The Luke Wenke Files

The following document is a post-hearing memorandum that Luke Wenke’s public defender, Frank Passafiume, submitted to the court following an evidentiary proceeding that was held to determine whether Wenke suffers from a mental disease or defect warranting involuntary treatment.

Passafiume outright accuses the prosecution’s expert witness, forensic psychologist Dr. Corey Leidenfrost, of basing his opinion of Luke Wenke’s medical condition on misinformation. More specifically, Passafiume refutes Leidenfrost’s assertion that Luke Wenke is delusional, arguing that Wenke’s alleged delusions are actually rooted in reality.

For example, the memorandum posits that Wenke’s belief that I’m conspiring against him is not a persecutory delusion because my website might make him understandably feel targeted. Of course, not surprisingly, Passafiume conveniently fails to mention that Luke Wenke has harbored irrational beliefs about a large-scale conspiracy against him since years before this website existed, including at a time when I was living like a recluse out of desperation to be left alone by Luke Wenke.

To Passafiume’s credit, he acknowledges that I’m “undoubtedly” a victim, which I genuinely respect and appreciate, even if the defense victim-blames in the same document. It’s more validation than I received from the prosecution during the final months of the case.

Expert Testimony: “Treatment May Be Futile”

Also in fairness to the defense, I think this memorandum offers a far more realistic take on Luke Wenke’s chances of succeeding in treatment than the prosecution includes in its argument. One of the defense’s choice experts predicted that treatment “may be futile” for Luke Wenke because he supposedly suffers from a personality disorder with “pervasive features” that are “unlikely to change significantly in the near future.”

I disagree with the defense’s argument that Luke Wenke isn’t delusional. I don’t think he’s as delusional as the prosecution seems to believe, but it would be equally nonsensical to suggest that he’s not delusional at all. But I think the defense was very realistic in its argument that Luke Wenke does not stand to benefit from forced treatment, and their prediction proved correct.

The judge involuntarily committed Wenke to treatment, and it did him absolutely no good. Upon his release from custody, his mental state seemed worse than ever, yet he was under no supervision whatsoever. Less than 24 hours after his final court hearing, he began barraging the judge with volatile and explosive emails, and the hostile correspondence continued right up until Wenke’s most recent arrest on December 17th.

I don’t think anyone knows what the answer is, but I concluded long ago that Luke Wenke is a hopeless, lost cause. I think he’ll be in and out of the criminal justice system until he does something serious enough to remain in it. And I think the sooner everyone involved in the case accepts that some people can’t be fixed or saved, the safer society will be, because it’d help guide them toward a more realistic course of action than they’ve taken in the past.

USA v. Luke Wenke – Memorandum
April 18^th, 2025

CASE #1:22-cr-00035, DOC. #192