There's not a whole lot worse than someone who abuses a position of power for sexual gain. It's even worse when it comes from someone you should absolutely be able to trust. Like a therapist, for example.
A woman has filed a lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., against her therapist and Henderson Mental Health Center, the clinic he works out of, for just that. She says Mervin Span, the therapist assigned to her case, began making sexual advances on her from the first visit he made to her home. It started with a kiss on her neck, the lawsuit alleges, and progressed to him raping her repeatedly without a condom. She says she even complied when he ordered her to meet him at his house for sex, out of fear that Span would retaliate by making sure she permanently lost custody of her son.
CFO Dr. Steven Ronik said in a statement issued Wednesday, “Henderson Mental Health Center has an incredibly committed professional staff who helps thousands of families each year. If any part of these allegations were true, the actions would be that of a rogue employee. Anyone familiar with our history, reputation and organizational culture knows our priorities and how we’d never, ever tolerate something as inappropriate as the allegations suggest. At the present time we have not received any lawsuit.”
A woman has filed a lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., against her therapist and Henderson Mental Health Center, the clinic he works out of, for just that. She says Mervin Span, the therapist assigned to her case, began making sexual advances on her from the first visit he made to her home. It started with a kiss on her neck, the lawsuit alleges, and progressed to him raping her repeatedly without a condom. She says she even complied when he ordered her to meet him at his house for sex, out of fear that Span would retaliate by making sure she permanently lost custody of her son.
CFO Dr. Steven Ronik said in a statement issued Wednesday, “Henderson Mental Health Center has an incredibly committed professional staff who helps thousands of families each year. If any part of these allegations were true, the actions would be that of a rogue employee. Anyone familiar with our history, reputation and organizational culture knows our priorities and how we’d never, ever tolerate something as inappropriate as the allegations suggest. At the present time we have not received any lawsuit.”
That's pretty damn horrible! I hope he gets what's coming to him!
If the allegations are true, then yes, it was a horrible thing. But the title says they were sued, but the last lines states otherwise. It would be better to know why she was seeing a therapist before claiming her words to be true. There are plenty of mental disorders that would lead the patient to create false scenarios.
There are many pervs and rapists that gravitate towards professions where they will hold positions of proximity, opportunity, privacy and power over their intended targets. No profession's clientel are more vulnerable to exploitation than 'social work/mental health' clients, with the exception of children in all settings. Mental health clients are indeed exploited by predators within the mental health profession. There are thousands of proven criminal cases where the accused therapist was indeed guilty and most situations where accusations prove likely their licenses have been suspended/revoked with prejudice due to multiple complaints. The extreme vast majority of cases of accusations of 'abuses of power for sexual coercion of persons in their care' turn out to be true! Often these accusations result in convictions; but still many survivors of this type of abuse fear to come forward and the statutes of limitations are limited to two years or less in some states. The law does not recognize consent in these circumstances and very often the diagnoses aren't sufficient to overcome DNA evidence, circumstantial evidence, witness testimony the testimony of previous victims that do come forward and admissions of guilt. Abuse is never the fault of the person being abused. Break the silence!
Wow.