SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 — A prominent child psychiatrist who treated generations of troubled youth and preached sex education on public television was arrested Thursday night, accused of sexually abusing three patients.
The psychiatrist, Dr. William H. Ayres, was taken into custody at his home in San Mateo, Calif., after a lengthy police investigation prompted by a civil suit over sexual abuse. Dr. Ayres, 75, was charged with 14 felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under the age of 14 and accused of molesting his patients during psychiatric sessions, according to the criminal complaint.
The three unidentified male patients, now ages 21, 25 and 26, were 9- to 12-year-old boys when the alleged abuse occurred from 1991 to 1996. The San Mateo County district attorney’s office said it was also aware of nearly two dozen other men who said they had also been molested by Dr. Ayres, but whose cases had exceeded the statute of limitations.
At a hearing on Friday, the prosecutor, Melissa R. McKowan, called the charges “a gross violation of trust.”
Dr. Ayres appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit but did not speak. Vincent O’Malley, a defense lawyer, called the charges unfounded and successfully argued for a lower bail of $250,000, from $1.5 million. “They’re crazy,” Mr. O’Malley said. “He’s an innocent man.” Dr. Ayres is in poor health, Mr. O’Malley added.
A onetime president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dr. Ayres is a well-respected member of the community in San Mateo, a suburb about 20 miles south of San Francisco. In 2002, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors honored Dr. Ayres for his work with abused and neglected children; the juvenile justice system regularly referred patients to him.
Capt. Mike Callagy, a spokesman for the San Mateo Police Department, said the criminal investigation began in 2002 after a man said he had been repeatedly sexually abused by Dr. Ayres in the late 1970s. That investigation, however, was abandoned after a Supreme Court decision, Stogner v. California, limited the amount of time that prosecutors have to pursue criminal charges in old sexual abuse cases.
The man, who was unidentified, then filed a civil suit, which was settled out of court in 2005. The police said that suit, however, had led to more former patients contacting the police about later incidents involving Dr. Ayres, including the three whose accusations are the basis of Thursday’s charges. The Medical Board of California said it had no disciplinary actions on file about Dr. Ayres. The San Mateo Police Department said it investigated an abuse claim by a former patient in 1987, but determined it to unfounded.
The police also received claims of abuse dating to the late 1960s, when Dr. Ayres was a writer and narrator of “Time of Your Life,” a sex education series locally broadcast on public television. The series, aimed at fourth through sixth graders, was criticized at the time by some parents as being too explicit and undermining parental authority.
In a 1969 interview with The New York Times, Dr. Ayres defended the program. “For many years, kids have been coming into my office knowing some of ‘the facts of life,’ but with many facts left out,” he said. “They wind up being bewildered, with a great many concerns and anxieties from their lack of knowledge.”
During a 2004 deposition for the civil suit, Dr. Ayres denied molesting anyone but said that he would occasionally conduct physical examinations of his young patients if they complained of pain, explaining that psychiatrists are, by definition, doctors. Such examinations, he said, also put young patients more at ease to talk. “I say, ‘Well, you know, your stomach feels fine,’ ” Dr. Ayres said, adding that by “paying attention to it, they frequently then will talk about what they’re miserable about.”
An arraignment is set for Wednesday. A message left at a number listed for Dr. Ayres in San Mateo brought no response.
Each charge carries a sentence of up to eight years if convicted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/us/07shrink.html