judy says, was an aberation caused by temporary depression over personal problems.
Judy: "I, uh, first of all, I'm still and always will be very sorry for any scare or fear that I caused anybody there."
Judy seemed to be on his way out of prison last fall.
He accepted parole to a halfway house, agreeing to complete a mental illness treatment program. He believes he's not mentally ill, so the battles began immediately.
Judy: "Basically, they wanted me to take medication. And I refused, okay?"
Under a threat of going back to prison, he agreed to take medications, which he claims caused severe side-effects. The real crunch came when he refused to answer questions in therapy about his religious views.
Judy: "If you were to say, 'I've listened to the still small voice, or the Holy Ghost,' well then the psychological field turns that into, 'Well, he's hearing voices! We got a pill for that!'"
Judy was sent back to prison for failing to complete his treatment. The board of pardons revoked his parole.
Mike Sibbett/Chair, Board of Pardons: "When you have someone who has delusions, who has acted out on delusions in the past in a violent manner, when the professionals tell the board that they perceive a risk... the board is compelled to take that seriously."
Judy claims the clinicians are basing the diagnosis on his statements and writings seven years ago, interpreting unusual religious beliefs as delusions.
Judy: "Joseph Smith would have been a whacked-out nut in our day. And he'd probably be in a mental hospital for saying he'd seen the Father and the Son."
Mike Sibbett: "Well, I can't recall Joseph Smith ever holding a whole auditorium full of people hostage."
Judy has threatened a lawsuit, so officials won't discuss the case or disclose what symptoms he's exhibited in recent years.
Psychiatrist Noel Gardner is not involved. But he's an expert, and says it can be a challenge to distinguish genuine religious belief from delusion.
Noel Gardner: "And trying to sort that out is difficult, often, but it's usually quite doable."
When a man's freedom is at stake, especially when there's tension between patient and therapist, Gardner says there ought to be a second opinion.
Gardner: "An external expert who could come in and review the case to see whether diagnosis is appropriate, whether treatment is really necessary, whether the refusal of treatment might be an appropriate thing for an individual to make."
Judy gets a re-hearing before the Board of Pardons next October. Unless he's paroled, he could be in prison another 8 years.
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