SOME OF PSYCHIATRY’S & PSYCHOLOGY’S
RECENTLY CONVICTED SEX CRIMINALS

Illinois psychiatrist Gary Almy was sentenced June 8, 2005 to seven years in prison after admitting he molested three boys ages 13-14 while they were attending a counseling center for troubled youths that he ran out of his home. Almy pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse in the three cases, which occurred between October 2000 and October 2003. (Almy was also the chief of staff at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in North Chicago until 1991, when he resigned after an investigation into patient deaths revealed they’d received substandard care.)

Connecticut school psychologist James Sullivan, Jr. was sentenced February 7, 2005 to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a handicapped woman. Police said Sullivan (who was also a part-time counselor to the mentally handicapped) assaulted a 45-year-old woman while on duty at a group home on July 20, 2001. Sullivan threatened to transfer the woman to another facility if she reported him. A DNA test of semen found on the woman’s sheets positively identified it as Sullivan’s.

On July 26, 2005, Vermont psychiatrist Peter McKenna admitted in District Court to violating the law by having sexual relations with a female patient. The patient testified as to how McKenna demanded sex from her during therapy sessions, knowing how vulnerable and alone she was: “He knew I’d succumb to any wish or sick desire, no matter how disgusting or perverted it was….He abused his credentials, and his license….” McKenna was sentenced to 60 days in a work camp followed by indefinite probation and had to return all treatment fees ($6,000) to the patient.

Connecticut psychologist and marriage and family therapist Robert G. Ryder surrendered to police May 19, 2003 after learning that they had issued a warrant for his arrest, charging him with sexual assault against one of his patients. Ryder, 68, was charged under a section of the state’s sexual assault laws that specifically addresses sexual exploitation of a patient by a therapist. He was found guilty and was sentenced on October 1, 2004 to one year in jail, suspended, and three years probation.

On July 21, 2005, psychiatrist Larry Anderson of British Columbia, was found guilty of sexual or indecent assault of three former female patients. At the opening of the trial, prosecuting attorney Brent Bagnall said none of the women were physically forced to have sex with Anderson, but suggested there could be more subtle forms of sexual assault. Anderson admitted to engaging in sex with the women inside his office, after the rest of the staff had gone home.

Illinois mental health counselor William E. Partridge was sentenced March 9, 2005 to 60 days in county jail and four years probation for sexually abusing one of his former clients. Partridge admitted he had sexually abused a then 17-year-old girl while she was attending freshman orientation at a university in June 2004. He also had sex with her several times before and shortly after she was discharged from a mental health facility that she had been admitted to in January 2004 due to distress following a friend’s suicide. Partridge was a counselor at the facility. “He used her as a sex toy,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Kirk Schoenbein. “He knew what buttons to push and what strings to pull.”

Former Stanford University psychologist Ian Edward Wickram was sentenced in October 2002 to a 90-day jail term and five years probation for sexual exploitation of two female patients. “Dr. Wickram seized on their vulnerabilities and exploited them for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutor Jeff Rosen said. In January 2003, the state revoked his license for incorporating sex into treatment regimens.

On July 4, 2002, London psychiatrist Kolathur Unni was jailed for 18 months for indecent assaults on female patients. One victim, who was in treatment with Unni for depression following the death of a loved one, testified that the psychiatrist groped her after insisting on checking a rash on her arm to ensure that it had not spread to her chest or “down below.” When she protested, he assured her no one would believe her as she was a mental patient. Unni had a history of sexual assaults on women patients and had previously been struck off the medical register in New Zealand for similar incidents dating back to the mid-1980s.

Michigan psychologist Bradley A. Kraushaar was sentenced May 29, 2003 to 90 days jail plus two years probation for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct. Kraushaar treated a 31-year-old married female for depression and marital issues. She had been referred to him following an overdose of an anti-anxiety drug. After several months, he engaged her in sexual topics and then sex.

Georgia professional counselor John C. Evans was convicted in March 2005 of one count of enticement of a child for immoral purposes, three counts of statutory rape, two counts of child molestation, one count of sexual assault of a person in custody and two counts of aggravated child molestation. Evans started molesting the victim when she was 14, while he was treating her family, and had intercourse with her when she 19. Other victims testified, including a former stepdaughter who said he’d engaged her in sexual intercourse at age ten, to congratulate her on becoming a woman. He was sentenced to 12 years prison and eight years probation.