Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: 06/09/2011 06:12:59 PM PDT
Updated: 06/10/2011 12:11:49 AM PDT

The wife of Dr. William Ayres, a once-renowned child psychiatrist now accused of molesting several of his young male patients, testified in court Thursday that her 79-year-old husband can’t remember conversations, mixes up his words and once forgot his son’s name.

“He asks a question, he asks the same question 10 minutes later,” Solveig Ayres said during her husband’s competency trial, which began this week in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Defense attorney Jonathan McDougall is seeking to prove that his client suffers from Alzheimer’s-related dementia to such a degree that he is not competent to stand trial again on nine counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with minors under the age of 14.

Several of the doctor’s former patients — now in their 20s and 30s — claim he molested them during physical and genital exams he conducted as part of psychiatry sessions. Ayres was prosecuted for the alleged crimes in 2009, but a jury could not agree on a verdict and a mistrial was declared. The district attorney’s office announced in August 2009 it would refile charges, just a month after the first trial ended.

In opening statements Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said she does not dispute that Ayres suffers from dementia. But she said he is capable of understanding the legal proceedings well enough to aid in his own defense. She told jurors that two court-appointed doctors will testify that Ayres is competent.

In
a competency trial, the burden of proof falls on the defense to prove that the defendant is incompetent, she added.

“I will never disagree with the fact that he has some cognitive impairment,” McKowan said. “That is going to be obvious. … But the fact that he is suffering from this mental defect does not mean he cannot stand trial for the crimes he is accused of.”

McDougall said he plans to call as many as seven doctors to the witness stand to cast doubt on Ayres’ competency.

“How is that person that is not able to remember the name of his son, able to function in the legal world?” McDougall asked during his opening statement.

Solveig Ayres, the first witness called by the defense, said her husband began worrying about his memory at the end of the 2009 trial — he couldn’t remember former patients who testified.

“He said, ‘There’s something wrong in my brain,’” Solveig Ayres said.

His condition has worsened since then, she said. William Ayres could not remember what time the judge had told them to be at court the day before. During meetings with McDougall to talk about the case, Solveig said she takes notes and reviews them with William to remind him what was discussed.

On one occasion last December, he couldn’t remember his son’s name, she testified.

Lately, she added, he has been mixing up his words. For example, while talking with her about the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, her husband said “Republican” instead of “Rachmaninoff.” Solveig testified that William makes lists of the words he switches and tries to find a correlation between them.

Under cross-examination, Mc-Kowan portrayed that as an indication that William Ayres is well enough to be aware that he is making mistakes and is trying to figure out why.

“So he will think rationally and logically even though, at a moment in time, he switched a word?” she asked Solveig Ayres.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

Email Diana Samuels at dsamuels@dailynewsgroup.com.-

URL: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18242724?nclick_check=1

Related stories: Ayres’ Dementia Too Severe For Him To Face Molestation Charges

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Opening statements were given in San Mateo County Superior Court this morning in the competency trial of William Ayres, 79, who has been charged with nine counts of performing lewd acts with seven boys during psychiatric examinations that took place between 1991 and 1996.

Ayres admitted in a 2009 trial that he conducted exams in which boys were naked from the waist down, but said that nothing inappropriate happened. The trial ended in a hung jury when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the counts.

The district attorney’s office decided in August 2009 to retry the case, but criminal proceedings have been suspended to allow a jury to decide whether Ayres remains competent enough to face charges.

In his opening statement Thursday morning, defense attorney Jonathan McDougall said Ayres’ mental deterioration has made it increasingly difficult for his client to understand his place in the legal proceedings or aid in his own defense.

McDougall said that at times, Ayres is unable to remember his own address, what he ate for dinner or the name of his son.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said court-appointed psychiatrists agree with the defense that Ayres is showing signs of early-onset dementia and mental atrophy, but that the defendant remains well aware of the charges against him and is fit to stand trial.

Testimony in the competency trial began later Thursday morning.

URL: http://www.ktvu.com/news/28185802/detail.html

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Dr. Steve Taylor retired psychiatrist pleads guilty on child pornography charges.

By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
A retired Covington psychiatrist booked in 2008 with possessing more than 100 sexually explicit pictures of children on his computer has pleaded guilty to less severe charges.

Dr. Steve Taylor, 71, admitted to attempted possession of juvenile pornography during a hearing at the St. Tammany Parish courthouse in Covington on Tuesday, according to the District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his plea, state Judge Peter Garcia sentenced him to two years in prison.

Ralph Whalen, Taylor’s defense attorney, said his client will begin serving his sentence April 22. He declined to answer questions about the reasoning behind the plea.

Meanwhile, DA spokesman Rick Wood explained that prosecutors struck the deal because they had concerns about evidence in the case and were unsure that a trial verdict would be favorable.

“It was the right thing to do,” Wood said.

Taylor, prior to his arrest, had been honored for his work with health care organizations and had been affiliated with a group dedicated to counseling victims of sexual abuse.

Sheriff’s Office deputies began investigating Taylor three years ago after receiving a tip that child pornography had been downloaded on his computer.

Investigators later seized Taylor’s home computer and uncovered images downloaded from websites showing non-local youths under the age of 17. On April 9, 2008, they searched Taylor’s home and office and jailed him on 107 counts of juvenile pornography possession, each of which was punishable with a $10,000 fine and two to 10 years in prison.

Authorities have declined to say where the tip originated.

A grand jury indicted him last September. The court scheduled his trial for this week, but he accepted a plea bargain rather than combat the charges before a jury.

Attempted possession of child pornography carries a maximum five-year sentence. Assistant District Attorney Joseph Oubre handled the prosecution.

Taylor was well-known as a psychiatrist on the north shore. He served on St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s Ethics Board, counseled residents after Hurricane Katrina and ran a support group for survivors of suicide. Late in the month during which he was arrested, he was supposed to receive an “Angels Among Us” award from the Hospice Foundation of the South. But organizers canceled the event.

He also collaborated with the Louisiana chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Taylor attended the first meeting of the organization in Metairie in 2003. He also accompanied members of the organization to Baton Rouge when they urged the Legislature to require clergy to report abuse suspicions.

At the time, he told The Times-Picayune the right of clergy to keep confessions private did not outweigh the importance of discovering potential abuse cases. “The privilege is not as important as helping the next child,” he said. “The cycle has to be broken.”

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Ramon Antonio Vargas can be reached at rvargas@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4827 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 985.898.4827 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
URL: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/04/retired_covington_psychiatrist.html

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Published: March 28, 2011

BROOKSVILLE – State officials have placed emergency restrictions on a psychiatrist who used to treat female inmates at the Hernando County Jail following accusations he sexually fondled patients and, among other charges, requested they take off their clothes during therapy sessions.

The state surgeon general ruled that Dr. James Yelton Rossello cannot treat female patients and must be supervised if he treats male patients after concluding that he abused his role as a psychologist by making sexual advances toward female inmates while working at the jail between November 2009 and August 2010.

Florida Department of Health officials also declared him, “an immediate serious danger to the public health, safety or welfare.”

An investigation was eventually prompted after one inmate informed a correction officer at the jail.

The victims’ ages ranged from early to late 20s.

Attempts to reach Rossello were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach him through, Corrections Corporation of America, which ran the jail at the time, were also unsuccessful. An employee said she believes he is no longer employed there.

According to the FDH emergency restriction order, Rossello asked female inmates to expose their breasts to him, requested hugs, kisses and in one case, a lap dance. He also handed out contact information to see about getting together for sex once they were released from jail.

His most avert attempt to engage in sexual activity with a patient occurred while treating a 24-year-old woman who would not allow him to touch her beyond a tattoo and scar on her wrist, the report showed.

After agreeing to give him a hug, the woman claimed he pushed her against a wall, kissed her lips and neck and placed his hand between her legs.

“Dr. (Rossello’s) actions demonstrate such a disregard for the laws and regulations governing physicians that the safety of patients cannot be assured as long as Dr. (Rossello) continues to practice medicine without restriction in the state of Florida,” the report showed.

Other examples from the FDH included:

• While treating a 29-year-old patient, he inferred that he would provide her drugs for sex.

• During a session with one 21-year-old patient, Rossello had her sit on his lap and later requested she undress for him.

Believing that whether she complied would influence whether she received her medications, she complied, but pulled away when Rossello grabbed for her underwear. Afterward, Rossello increased her anti-psychotic medication and then later asked to see her once she was released from the jail.

• That Rossello told one patient he was, “faithful to his wife 98 percent of the time,” and that, “he became a bad boy,” with women like the patient he was treating.

• Rossello also prescribed lorazepam to a woman who he knew to have a history of medication abuse. An independent medical expert also concluded that the drug was inappropriate for her and that nothing in her medical records justified the treatment.

• That Rossello also falsified medical records, claiming he evaluated a patient once when he provided treatment for her for roughly six months. He also failed to document multiple treatments.

Officials are now seeking a proceeding to determine future discipline and restrictions on Rossello’s license. Sgt. Donna Black, spokeswoman for the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, said she could not comment on whether charges locally are pending against him.

URL: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/mar/28/state-sexual-advances-lead-to-restrictions-against/

Reporter Jeff Schmucker can be reached at 352-544-5271 or jschmucker@hernandotoday.com

Related story: Florida restricts license of ex-Hernando jail psychiatrist accused of molesting female inmates

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By Renee Starzyk, CBS Atlanta Reporter
POSTED: 12:43 pm EDT March 28, 2011
UPDATED: 4:01 pm EDT March 28, 2011

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — The Gwinnett County district attorney’s office has cut a plea deal with a Lawrenceville psychiatrist accused of fondling more than a dozen patients. The deal has outraged at least one of the doctor’s victims.

Mohammad Quereshi pleaded guilty to 27 counts of misdemeanor sexual battery charges. In exchange, the doctor will not face jail time.

“I’m outraged,” said Gina Brown, a patient who told CBS Atlanta Quereshi fondled her during an office visit in 2007.

Quereshi is on probation for 10 years and has surrendered his Georgia and New York medical licenses. He must also have no contact with the victims and cannot apply for a medical license for 10 years.

URL: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/27345018/detail.html

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