Lawsuit Says NY Psychiatrist Susan Turner Convinced Patient to Have Sexual Relationship, Writer Her into Will

July 29, 2015

A Manhattan shrink turned the doctor’s maxim “Do no harm” on its head when she convinced her wealthy patient to be her lover and then persuaded the drugged-up woman to make her the beneficiary of her $7 million will before she died, according to court papers.

Now the disinherited brother of the late Amy Blumenthal is involved in a bruising legal battle with her psychiatrist-girlfriend Dr. Susan Turner.

Randy Blumenthal says his older sister, who suffered from an unspecified mental illness, started seeing Turner for therapy sessions after moving to New York from Texas in May 2010.

Just five months and around $40,000 in talk therapy later, the shrink issued her patient “a firm ultimatum … to begin a romantic and sexual relationship,” according to Randy’s sworn statement submitted in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.

Randy claims his sister, at the time of the ultimatum, had “never before asked [Turner] even one personal question.”

From there, the romance developed quickly — with Turner moving out of her ground-floor rental and into Amy’s $5 million apartment overlooking Madison Square Park.

When the couple started dating Amy was on medical leave from her job at a law firm and never got a new psychiatrist, according to Randy.

“Amy was in a completely vulnerable and dependent state at this time,” he says in court papers.

“Dr. Turner utilized her confidential psychiatrist-patient relationship to exercise undue influence upon Amy” and grab her assets, the suit says.

Just seven months into the romantic relationship, Amy signed a document that left Turner, 51, her apartment and $2 million in cash after her death.

Then she bought her Princeton-educated girlfriend a $1.35 million country home after Turner threatened that she “would need to work on Fridays” without the retreat.

Finally, in April 2013, Amy cut her brother and nephews out of her will, leaving nearly everything to Turner.

When Amy died suddenly of unspecified causes at age 47 in August 2014, she was doped up on a cocktail of seven medications including Klonopin, Adderall and Propranolol, Randy’s suit says.

Randy, 46, a Manhattan hedge fund manager, is contesting the will. He says his sister told him she did not trust her own “ability or judgment” when she signed documents giving everything to her girlfriend.

In opposing court papers, Turner says Randy’s allegations are “an attempt to obfuscate” her claims that he’s mishandling money that Amy’s mother left the siblings in a trust.

Turner claims Randy is refusing to pay her millions from a trust fund that Amy signed over to the doc shortly before her death.

Turner says Randy borrowed $1 million from the fund without her permission, then quickly put it back when she called him out.

Randy counters that the money belongs to him.

The parties are due in court next month.

Source: Julia Marsh, “Shrink convinced patient to be her lover, write her into $7M will: docs,” New York Post, July 29, 2015, URL: https://nypost.com/2015/07/29/shrink-convinced-patient-to-be-her-lover-give-her-7m-inheritance-docs/