Oregon’s Psychiatric Security Review Board on Friday voted to discharge Dianne M. Davidoff from state supervision, nearly a decade after she was found guilty except for insanity in the killing of her 17-year-old son at their Gresham home.
Davidoff, now 53, has been living independently in Clackamas County but still under the oversight of the state since a Multnomah County judge rendered the verdict in 2017 in the killing of Jacob Davidoff. Dianne Davidoff fired a fatal round into her son’s back, and the bullet tore through his spine and struck his heart on Sept. 24, 2015.
The board declared that Davidoff is no longer suffering from a qualified mental disorder. It noted that she’s been free of psychotic symptoms for approximately 10 years without taking any mental health medication. In recent years, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and is undergoing treatment.
Davidoff’s “prolonged absence of symptoms without medication, despite substantial stressors and increasing independence, weighs against the continued existence of an underlying primary psychotic disorder,” the board ruled.
The board cited the credible testimony of two witnesses, including a Clackamas County mental health specialist and a forensic psychologist who had recently evaluated Davidoff, and largely rejected the opinion of forensic psychologist Alexander Milkey, who had not personally evaluated Davidoff since 2019.
Attorney Harris S. Matarazzo, representing Davidoff, had argued at a board hearing that she has had no symptoms for about 10 years, is unmedicated, functions well on her own, lacks a current qualifying mental disorder diagnosis and poses no danger to the community. Instead, Davidoff has undergone radiation for brain tumors and, despite that significant stressor, continues to follow her state supervision requirements, Matarazzo said.
Davidoff was 43 when she was committed to the state psychiatric hospital indefinitely – with the possibility that the state board could release her back into the community someday if she improved. At the time of the shooting, Davidoff had recently lost her job and was forced to sell their home, receiving only $6,000 from the sale after signing away the title that day — far less than the $30,000 she had hoped for. She and her son were moving out of the home that night.
Relatives told investigators that her mental health declined rapidly, and Davidoff reported experiencing paranoid symptoms a few months before the shooting. Davidoff thought intruders were trying to break into her home, thought she was being followed and, on the day of the shooting, thought her brother-in-law was a wolf, relatives said.
Erin Palmer, Clackamas County mental health specialist, and forensic psychologist Danielle Therson, who recently evaluated Davidoff, both called Davidoff’s discharge from state oversight appropriate.
Palmer told the board that Davidoff had done well living independently in her own apartment since May 2025, has been working part-time for a construction company, drives safely and followed all requirements except when physically unable due to her brain-tumor treatment and radiation effects. She noted that Davidoff has strong family support, sobriety, insight into her crime and a strong desire to maintain her mental health.
“I have not seen any symptoms nor seen any concerning behaviors,” Palmer said, adding that Davidoff had obtained a better understanding of the circumstances that led to her crime.
She said Davidoff’s prognosis from the treatment of her tumors is good, that the radiation is expected to have shrunk them. And Therson cited Davidoff’s years without any recurrence of hallucinations, that she’s taken no psychiatric medication since approximately 2016 and her continued stability with reduced supervision.
Palmer said the 2015 psychotic symptoms that appeared prior to Davidoff’s crime likely arose from a “convergence” of significant life stressors, poor sleep, substance use and inconsistent use of Adderall. Therson said Davidoff had been prescribed Adderall that she may not have taken consistently, was using marijuana four times a week and had significant stressors in her life at the time of the crime.
Therson said she’s not a neurologist but questioned if Davidoff’s previously undiagnosed brain tumor could have had an impact on her past psychotic symptoms.
“There is research suggesting that people with brain tumors can experience psychiatric symptoms, so then that just becomes relevant to my overall evaluation, and I think it’s something important to consider,” she said.
Therson also said she did not agree with the prior diagnosis of Davidoff by Milkey.
Assistant Attorney General Michael Bothoff had urged the board to maintain its supervision of Davidoff. He cited her initial diagnosis in 2017 that placed her under the board’s oversight – Milkey’s diagnosis of “other specified schizophrenic spectrum and other psychotic disorder.”
At a hearing last month, Milkey said he believed Davidoff suffered from “cycloid psychosis,” an episodic condition that is not formally recognized as a qualifying mental disorder. The last time Milkey met or evaluated Davidoff was seven years ago.
Milkey acknowledged during the hearing that Davidoff has shown no known symptoms and hasn’t been on any medication since 2016, but said the symptom-free period does not rule out intermittent cycloid psychosis. He said that’s a condition whose symptoms come and go “with complete recovery between episodes,” but admitted that he can’t predict whether Davidoff could have a future psychotic episode or not.
The board said they gave greater weight to Therson’s findings. Since Davidoff hasn’t exhibited any symptoms while not on medication for the past 10 years, Therson questioned the accuracy of the original diagnosis.
Davidoff, who attended the board hearing last month but did not speak, said in a statement provided by her lawyers Noah Horst and Ethan Levi Friday, that she’s “relieved but frustrated and angry” that the state hospital hadn’t sent her for appropriate medical care sooner so she could have discovered she was suffering from a brain tumor earlier. She had long complained of headaches, dizziness and other symptoms while at the state hospital that are consistent with a tumor, her lawyers said, but was told “she was making them up.”
Davidoff is also disturbed that the state hospital allowed a predatory nurse to sexually harass her while she was in state care at the hospital, the statement said.
In 2024, the state paid Davidoff $500,000 to settle a claim that a nursing manager at the Oregon State Hospital groomed and sexually harassed her and yet allowed him to resign without losing his nursing license or facing criminal investigation.
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