Wednesday, March 31, 2010

UPDATE: Friday's pre-trial hearing is cancelled - probably.

[Original post: 03/31/10 01:00pm PST by DS]
UPDATE:
We are hearing some reports that Friday's Pre-Trial hearing for the re-trial of william hamilton ayres on many counts of child molestation has been cancelled. NOTE However: When we call the court clerk to verify that there will be no hearing, we keep getting the "court is closed on the third Wednesday of the month" recording, even though it's not the third Wednesday, and today is not listed on the list of court closure dates. So, for right now it's up in the air a bit, but most likely canceled.

We'll update the list as soon as we know anything more.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Hearing Reminder for Friday

HEARING REMINDER:
According to the court clerk, the pre-trial hearing is on for THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 2nd at 1:30PM PST. Even though the court date is currently vacated while ayres pretends like he's a slobbering moron for the shrinks. Hopefully he gets a good shrink. Maybe a psychiatrist -- they like to investigate your colon really well.

(For criminal case info, call the court at 650-599-1170, reference case number SC064366)

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Video Blast From the Past - Victoria Balfour speaks at the CCAT


[Original post: 03/27/10 10:00am PST by DS]
After much battle with computer video processing software and video upload services, and computer crashes, and life in general, I've FINALLY finished the process of editing and uploading some video that was taken of a talk given by Victoria Balfour, on the subject of william ayres.

Victoria Balfour, who was awarded the 2009 "Excellence in the Media" award for "Meritorious Public Service" from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma, speaks about her experiences in getting william hamilton ayres arrested for multiple counts of child molestation.

This talk was given last year for the The Children's Collaborative Action Team (CCAT), of the San Mateo County Child Abuse Prevention Council, on Thursday, February 26, 2009. "Citizen Whistleblowers: Taking Action When No One Else Will."  This is broken into 11 parts on YouTube. The first part is above, the rest are stacked below this post.  You can click this link to automatically run all of the YouTube videos in order.

Thanks go to the volunteers who shot the video! Harry Padilla and Richard Carlson were able to film the talk on very short notice, and did a great job!  They did a good job of following the conversation, and I'm sorry to have blurred out the parts that showed the crowd, but I didn't want to expose anyone who might not want to be exposed.

You can just follow the segments on YouTube, or you can download the video. The video is 180MB in size, and you'll need to click on the "Download Anyway" link after it warns you that the file isn't scanned for viruses.

Anyhow, here are the rest of the segments:


Video 2 of 11


Video 3 of 11


Video 4 of 11



Video 5 of 11


Video 6 of 11


Video 7 of 11


Video 8 of 11


Video 9 of 11


Video 10 of 11


Video 11 of 11

Friday, March 26, 2010

Richard Johnson Postscript on Juvenile Centers in Massachusetts" Everyone knew about the abuse by police, priests, child psychiatrists.."

In our previous post, we quoted Richard Johnson, who recounted the sexual abuse he and other boys suffered at the Reception-Detention Center For Boys in Boston, where Ayres worked in the early 1960s. Johnson has just sent us a post-script about the juvenile justice system in Massachusetts:

"During the late fifties and early sixties reform schools, detention centers, institutional foster homes, and mental institutions dealing with children attracted perverts to their employ. It was well known and I am surprised by the recent revelations, not because of their substance, but because the public seems to have had its head in the sand during the past fifty or more years. Surely, everyone knew about the abuse by police, priests, child psychiatrists, and child councilors of various kinds, guards at detention centers and others who were dealing with the “throwaway children.”

The facts are that nobody cared. It is just that simple. People like Mark Devlin who were abused by the system expected to have their abuse reconciled in some manner. At the very least, they expected some kind of public apology because it was well known by everyone from the lowest level laborer to the Governor and beyond. It is just that nobody cared. The purpose of society’s throwaway children was to provide physical and sexual objects for the perverts who worked in the business of “disposing of them.”

We wonder if Ayres got the word through some underground perv network when
he was in Boston that it was a free-for-all for pedophiles over at the Reception-Detention Center- that young juveniles were ripe for the picking.

Boys Were Sexually Abused At The Reception-Detention Center for Boys in Massachusetts - - Where Ayres Once Worked

[Original post: 03/26/10 11:39am PST by Trapellar]
Last July, William Ayres testified in the criminal trial that when he was in Boston from 1959-1963,in addition to working all week with boys at Judge Baker Guidance Center and Children's Hospital - he then went and volunteered to take on another job working on the weekends with boys at the Roslindale Reception-Detention Center For Boys.

This week, some posters over on the Ayres thread at www.websleuths.com decided to try to find out more about this Reception-Detention Center. They discovered that two boys who passed through the Center had written memoirs about their harrowing and disturbing experiences there . Mark Devlin wrote "Stubborn Child" - which documents the beatings, punchings and sexual abuse he received at the Center and at subsequent reform schools. Devlin died in 2005, but Richard Johnson, another graduate of the Reception-Detention Center is still alive and the author of "Abominable Firebug."

We wrote to him recently to ask about what he experienced at the Center. Here is his email to us, which we are reprinting with his permission:

I was fifteen years of age when I encountered the Youth Service Board Reception Detention Center at 450 Canterbury Street in Roslindale, Massachusetts. That is the date in the winter of 1958 I shall always remember.

At the time, the Youth Service Board Act of 1948 was not fully implemented. Judges were not allowed to try youths and youths were not provided so-called Constitutional rights. Instead, the judge of a juvenile court would hear a complaint and, upon a finding of probable cause, would “remand” the youth to the custody of the Youth Service Board.

The Youth Service Board was supposed to find out if an offense was actually committed and if so, provide appropriate “remedial action,” which might involve sending the perpetrators to one of the various “reform” or “training” schools. In principle, a youth could also be sent home if it was found that no offense had occurred.

This did not happen. Instead, youth were warehoused at the Roslindale detention center until there was a bed available at one of the reform schools. The reform school used was based entirely upon age. Children of a younger age than 13 were sent to the Institute of Juvenile Guidance (IJG) in Bridgewater. Children from age 13 to age 16 were sent to the Lyman School for Boys (LSB) in Westborough. Finally, children with an age over 16 were sent to the Industrial School for Boys (ISB) in Shirley, Massachusetts.

At the time I was at the Roslindale Detention Center, there were no tests, no interviews, and no discussion with anyone of authority except the “Masters.” My sole encounter with an YSB board member was when Mr. Turley informed me that I was being sent “…To the Lyman School For Boys, until such time as you have earned 700 credits.”

Seven hundred credits (about seven months) was a typical sentence and functioned as a throttle to keep the institutions full, but not overcrowded. It was simply assumed that every child was a criminal offender as no interviews were conducted nor any evidence reviewed or even collected.

Note that in that period it was commonplace for the police to round up all the neighborhood boys as soon as any crime occurred in the area. They would all go to reform school.

My book tells that Lyman School was actually a very good place. Superintendent Borys and his assistant, Mr. Kenny, were reformers who prevented any abuse and started some new programs, which worked exceptionally well.


The Youth Service Board was, however, Hell on earth. The guards were called “Masters” and seemed to have been selected from the most cruel and subhuman stock available. Children were routinely beaten to the extent that they had facial features destroyed –broken noses, broken teeth, displaced jaws, etc. They were often thrown to the floor, smashed against walls, kicked in the stomach and subjected to other brutal treatment including kicking and punching in the testicles. That was the “day shift.”

In the nighttime, children were selected by the nighttime masters for rape. My book details my rape. These rapes occurred right out in the open on the floor of the “day room” which was now empty. Since there were two masters on duty in the nighttime, the rapes occurred in pairs, two masters, and two boys.

These rapes and abuses were well known at the time. They were impossible to cover up. The Reverend F. Robert Brown, who was a Lyman School chaplain and writes the Afterword of my book, was instrumental in helping to curb the abuses that were so extreme that the YSB was completely reestablished and emerged as the DYS (Division of Youth Services). It was at that time that the reception-detention center was renamed to the Judge Connelly Center. Perhaps changing the name would erase the history.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

Today we spoke with Johnson's protector, the Reverend F. Robert Brown. Brown was the chaplain at the Lyman School from 1959-1974. He recalls that at least 90 % of the boys at Lyman came from the Reception-Detention Center.

Brown recalled that there had been stories circulating about the abuse at the Center for years but "there was a great reluctance by anybody to blow the whistle. People were closemouthed about what was going on."

He said that he saw boys he strongly suspected had been sexually abused when they arrived at the Lyman from the Reception-Detention Center. "But they were reluctant to talk about it. They feared retribution, and they had shame."

Shockingly, even at the Lyman School, considered by Johnson and other boys to be a vast improvement over the Reception-Detention Center, Brown said "I heard rumors about several psychiatrists who were molesting kids."

When the Lyman School closed in 1974, Brown went to work as a director for the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, where he worked to improve the treatment of juveniles by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Update: Richard Johnson has just alerted us to the fact that the Massachusett's Department of Health and Human Services admits on its official web page that there was child abuse going on at the detention centers and reform schools in 1960 (at a time when Ayres was employed there)

Excerpt from their web page: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eohhs2terminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Government&L2=Departments+and+Divisions&L3=Department+of+Youth+Services&L4=History+of+Youth+Services&sid=Eeohhs2&b=terminalcontent&f=dys_g_dys_history_first&csid=Eeohhs2

First in the Nation


Massachusetts created the nation’s first juvenile correctional system in 1846 when it opened the Massachusetts State Reform School in Westborough for 400 boys. This was followed by the opening of the Lyman School for Boys in Westborough during the 1860’s. The philosophy behind these institutions was that juveniles were more likely to be rehabilitated than adults were and therefore, should not be treated within adult institutions.

The Lyman School was almost completely self-sufficient. Youth raised livestock, grew vegetables, sewed their own clothes and built many of the facilities located on the school grounds. One administrator called Lyman “in, but not of, the community.”

By 1908, five such juvenile institutions of various sizes existed; each administered by separate boards of trustees. In 1948, to solidify operations, the state elected a three-person panel Youth Service Board, which was succeeded by the Division of Youth Services, an independent unit within the Department of Education.

However, by 1960, problems of mismanagement, high recidivism rates and reports of child abuse within the training schools persisted, and the Division was the subject of severe public criticism. In 1969, the Division of Youth Services was abolished and the Department of Youth Services was established as a separate agency under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.




This information is provided by the Department of Youth Services.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

In ayres' own words Part III

[Original post: 03/25/10 01:45pm PST by DS]
While commenting on a post elsewhere, I mentioned that in the first trial of William Hamilton ayres for multiple charges of molesting many young boys, the prosecutor made an attempt to introduce parts of the DSM IV criteria for the diagnosis of pedophilia for consideration by the jury. This was objected to by the defense, and ultimately stricken by the court, but the testimony is nevertheless an interesting read, as it, in itself,  demonstrates ayres’ excitement when talking about pedophilia, and once again, he gets excited enough to lose track of the question, while discussing his intimate knowledge of the subject matter:

July 9, 2009 - Second day of the testimony of william hamilton ayres.
Recross Examination:

PROSECUTOR: You are familiar with the DSM IV, Right?
william ayres: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: And you use that in your practice?
william ayres: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: That's the Diagnostic --
william ayres: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: What's the middle word?
william ayres: Statistical Manual. [Comment: Gotta love the way the prosecutor drew him out on this one... "Well, I have a lot of difficulty with coming up quickly with names, nouns" Indeed!"]

PROSECUTOR: Statistical Manual. And you know that in the section that describes pedophilia, it indicates that people may just undress a child, look at a child, masturbate or gently touch and fondle a child; is that right?
william ayres: Yes. I haven't read that recently, so I don't know if that's the exact wording, but yes.

PROSECUTOR: and it also says, does it not, that the people in the -- Pedophiles often end up in an occupation or hobby that allows them constant access to children?
william ayres: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: And it would not be at all unusual for a person to be outwardly successful and still have pedophiliac urges?
william ayres: I really don't know the answer to that. I've never had an opportunity to see a pedophile, so I don't have the experience and that of reading things about pedophilia but I do -- I mean, I know a lot -- I've seen children who were pedophiles and who had been violated by pedophiles. So, I mean, It's not that I have no knowledge at all of pedophilia. But now I've forgotten the last thing that you read. 
[In my head I'm hearing him say this: "I don't know anything about pedophiles, well I mean I kind of know a lot. Especially about all of those sexually promiscuous pedophile children that I've violated -- I mean seen -- so yeah I know a lot about them. Wait.... We were talking about naked boys right? What was the question?"]

PROSECUTOR: That children -- I mean, that pedophiles often end up as successful people --
Weinberg: I'm going to object to that as to what his knowledge or opinion is about pedophiles.
The Court: Sustained.

PROSECUTOR: You're aware that other psychiatrists have been determined to be pedophiles?
Weinberg: Objection, your honor.
The Court: Sustained.
Weinberg: Irrelevant.

PROSECUTOR: Nothing further.
The Court: Mr. Weinberg, anything else for this witness?
Weinberg: I would just ask that the entire recross be stricken.
PROSECUTOR: I think it's responsive to the questions regarding the lewd intent. [NOTE: Weinberg had just finished questioning ayres about the specific lewd acts he is accused of on his redirect examination, prior to the prosecutor's recross examination.]
The Court: I will strike the entire recross. Ladies and Gentlemen, you are to disregard the questions and the answers in the portion of the -- that you have just heard on recross.


If you’re interested in reading other parts of ayres' testimony,
There are links to more quotes from ayres' testimony on the
In ayres' Own Words link on the main page.



On another note, there is some very interesting discussion going on over at the websleuths forum about ayres and his compatriots who were working at the Reception-Detention Center for Boys in Boston. (Called the Judge John J. Connelly Youth Center since 1965) (Go down to post #324 on the websleuths blog for the beginning of that discussion.)  Some of the victims of the Reception-Detention Center have a blog.

Meanwhile, Taylor over at the smdailyjournal forum has posted quite a disturbing list of psychiatrists and pediatricians from the Boston area who have been charged/accused of child molestation. Many of them from the same places that ayres “trained.”

Yet another set of links provided by this blog, which will leave you needing to take a long shower. Make sure to bring your steel wool to scrub off the slimy feeling.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Pre-trial Conference still on?

The court clerk is reporting that there is STILL a pre-trial conference scheduled for 1:30pm PST on Friday, April 2nd.

We'll see if we can confirm this further, and post an update.

The Bad Luck of Little Johnny McD

[Original post date: 03/22/2010 08:42am PST by Deep Sounding]
Looks like Jonathan McDougall is having a spot of bad luck, being able to find some clients to represent in a rousing court battle.

He managed to find himself a "Media Extravaganza" type client (at least locally) in representing wannabe Columbine copycat Alexander Robert Youshock. But unfortunately back in December it seems that maybe McDougall became suspicious that his client might not be mentally competent to "aid in his own defense." We're not sure what happened that made McDougall come to this conclusion, but it does seem like the criteria for this particular gambit to be successful are pretty rigid. (massive stroke, with brain damage would be a good example.) So it looked like poor McDougall was not going to get the media exposure that he'd like!

Imagine McDougall's dismay when, just on the cusp of learning whether his high profile client was actually competent or not, there was a switch of doctors, requiring another month and a half of delays for a re-evaluation! What astounding bad luck McDougall has!

His consternation must have been at an ALL TIME PEAK last week, when he learned that the doctors were STILL not finished with their report, requiring almost another whole month of delays. What a crushing blow to McDougall. He must have nerves of steel to put up with that almost FOUR MONTH delay! AND earlier that week, McDougall had just learned that his OTHER high profile client, william hamilton ayres, charged with multiple counts of molesting many young boys ALSO was likely not mentally competent to stand trial!

I certainly hope for McDougall's sanity sake that ayres doesn't also have multiple problems with the doctor report, requiring more and more delays! The odds that that poor man's two high profile clients are both incompetent must be ASTOUNDING!

Judge: So like, over on this report thingy, it says here that ayres is Okie Dokie -- See right over there, under the "Mental  Incompetence" section, the little "Nope" box is checked??

Little Johnny: OH... Incompetence -- I thought it said Incontenence! ayres said he was having trouble peeing in that dixie cup is all.... My bad. Oops.. Sorry judge.

In case you're confused by this whole post.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Conference Reminder: Saturday, March 20th 2010

[Original: 03/19/2010 10:33am PST]
[Update: 03/20/2010 03:45pm PST]

Victoria Balfour, who won the "Excellence in the Media" award for Meritorious Public Service from the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma last September for her efforts related to stopping william hamilton ayres, who now faces many criminal and civil trials for his molestation of many young boys, will be giving a talk at the "MaleSurvivor 2010 International Conference" at John Jay College in New York City. [Update: Read her report back immediately below the photographs of ayres below.]

The conference runs March 18th through 21st. Victoria will be speaking on March 20th, from 10:30a until 12p. She will be speaking specifically on the william ayres case.

We wish her the best, and know that she will knock them dead, as she always does. There will be a time for questions and answers immediatly after her talk.

Below are a few photos of ayres over the years, the third is his mugshot from when he was jailed on charges of molestation:



UPDATE [03/20/2010 3:45PM]: Victoria Balfour has sent us this message updating us on how her talk went today:

This is Victoria Balfour reporting back from the Male Survivor Conference in NYC. Surprisingly, the majority of people in attendance at the presentation on Ayres were therapists.

Most popular question from the audience: "Has anyone been keeping Ayres under surveillance since he's been out on bail?" One therapist said that people like Ayres gravitate towards playgrounds,etc and that the police should be watching him.

The consensus among the audience was that historically, the public has always been too focused on what makes a pedophile tick. Instead, they said, there should be way more emphasis on the male victims and the impact of the abuse on their lives.

Another key point from two male therapists from Chicago: Ayres is a "narcissist" who carefully designed each stage of his life and his work relationships - i.e. friendships with judges(Are you listening,Marta Diaz?)so that he could get access to boys. One of the therapists said he probably moved to San Mateo to be a big fish in a small pond and purposely made friends with those in power so that when boys came forward over the years, they would not be believed.

Another male therapist from Chicago said that by molesting many sons of his medical colleagues, Ayres seemed to revel in his dangerous, on-the-edge behavior. They said that he had been playing Russian Roulette all these years by molesting kids like the son of pediatrician Dr. Gross and that it was only a matter of time before it all caught up with him - and that he probably knew it.

Someone wondered if Ayres had been molested as a kid. But some victims in the audience as well as the therapists said that most victims do not go on to molest other kids. Otherwise, there would be a massive epidemic of sexual abuse in this country.

Members of the audience calculated the probable number of Ayres victims to be in the "four digits." This total would include victims in Boston and in New Haven, CT, where Ayres did his residency, as well as victim in California

Finally, as the session was wrapping up, a woman psychoanalyst remarked " It sounds as if Ayres is afraid of women - particularly strong women."

There are many people out there who would agree with that.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

URGENT: Ayres Re-Trial ON HOLD

[Original post date: 03/17/2010 06:19am PST by Deep Sounding]
[Update: 03/17/2010 01:15pm PST by Deep Sounding]
 The ayres re-trial is on hold, while they evaluate the old molester with regard to his alleged mental incompetence. The "medical evaluation" will be finished April 28th. At which point team ayres will come up with some other strategy for delay. Meanwhile the trial date is vacated.

Read Joshua Melvin's report here.
More detailed report by Michelle Durand here.

According to Durand,  IF ayres is found "incompetent" he'll go to a state mental hospital for treatment until he's better. Sounds cushy.

UPDATE:
According to the version in the Mercury News, this incompetence claim stems from a "recent medical event." You'll note that WAY BACK IN OCTOBER, I predicted that that's what they were gunning for when they sealed his medical records.(It's about the 5th paragraph down... starts out: "The defense filed a motion to seal 3 exhibits.")

Also this afternoon: Our good friend over at the Mills Peninsula Health Services Lawsuit Watch blog, has delivered some cheer this afternoon, in the form of yet another choice topical photo linking back to us over here. (It's on the far right side of the page, for newer readers.) Thanks, Patient Advocate!

ALSO: There is a new civil suit filed against ayres. 
See the post immediately below this one.

JUST IN: NEW CIVIL SUIT FILED AGAINST AYRES: #6

A sixth victim has just filed a molestation civil suit against Ayres. Case number: CIV492658. His lawyer is David Drivon of Sacramento.

The suit is so new that you won't find it listed on www.sanmateocourt.org. We will let you know when it is listed. [Update 3/18/2009 by DS: it is listed now, and the link is set up above. The court system is a bit buggy, and you may have to click the above link two or three times for the case to actually load. You can just type the case number in, and it should work too. Once you finally get that link to work, the multitude of others will also work just fine.]

Good luck to the victim in this latest suit, and to the remaining four who still have suits pending. Another victim settled a civil suit with Ayres for $395,000 in 2005.

And speaking of civil suits against pedophile doctors -- have the California civil lawyers checked to see whether any suits were filed against Ayres in Boston when he was at Children's Hospital from 1959 to 1963? We're asking because renowned pedophile pediatrician Dr. Mel Levine, who also worked at Children's Hospital in Boston had molestation complaints about him there. Although when the civil suits against Levine first came out, the top brass at Children's Hospital denied it. Then some enterprising lawyer determined that there had been complaints by victims about Levine over a period of twenty years. Some had filed civil suits against Levine. And one victim had even written a letter to the President of Children's Hospital about Levine to say that Levine had molested him. As a result of the lawyer's investigation, Children's Hospital was forced to retract its statements.

What we're dying to know: What's in those files about Ayres over at Boston Children's Hospital? Is anyone out there going to go through the courts to check?We are informed by a California civil lawyer that the civil lawyers in CA law firms can work with Massachusetts counsel for this sort of discovery process. Let's hope some enterprising lawyer will get to the bottom of this.

And if there are any Boston victims out there who are reading this, you can't go wrong with Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has worked on more than 700 cases of child molestation involving pedophile priests.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Victoria Balfour and Mitchell Garabedian Discuss the william ayres Case on WGBH Radio

[Original post date: 03/10/10 02:00pm PST by Deep Sounding]
Freelance Journalist Victoria Balfour, and Mitchell Garabedian the Boston lawyer who has represented more than 700 victims of sexual abuse in the catholic church,  were on "The Emily Rooney Show" on WGBH Radio in Boston today, discussing efforts to expose william hamilton ayres, accused of molesting many young boys under the guise of providing psychiatric services in San Mateo County in California. ayres trained and practiced in the Boston area as well, and authorities are actively looking for victims there as well.

Also note: San Mateo County clerks report that there is no change to the upcoming pre-trial hearing as of 11am PST today.



Download the Audio
Go to "The Emily Roony Show"
Read our earlier post about Mitchell Garabedian's discussion of ayres. 

If you are, or know of a victim in the Boston area:
Crimes Against Children Unit:

Supervisor Sgt. Det. Robin DeMarco at the office at 617-343-6183 or temporary desk phone 617-343-6404 or BPD cell phone 617-593-4070 or personal cell phone 617-877-3699, pager 617-343-7247,
email DeMarcoR.bpd@cityofboston.gov

And if Boston victims are interested in filing a civil suit against Ayres, they can't go wrong with renowned Boston civil lawyer Mitch Garabedian, who has helped hundreds of victims find justice.

Garabadian:617-523-6250

One Line Update

[Original post date: 03/08/10 11:00am PST by Deep Sounding]
[Update: 03/10/10  11:00am PST by Deep Sounding] 

 A check this afternoon (Wednesday, March 10th, 2010) on the upcoming criminal hearings indicates no changes to public hearings/court dates as of 11am.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

In ayres' own words Part II

[Original post date: 03/07/10 04:30am PST by Deep Sounding]
In william hamilton ayres' last trial on charges of molesting many young boys, both the defense and the prosecution tried to establish the frequency of at which ayres performed "physical examinations" of the children who were unfortunately entrusted to his care.

During the trial ayres himself took the stand, and a good proportion of the questions that he was asked related to establishing the frequency and reasonableness of his "examinations."

The defense appeared to be trying to establish a pattern that would have some sort of clinical regularity or follow some consistent guideline.

The prosecution appeared to be attempting to show that the only consistency in his "examinations" had to do with his propensity to molest young boys, rather than out of any clinical need.

I think that ayres did a pretty good job of making the prosecution's point, all by himself, even before the prosecution had a chance to question him.

Some notes about what I've copied from court transcripts here:  To the best of my knowledge, I typed them exactly as recorded, with some minor modifications: There are places that I omit portions of the text, usually when ayres is off on irrelevant tangents, or when he is elaborating further and it doesn't provide any added clarity. I use "[...]" to indicate that I've left something out. Also, the court record does not use the word "adolescent" in many places where it should, and instead uses the word "adolescence." (As in: American Academy of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry) Rather than append "(sic) to each incorrect useage,  I have corrected these where they are clearly in error, and left them if ambiguous. I've also added headers in front of the sentences to clarify who's speaking.

For the majority of ayres' comments, I will simply leave them in chronological order. I am going to pull one or two Items out for later discussion, so they will not appear in order. Also, I'm going to start with some notes from the prosecution's questioning which actually came after the bulk of ayres' testimony, and then move back to the defense's presentation.

When the prosecution began their questioning, they started by asking ayres to recall statements that he had made in his earlier depositions for the civil lawsuit against him for his molestation of another young boy. That suit ended in a confidential settlement in 2005, with no admission of guilt from ayres.

The prosecution, in a successful attempt to show that the statements that ayres made during the criminal trial about the frequency and reasoning behind his "physical examinations" bore no resemblance to those that he made in the 2003 - 2005 civil lawsuit depositions, read to ayres and the court these statements from the transcripts:
Question: Under what conditions would you ask a male child to drop his drawers and look at his testicles?
ayres: "I can give three -- I , well, you know --- I would -- I can give you three, over the years that may be -- I think it's unusual. It's not a -- It would not be a common thing" "Poison Oak, complaints of rash, and there's something called Tinea Curious, which is jockstrap itch. And also I had a couple of kids who turned up with crab lice. But I would always say "you know, what's the problem?" and then I would always say, "Well, you know, you want to see your pediatrician.""
And then later:

"if they were complaining of possibly having -- well, if they thought they had a hernia or they made comment that made you think they might have a hernia or some other deformity or some problem, like a missing testicle or some abnormal formation, or some concern that somehow the genitals were deformed or something like that, and Tinea Curious, as I mentioned before."
On the whole, ayres, in his deposition, seems to have a reasonable frequency of exam, and the circumstances that he is stating seem to possibly warrant a physical: Three exams over the many years, unusual for him to do genital exams... severe rash in the area, "jockstrap itch," crab lice, hernia, abnormality in structure. Of course the real problem, which wasn't addressed to the satisfaction of the jury, is that ayres' was a shrink, not a pediatrician, and these kinds of medical problems and examinations should have been left to a fully competent pediatrician with current training and caseload.

Unfortunately for ayres' "patients," this relative infrequency of "medical examinations" that ayres is trying to represent, is a far cry from reality, and a far cry from even the statements that he'd spent the last two days making, which varied widely from not "giving" that many "examinations" all the way to... well, you'll see:

Defense Question: Did you in your practice, routinely give physical exams to every patient?


ayres: No.

Defense Question: You have heard that there are some people who advocate that psychiatrists should always give physical examinations. Do you advocate that?

ayres: No, I don’t. It might be salvatory. It might be good, but no, I don’t. And it’s fewer later, as I got older.

Defense Question: You mean, as your practice progressed you were doing fewer exams, fewer physical exams?

ayres: Yes, but I also got better at being able to read children [...]

Defense Question: You indicated that there’s been some decrease in the frequency with which you give physical exams as you got older and you were no longer in practice. Was there ever a time when you routinely gave physical examinations to adolescents?

ayres: No, not to every patient. The ones that I would examine are children in wheelchairs […] and I think if I had a child who had diabetes […] or something that they’re really struggling with, some kind of developmental disease like diabetes.
So, there's an interesting point here, in that one of the common occurances in pedophiles is that as they get older, into their later seventies and eighties, their molestation fantasies and actions sometimes tend to decrease over time. I nearly choked when I heard this testimony.

From the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Fact Sheet on Pedophelia:

Even after intensive treatment, the course of the disorder usually is chronic and lifelong in most patients, according to the DSM-IV, which is the reason that most treatment programs emphasize a relapse-prevention model. However, both the fantasies and the behaviors often lessen with advancing age in adults.

Defense Question: Is there any way that you can approximate for us how often in your practice, normal course of your practice, you would conduct a physical examination?

ayres: Well, I would say probably once every couple of months. It varies because sometimes children complain and they ask me to look at something and that’s a physical exam, although it may not be a complete physical. But if you’re looking at something like a complete physical, it would be like once every two or three months, but partial physicals it would be more often.

Defense Question: When you say “physical exams” Do you distinguish between physical exams that do and physical exams that do not involve the genetalia?

ayres: Well, certainly when you do a complete physical, you – as a pediatrician, you should do a complete physical. That means that you listen to the heart and lungs and feel the belly […] and in boys – in the case of a boy, you should check and make sure where the testicles are in what state the – what’s in the scrotum, if there is foreign objects – not foreign objects from outside, but there are lots of different cysts and other kinds of malformations. So it’s – Now I’ve lost the question.
So already we're seeing a VAST "physical examination" count difference between ayres' 2003 - 2005 civil suit statements and his current count. This also doesn't seem to correlate well with his number of "physical examinations" dropping off in later years.

We've also now clearly established that in most cases, when ayres is talking about "giving" "physical examinations," he is including genital "examinations" which he alleges are comprised of  feeling the testicles (and looking for pubic hair as you'll see later...) at the very least. (Please keep in mind, during this lengthy discussion of "medical examinations" that his exams actually included his attempts to stimulate the penis (masturbation) and in at least some cases prolonged digitial manipulation of the prostate in attempt to cause ejaculation, among other things which are clearly not "medical procedures")

Also of note... every time ayres begins talking about the testicles and penis of young boys, he begins to excitedly expound, and frequently gets "lost" and has to stop himself. Equally often, the defense attorney has to stop him with a detracting question to move him off the subject of the genetailia of little boys.
Defense Question: What kind of circumstances would lead you to give a physical examination?


ayres: Well, as I said, if they have an established illness, orthopedic, or diabetes, or asthma or things like this, then I would like to sort of do a physical and get to know them, so that they know that I know their physical structure.

And then there are those who ask for it. The will say that they have a pain here or they’re worried because they’re having skin trouble. A lot of adolescents tell me that they have acne, and they don't take their shirt off when they see their pediatrician, because they have acne all over their back. And I would say, "Well why don't you let me look at it and I would -- Because I know quite a bit about acne. In fact, I've taken a course in acne.

So there are times when children will come with sort of specific areas of focus, and it’s obvious that it’s something of concern to them […] and if you talk to them all the time so they hear your choice, it’s all right to do physicals. And many of them will relax if you start asking them questions, which is always a good sign.
Well, ayres seems to get started on the accepted party line, (Well... accepted for pediatricians and physicians, but not really for psychiatrists...) exams only for the really odd stuff that would make sense. Then he branches into getting adolescent boys to take their shirts off in the in the ultra-rare circumstance that they develop acne. Imagine that... every once in awhile (maybe three over the course of several years, or maybe once every two or three months) one of the thousands of adolescents he was seeing would get a pimple. SHOCKING... let's rip that shirt off... after all... ayres took a CLASS on acne!

Incidentally, you're going to see lots and lots of comments about ayres patients "asking for it." This is a very common (very, very, very, common) trait in pedophiles. They frequently claim that the child asked them for sexual contact, or that they were educating a child about sexuality. It's so common that it sickens me every time he says something like: "I did a medical exam if the child asked for it..."

Apparently, we all liked to have ayres do all kinds of "examinations" and were always asking for it, as they help us to relax, and develop a relationship.

And by the way: I suspect that the "good sign" that ayres is always talking about is the indication that he's getting that likely we're going to keep our fucking mouths shut, and that he's going to get away with diddling yet another kid. I could be wrong...
Defense Question: What do you see the relationship to be between you as a psychiatrist and the child's pediatrician?


ayres: [...] You know, the pediatricians are more and more pushed economically by having less and less pay for shorter and shorter time, so that it's difficult for pediatricians to spend time with patients the way they used to. But a lot of the examinations that were done by pediatricians are very quick and not very thorough and are just focused on just getting through it, and that's not what a physical exam is for a psychiatrist.
Translation: Pediatricians: big FAIL.  Horny Pedophile Psychiatrist: the BOMB.
Defense Question: If there was a specific issue or specific complaint relatively limited in scope that you could check out yourself, would you send the kid to the pediatrician, rather than checking it out yourself?
Translation: Try to answer this one specifically and without incriminating yourself further, you sick fuck...
ayres: I would probably -- I would probably, if the child was asking me to check it out, I would check -- I would check it out, but if it was something I knew about, If it was something that I didn't -- But I know a lot about a lot of things, so I would.
Translation: I can pretty much find whatever excuse to do an "examination..." why would I send them to some stupid pediatrician?
Defense Question: I understand that you were willing to give and ready to give physical examinations to the extent you believe they were appropriate, correct?

ayres: Yes. And that the child was accepting and that it was okay with the child.
Right. Got it... You were always willing to do an exam, and we all wanted it really badly... you keep telling us that... got it...
Defense Question: I just want to be clear, did you routinely do medical examinations or physical examinations in all cases in which you mentioned the possibility to the parents?


ayres: No. No. I would say that in case it turned out -- And there are many, many cases that I know right from the beginning that there sounds like there's nothing related to a physical exam. And I would -- I would -- what I would do is I would wait until I saw them the second time, and I would say, "I think it might be useful to do a physical sometime along the way." You know, not rush it but to do it.
If there doesn't appear to be a reason to do a medical exam that the parents will believe, you'll just wait it out and THEN find something to use as an excuse. You know... not rush it... just ease into it... but definitely "do it."
On Gynecomastia:

ayres: In 40 percent of males, you have on either one side or both sides, you have a small gynecomastia, which can be as small as a penny or a dime [...] So it's very variable, and it's very embarrassing. Boys -- some boys don't notice it [....] Others find it very upsetting and worry that it's breast tissue [...]and I would look at it.

Defense Question: What would you examine?

ayres: Well, I have to -- what you want is a Tanner scale, because if it comes before Tanner three or at least Tanner two, then you'd wonder where the hormones are coming from [...] So I said, "Well, we need to take a look and see, " because I mean, if you see that Tanner, Tanner one is -- Tanner zero is what little children would look like. They don't have any development. Tanner one is when you have small hairs that are not pigmented, so there's -- and they get sort of wavy and they started on either side of the penis. And Tanner two, the hairs turn black in color. And then you know that there have been -- hormones [...]

Defense Question: Did you have any hesitation in providing a physical examination to a patient who had expressed concern about his gynecomastia?

ayres: No. I would do that. I would check to make sure. And of course, if they're early, like a tanner two, you can't just look at the scrotum and tell the size of the testicles, so it's -- yes.
OK.. JACKPOT so in 40 percent of your male "patients" you've pretty much got a built in guarantee that you're going to be able to AT LEAST get their pants off to have a good look at their pubic hair, and a good chunk of the time, you're going to "need" to cop a feel, too.

This is beginning to seem like a far cry from that three exams over many years, or the one every three months that we were talking about earlier!


So is 40ish percent the BEST you can do?
ayres: There are some children who are very skittish [...] So there are some that I wouldn't -- wouldn't do a physical. Sometimes I wouldn't do it until something came out, if the child had a real belly pain, and almost all the time, if you have children you know that they have belly pain now and then. So if they walk in and they have a belly pain, then I might do a physical at that time.

Let's just look at that again (Just the important phrase):

"Almost all the time, if you have children you know that they have belly pain." If "they have a belly pain, then I might do a physical at that time."

And once again (Logical Tautology this time):

Almost all the time, I do a physical.

Didn't take long to get to this point did it?

So are we to infer from all of this that ayres pretty much did "physical examinations" on all of his patients?

Oops... I left this part out earlier:
Defense Question: Did you examine female patients?


ayres: No, I wouldn't do physical on females. I would do physicals on part of females. [...] I had a girl complain she had a red skin problem. and she pulled down her, her neckline so I could see it [...]

Defense Question: Why did you not examine females?

ayres: Well, because I don't have access to someone who would be in the room at the same time. And I can tell you, adolescent girls would not want their mothers there. [...] but it's -- girls, at least with me, when I've had a chance to be seeing a girl and they talk about things, they would be very open about it. And I've had to stop them, because girls who have very large breasts, it's very difficult for them when they're young and they want surgery and all this. And if you don't watch out, they'll pull their stuff down and bring their breasts out, so I would have to say "Stop, stop, stop." [At this point, ayres is waving his hands in an "Icky -- don't show me that" Truman Capote-esque effeminate fashion.] "You know, "Don't show me that."

Defense Question: Were you ever taught that you needed that somebody present when you examined a boy?

ayres: No. At Yale, in pediatrics and...

Defense (Changing the subject): Was there -- when you looked at sombody or examined them, you would sometimes make observations, correct?
SO: Even though ayres is "First of all, a physician; and, secondly, then a psychiatrist" I guess girls are only second rate in ayres' eyes.
Defense Question: You have your own personal philosophy of how to be a psychiatrist, do you not?

ayres: Well, yes. But I read everything, and I'm not some sort of strange -- I wouldn't have had all those jobs. I'm pretty, pretty much the accepted model.

Lordy, How I'd hate to have all those girls waving their boobies in my face.

There are links to more quotes from ayres' testimony on the
In ayres' Own Words link on the main page.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

GREAT Interview on New England Cable News

[Original post date: 03/03/10  06:00pm PST by Deep Sounding] 
[Minor updates (in blue text): 03/04/10  07:44am PST by Deep Sounding]
Credit again goes to Taylor over at the San Mateo Daily Journal for drawing our attention to this news item:


New England Cable News Television did a segment on william ayres tonight. (March 3rd, 2010):


The segment was a great interview with Mitchell Garabedian (a lawyer for a bunch of the priest molestation cases) discussing several aspects of the "mechanics" of these kinds of cases: what prods victims to come forward after many years, why they should come forward, and of particular interest, they talk about one of ayres' statements during the trial. ayres made a statement that exams which include genital exams "develop a kind of trust" between psychiatrist and child. Garabedian mentions that this is a HUGE red flag, and both Garabedian and the interviewer seem surprised to hear that ayres made that comment in court.

Here are some MORE statements that ayres made during the trial along that line:

"And, so, I did a physical, and the kid told me about what was wrong with him [...] and I realized at that time that that was useful, not only to know about what the physical problems were but, also, it had to do with the relationship with the child."

About his sex ed program "A Time of Your Life:" Question: Did it change your attitude about talking to children about sex and development openly and honestly? ayres: "I think it increased it. I don't know that it changed it. [...] I was sort of drawn into it, and then I learned and I began to realize..."

Question about whether ayres advocates always giving physical examinations: "No, I don't. It might be salvatory. It might be good, but no, I don't"

"I think physical exams are physical exams, but I think that they develop a kind of trust. And they start talking about something as uninteresting [...] or things that are important. And I sometimes now get to that stage without the physical part, where they're -- They feel accepted.

"And then there are people who are very withdrawn and who find it very difficult to relate, and many of them will respond if you go very slowly. And if you talk to them all the time so they hear your choice, (I think VOICE was actually the word here) it's all right to do physicals. And many of them will relax if you start asking them questions which is always a good sign."

"And the same thing in terms of during the physical. And that they become more comfortable. And as they become comfortable then it's -- I am not saying it's a positive experience to go through a physical, but it certainly is seen as professional."

"And if you do physicals, children often tell you things while you are --- I'll give you a quick example."

"A psychiatrist gives a physical exam which gives you all the information about the physical exam, but it also establishes a relationship with the patient, that they respect you, and that they feel comfortable with you and it's okay [...] I don't think I'm -- I don't think I'm answering your question adequately."

Question: Do you have your office set up for physical examinations? ayres: "Well, I had an office which was set up, that if you closed the doors on one wall, it would be just a brown wall of wood, and the mother and father could come up and sit down, and I'd get a history from them. And then when the child would come in, I would open the doors, which would fold so that you could see a play area, at the end of which is a sink. And then there would be models, [...] Although girls never made much models, but there were also games, and there are cards, and all sorts of things that they might be drawn to. [...] So it was set up, as far as I was concerned, as a place where I could do a physical, [...] I would wash my hands before so that way I wouldn't have to turn my back on the patient. And I liked to keep as much eye contact as possible.

Question did you communicate the results (of the physical) to anyone? ayres: "Well, I talked to -- I talked to the patient all the time. [...] But the truth is that if you just talk in an ordinary voice, not too loud, not too soft, and you just sort of provide a -- And what I was taught by Al Songden was [...] Now I have lost your question.

"There are some children who are very skittish, and I never want to do any physical where the child is going to feel anxious or feel like you were enforcing or somehow using the power of the adult, you know."

"There are so many, many things that children complain about and relate often physically. And I would make the connection for them so that that's something that I would like to do, a physical."

[...] "There are some children who are very uncommunicative. [...] you can look at the child when you're standing four or five feet away and you say, "I think it would be helpful if we did a physical," and we did a physical. and you watch the child's face and -- but some of them, there are some that have worked very hard to keep from letting their feelings be translated." - [NOTE: this isn't exactly what he said here. I was watching him very carefully at this point in his testimony, and immediately wrote down what he said. What he said was: "I think it would be helpful if we did a physical." Then he smiled fondly and gave a small chuckle and said: "WE did a physical" and he clearly emphasized the word "we."]

On a "test" that was done to check the volume of the bladder (I know... don't even ask...): "I was expecting that he had followed the rules, [...] and, so I thought he'd be loaded with water and, therefore, I could do the exam. And it was -- I remember that because -- and, by the way, I wasn't annoyed with him. This is just like as when you're doing physical things, and so -- or with patients."


OK...so anyhow you get the picture.

I stopped about half way through the transcript of his testimony. (All of which I was present for by the way... these statements don't describe the glee in his facial expressions when discussing giving exams.) In fact, in looking at what's above, I see that I missed a few of them while I was skimming through the transcript last night. I wrote about a bunch of them immediately after his testimony, so you can go read them here. I also counted 10 other little paragraphs along the way that were often more odd than the stuff above, but they didn't relate as directly to the "developing a relationship through the physical exam" theme. Anyhow. That should leave enough of a rancid taste in your mouth that you can go vomit now. (Unless of course you're one of my pedophile readers, in which case... well, we'll get you eventually.)

And just in case you're new to this case, while all of the above discussion relates to "physical and genital exams" I must point out without being too graphic that these "physical exams" were NOTHING like I've received since, and I've had checks for testicular cancer and prostate exams. To be more blunt if you're still not following: ayres was NOT doing physical exams.

ALSO: There are more news items lately about OTHER cases going on but which are drawing parallels to the ayres case, you can read them for yourself:

The New York Daily News
DelawareOnline

OK. Well that's all for today. I've pretty much had my fill.

There are links to more quotes from ayres' testimony on the
In ayres' Own Words link on the main page.

A Few News Updates for Today

[Original post date: 03/03/10  08:43am PST by Deep Sounding] 
[UPDATES: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding] 

There are a few items in the news today about william hamilton ayres, accused of molesting young boys under the guise of practicing psychiatry under the auspices of the "American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry."

Credit goes to Taylor over at the San Mateo Daily Journal for drawing our attention to several news items:

[UPDATE: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding] 
New England Cable News Television will be doing a segment on william ayres TONIGHT (March 3rd, 2010):
The Broadside show with Jim Braude. 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm EST. According to Taylor:
The Guest is Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian who made a name for himself by representing the hundreds of victims of Father Geoghan (pedophile priest who was murdered in prison.) Garabadian will be talking about the Ayres case and the standard of care for doctors in Massachusetts. He will also be encouraging victims of Ayres in Boston.

First news item: Michael Rezendes of  The Boston Globe has run a first page article on ayres, giving some background in the case, and the status of the current search for victims in that area. (According to the article, none have turned up so far...) They appear to have worked out where all of ayres' employment records are, as well as the fact that patient files still exist. (But obviously would require patient release for access.) You can see the full first page image of The Boston Globe here. Rezendes has done some digging in some pretty interesting directions, I'd say that the thing that I found to hit home the most is the discussion on the difficulty of prosecuting these kinds of cases, particularly where there is likely to be very little forensic evidence even immediately after the commission of the crime.


The second news item that Taylor points out to us is that as a result of The Boston Globe article, there is a news blurb on Boston's NBC news affiliate. The news clip very briefly re-iterates that authorities are actively looking for more of ayres' victims there.


The third item of interest:  Victoria Balfour, who was instrumental in pushing for the prosecution of ayres, and possibly more importantly in getting the word out to the press, is going to be giving another talk, this time on the other side of the country.

[UPDATE: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding]
Victoria is also interviewed by NPR Boston station WBUR in a news segment that is apparently running throughout the day today.

I think that the press coverage has been particularly important in this case because the molester was lauded by the county, lauded by the various and sundry medical associations with which he was affiliated. Meanwhile, he was prancing around molesting young boys who were being sent to him by county judges, and he was being made out by county officials as the go-to guy to send your kids to. What an embarassment for the county. I'm guessing they would have been happy to continue to sweep the dirt under the rug, but for the fact that someone (Victoria) started running around to the press to let them know about the evil that was afoot.

But I digress...

Victoria will be giving a talk at the "MaleSurvivor 2010 International Conference" at John Jay College in New York City. The conference runs March 18th through 21st. Victoria will be speaking on March 20th, from 10:30a until 12p. She will be speaking specifically on the william ayres case. We wish her the best, and know that she will knock them dead, as she always does.