Florida suspends license of Vero psychiatrist incarcerated in New York

State officials issued the emergency suspension of a Vero Beach psychiatrist's medical license this week after learning the doctor pleaded "not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect" to charges that he tried to kidnap a 2-year-old in New York City from his mother. The doctor later told a court he thought she was from outer space.

Dr. William John Johns III, 35, has been incarcerated in New York since his arrest in July 2006.

Initially, Johns was charged with attempted second-degree murder in connection with a summer 2006 incident at a pier on the West Side of Manhattan, when he allegedly choked the mother unconscious. That charge, plus charges of second-degree assault and child endangerment, were dismissed by a New York judge at an April hearing.

On Aug. 30, Johns asked the court's permission to return to Florida and day treatment at a psychiatric facility.

Instead, the court found him "dangerously mentally ill" and committed Johns to a secure treatment facility in New York for six months, according to an order by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Ana M. Viamonte Ros.

The order relates New York court testimony in the case that indicated Johns was diagnosed in 2005 with bi-polar disorder and has a history of alcoholism, depression and attention deficit disorder.

Shortly before his 2006 arrest in New York, Johns stopped seeing local patients and fired his receptionist.

"He believed he was a character in a movie and that other people were actually actors observing him," the order reads.

Some time later, Johns reportedly drove to New York City. Along the way he tore a medication patch from his arm, heard voices and thought he was Jesus Christ, the order states.

At the Manhattan pier, Johns began watching families and children in a play area.

"He became fixated on a 2-year-old boy playing with his mother … Dr. Johns related that there were certain moments when he thought the child was an alien, or super-human, but later determined that the child was in danger of falling in the water or being hit by a bus and had to be saved from his mother, who was from outer space," the order states.

John then allegedly grabbed the child, then choked the mother until bystanders freed her and held him until police arrived.