State Panel Accuses Psychologist of Sexual Misconduct

A Ventura psychologist has been accused by state medical officials of unprofessional conduct because he allegedly had a sexual relationship with a woman who had been a patient.

The psychologist, Jerome Ronald Evans, denies the accusation, his attorney, Richard Regnier of Ventura, said Monday.

“He’s highly respected by the courts and is often used as an expert witness,” Regnier said. “He’s a good man.”

Regnier said he advised his client not to comment on the case.

Evans, 52, has been licensed to practice in California since 1971, said Janie Cordray, a spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California.

The board is the Sacramento-based administrative unit for the state Board of Psychology, which filed an accusation against Evans on July 14.

The accusation, or complaint, which is not a criminal action, was based on an investigation by the board.

According to the investigation, Evans began a flirtation with the woman while she was a patient in early 1987 and told her that he was sexually attracted to her. At one point, he allegedly hugged and kissed her at the end of a therapy session.

The complaint alleges that Evans “commenced a sexually intimate relationship” with the woman, who was married at the time, beginning in September, 1987, when they spent a weekend together in San Francisco, and ending in 1988.

The woman is identified in the complaint only as “C. D.”

The accusation raises--but does not answer--the question of when Evans was officially the woman’s psychologist. It declares that Evans told her that “he could no longer be her therapist” when they allegedly spent the weekend together in San Francisco.

Regnier said he could not comment on this or any other details of the case.

Because of the intimate relationship, the accusation contends that the woman “has suffered psychological trauma for which she has required additional psychotherapy from 1988 to the present. When ‘C. D.’ told her husband of the affair, he filed for divorce.”

As a result of the relationship, the accusation said the woman’s second psychotherapist urged Evans to end the affair. But Evans did not comply for several months, the complaint contends.

Evan’s “abandonment of ‘C. D.’ as a patient in order to engage in and/or further a sexual relationship and/or sexual misconduct with ‘C. D.’ . . . constitutes gross negligence in the practice of psychology, and is cause to suspend or revoke (Evan’s) psychologists’s license . . . ,” the accusation said.

No hearing date has yet been set before an administrative law judge. The judge’s decision will ultimately be forwarded to the eight-member Board of Psychology, which will vote on confirming the decision. Appeals can be filed in Superior Court.

Thomas S. O’Connor, the board’s administrative officer, said investigations by the state into such cases can take up to two years.

“Most of the board’s disciplinary hearings involve allegations of sexual abuse of patients by psychologists,” he said. “It’s constantly increasing due to the public’s awareness of the harm to a patient.”

As a result, he said, the state Legislature a few years ago passed a law declaring that psychologists have to give new patients a 15-page pamphlet, titled: “Psychotherapy Never Includes Sex.”