GUILTY CA - Dr. William Ayres for child molestation, San Mateo, 2007 #2

We need someone who can wrap these facts up in a bow and present it to the media- I mean incompetence is not criminal, right? The key is finding out if the decision to put her on the case had anything to do with trying to save the county from inevitable law suits...kwim?

Believe - I agree that we need to make a move here. Just not sure what it should be. Hopefully MercyNeal can give us some direction. I am gravely concerned about this situation, especially with the additional failure to prosecute the other child sex abuse case mentioned earlier. Something just strikes me as very off here. I almost had a stroke when I found out she was the prosecutor for the new trial against Ayres.

And what's with Wagstaffe? Does he just blindly support his prosecutors without looking into things? Can he be that blind to the train wreck that is going on in his office?

We are ALL gravely concerned with the situation. Efforts are being made by some advocates involved with the Ayres case to go to the media. Balfour met with the Executive Editor of the San Mateo County Times Glenn Rabinowitz last week on this matter. The editor also thought that perhaps the County wanted to lose the Ayres case because of lawsuits.

Rabinowitz also said it sounded as if the DA's office is also totally incompetent.

We are checking out further statements prosecutor Mckowan made on the Ayres blog about having contacted witnesses - especially the ones about the doctor Jacqueline Amati Mehler in Europe who trained with Ayres, wasn't in Ayres' class and wasn't "physically able to travel." As we have stated here, Amati Mehler actually knew Ayres well, was in the same training class with him from 1961-1963 and said that all the trainees were taught to "treat the mind only."

Does Mckowan just have a faulty memory? Why would she say that the doctor wasn't in Ayres' training class and didn't know anything about him?

As Amati Mehler was physically able to travel in 2007, around the time Ayres was arrested, efforts are being made to contact Amati Mehler see if Mckowan ever contacted Amati Mehler and to see if she is physically able to travel. If this turns out to be a lie too then the you-know-what is really going to hit the fan.

Victoria Balfour responds to the prosecutor's comments on the Ayres blog directly today:
See comments section
http://williamayreswatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/yale-debunks-ayres-our-child.html

I so love how Ms. Balfour called out the prosecutor on her bogus claims. That was primo! I hope McKowan will respond. I can't wait to see how she responds to this smack-down and being shown that she can't throw out incorrect information and expect to get away with it. The article her comment was attached to was also first rate IMO.

This is REALLY BAD: Dr. Jacqueline Amati Mehler- the doctor prosecutor Melissa Mckowan says on the Ayres blog was "physically unable to travel" flew from Rome to attend a meeting in Chicago ON JULY 31, 2009. This was A WEEK after the first Ayres criminal trial ended.

http://74.6.116.140/search/srpcache...b7b&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=Hb0rAyT.vcUdXjeRD2aY1g

Why would the prosecutor say something like this? Didn't she think we would check this out?

Not able to add much tonight guys but that last post, taken alone, could incite the media. What's needed are tremendously horrid, but easily understood nuggets like that one.

The media is fickle and moves on so quickly. You have to go for the flash. That single fact would be be extremely embarrassing, I would think. Possibly enough to really embarrass the county. No?

Thanks Missizzy. Am in the process of sending to the media.

Dr. Jacqueline Amati -Mehler, who trained with Dr. William Ayres at Judge Baker in Boston from 1961-1963, described the standard training for ALL child psychiatrists in their group in an email to journalist Victoria Balfour in November, 2006: "In the sessions, it was verbal only. If there was a physical problem, pediatrics took care of it."

However, according to prosecutor Melissa Mckowan in a statement she made on the Ayres blog on January 29, 2010, Amati-Mehler didn't say this in a conversation the prosecutor claims she had with her. What confuses Balfour is why Amati- Mehler would tell her that she remembered Ayres well - even remembering the name of his hometown in Ohio - and that none of them were trained to touch kids, and then why Mckowan claims Amati Mehler told her a different story and that Amati Mehler didn't remember anything about Ayres and couldn't talk about how he was trained?

The $64,000 question is: did the prosecutor even bother to contact the doctors like Amati-Mehler who trained with Ayres that Balfour went to great pains to find? And even if all of the Boston-trained doctors Balfour found told Mckowan a different story than they did to Balfour- which is highly doubtful - why didn't the prosecutor go out and find her own doctors who trained with Ayres in Boston? Sure, it takes a little effort to track them down, but wouldn't the end result be worth it for the DA's office? Since the end of last year's trial, Balfour has located more than a dozen more doctors who trained with Ayres in Boston and at Yale. Some are still even still practicing. They all say that they were never ever permitted to give physicals to boys or girls during the therapeutic session. Heck, even the Judge Baker administration itself told Balfour that in August of 2009,after the Ayres trial. The Judge Baker administrator, Steve Schaeffer was horrified that anyone would even suggest that their doctors would be permitted to give genital exams to boys in therapy at any time in their almost 100 year history.
The Judge Baker administrator Steve Schaeffer asked Balfour why no one from the San Mateo District Attorney's office had ever contacted him to ask how child psychiatrists were trained there. Balfour did not have an answer. Only the San Mateo DA can answer that.

Is the real story that the prosecutor could just not be bothered ? Why did they not call anyone who trained with Ayres in Boston or Yale to the witness stand? Why did the prosecutor say on the Ayres blog in January 2010 that Dr. Jacqueline Amati Mehler is "physically unable to travel" when in fact the doctor was travelling from Rome to Chicago right after the conclusion of the Ayres trial? Is Mckowan misremembering? Confusing Dr. Amati Mehler with another doctor?

And here's more food for thought. Some in the Bay Area news media are now privately discussing among themselves that the San Mateo District Attorney's office does not want to win the Ayres case for fear of getting sued by all of the juveniles who were treated by Ayres in court-ordered sessions.

And here's more food for thought. Some in the Bay Area news media are now privately discussing among themselves that the San Mateo District Attorney's office does not want to win the Ayres case for fear of getting sued by all of the juveniles who were treated by Ayres in court-ordered sessions.

Click to expand...

Respectfully snipped. That is exactly what I am worried about. I find it hard to believe a prosecutor could be that completely incompetent. So, therefore, there is a reason she is not trying real hard to dig up evidence. This is a very frightening scenario IMO. Could this be a potential documentable (is that a word?) conflict of interest?

According to the San Mateo government website, this prosecutor is making $166,000 a year. The taxpayers are not getting their money's worth for her, or from anyone in that office in the Ayres case.

Re: that other case that prosecutor Melissa Mckowan is being sued for because of lying to the mother of a victim - the one that had a press conference this week with Mark Klaas.. According to the mother of the victim Mckowan told her that she couldn't prosecute her case because the prosecutor's office "didn't have any money. "

Why are the salaries in the San Mateo DA's office so high when people like Mckowan aren't doing their job and apparently make up falsehoods to victims and their parents and in statements under her own name on a blog?

It could be that the prosecutor isn't doing her job in a number of cases. We know of two already. It could be one of these things: that she is not competent, or overworked and having a mini breakdown. Or it could be that just likes to stretch and/or bungle the truth. It doesn't appear to people following the Ayres case that anyone in the DA's office was monitoring her. Maybe that neglect or lack of oversight is a tacit message from the top that winning the Ayres case isn't that urgent? But why go to all the trouble of prosecuting the case at all if they don't want to win? Mckowan wrote on the Ayres blog herself that she "hates to lose." She's certainly done a good job of not doing a good job on the Ayres case up to this point.

We have heard from witnesses who testified in the first Ayres trial that the prosecutor waited until the very last minute to prep them. She met with a key child psychiatrist only once. This key child psychiatrist had previously testified in a number of pedophile priests cases, and she said other prosecutors always prepped her more, and that her one meeting with the prosecutor was not the norm.

In the case in which the San Mateo DA and the prosecutor are being sued, the mother of the victim said she met with Mckowan only once to go over the trial. Melissa the prosecutor allegedly told the mother that she liked to let things just sail during the trial. But without much prep?

It would be interesting to find out exactly what she does during the day. I'm starting to wonder if she is out running personal errands and having her nails done.

Victoria Balfour asked Dr. Jacqueline Amati Mehler - who trained with Ayres in Boston -- specifically in 2006 in an email whether she had been trained to do physical exams on children in therapy at Judge Baker. Amati-Mehler who was there during at least two years that Ayres was -1961-1963 wrote to Balfour ,"In the sessions, it was verbal only. If there was a physical problem, pediatrics took care of it." Balfour gave a copy of that email to Captain Mike Callagy in November, 2006

Why the prosecutor would think that two trainees - Amati Mehler and Ayres who were at Judge Baker at the same time would receive different training on the matter of being permitted to give physical exams makes no sense.

The administration at Judge Baker told Balfour that throughout its nearly 100 year history, Judge Baker has set very strict guidelines in what is and isn't acceptable in the therapeutic session. Trainees were all trained the same way.

As stated, if Amati Mehler suddenly changed her tune and told a completely different story to the prosecutor than she had told Balfour (which is highly, highly doubtful) the DA's office might have looked for other doctors who trained with Ayres. They might have spent a few hours tracking down other child psychiatrists who were trained with Amati Mehler and Ayres - Eugene Piazza, Ted Sheftel come to mind. Balfour spoke to these child psychiatrists in December 2009. They trained with Ayres at JB and they sure never got the message that it was OK to give physical exams to boys in therapy. They said they did not do it and anyone who would have been caught doing so would have been severely reprimanded and most likely fired.

These doctors as well as Judge Baker administration would have told the DA that Judge Baker had strict guidelines and ALL trainees were trained the same way. They had very strict rules about what was permitted at Judge Baker. And allowing child psychiatrists to give boys physical exams in therapy was not permitted.

The DA would have also learned that Judge Baker was a bastion of child psychoanalysis and was a teaching place for child psychiatrists to teach the mind.

The DA would have also learned - if they had only taken time to research Judge Baker that not only were no child psychiatrists trained when Ayres was there to give physical exams to boys in therapy but that Judge Baker HAD STAFF PEDIATRICIANS ON SITE TO EXAMINE THE CHILDREN. The DA might tried to have locate the staff lists that include the list of staff pediatricians from the time Ayres was there from Judge Baker in Harvard's Countway library. The staff is very knowledgeable and would have gladly scanned the staff lists and emailed them to the San Mateo DA's office. But alas, no one in the San Mateo DA's office seemed particularly interested in Ayres training in Boston. The question is: why weren't they?

Dr. Hugh Ridlehuber, one of Ayres' former medical partners told Balfour in 2006 and the DA after Ayres was arrested that Ayres told him in the 1970s that was trained to give physicals to boys at Judge Baker after Ridlehuber confronted Ayres about undressing boys in therapy. That's why Balfour contacted Judge Baker. In one phone call, she learned that it was not true. Child psychiatrists when Ayres was there were not allowed to give physical exams to boys - or girls - in therapy.And despite the fact that Ridlehuber died before the trial, it sure would have been worthwhile for the DA to make that phone call to Judge Baker themselves even after Ridlehuber died. Alas, they did not.

And because they did not, some of the jurors actually believed Doron Weinberg when he said that it was "standard practise" when Ayres was being trained in the 1960s to give complete physical exams to boys in therapy. It was not.

Balfour checked with both child psychiatrists AND pediatricians who were at Yale in the 1950s when Ayres was there. Professors and trainees with Ayres at Yale said that child psychiatrist trainnees were not trained to do physicals on boys or girls in therapy.

So, Yale didn't teach child psychiatrists to give physicals to children when Ayres was there. Judge Baker-which is affiliated with Harvard - didn't either.

Why didn't anyone in the DA's office think to refute this? The tragedy is that it could so easily have been shown to be false.

Funny, he wasn't trained to give girls physical examination. He was only trained to give boys physical examinations. Uh, right.

In the trial, he said that he was taught at Yale that "you didn't need a chaperon when examining boys." So far, I have not been able to find a single pediatrician who was at Yale when Ayres was there who remembers being taught that.

Just wondering, Mercyneal, have you come across any former patients of Ayres's who are female? Surely he couldn't have only seen boys. I realize that he was preying on the boys but it would be fascinating to compare his treatment of the little girls. If his treatment of them was benign, possibly they hardly remember him.

Also have any of the victims presented the psych evals he did years ago? It would be really intriguing to see what quality of "real" work he did. I'd love to see one as I have so many (for seven of our adopted children) from the same geographical area and time frame. It's amazing how the quality varies, depending on the doctor.

The irony is that healthy children in their families of origin rarely have a psychiatric examination or a psychological evaluation. It is the children exhibiting symptoms of mental illness or those who are removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect allegations. The very merit of these children's situation renders them far more at risk.

Yes, Ayres did see some girls. But his practice, according to his own deposition in a civil suit, was about 80 % male. No girls have come forward to say he did any physical exams. A former girl patient called reporter John Cote of the San Francisco Chronicle after Ayres was arrested and said he had never given her a physcial.

Great question about "real work. " So far I have not found a single former patient who says Ayres did any talk therapy work. When Joel, the boy who was Ayres' patient in Boston and who was interviewed by the Boston Globe walked into his first session with Ayres in 1962, he said the first thing Ayres said was "Do you know what a b*** j** is?"

Joel who was 17 was sent to Ayres because he didn't want to go to college. Although Ayres never molested him - he was too old- Joel says that he never did any talk therapy. Just asked him about graphic sexual stuff. Never asked him about his family or why he didn't want to go to school or his friends or girlfriends. Joel also remembered that Ayres fell asleep sometimes in the session.

With the boys he molested, everything the boy said was manipulated by Ayres into so he could get them undressed. But no therapy was done. He asked one victim if he knew what semen smelled like. Only he used a more graphic word.
You get the picture.

At his first criminal trial, Dr. Ayres testified that a Yale child psychiatrist named "Al Songden" - who really turned out to be a Dr. Al Solnit taught him how to do physicals on children. This turned out to be false. Reporter Victoria Balfour has a new post up on this and new information from a longtime staff member at Yale pediatrics. See post at the William Ayres blog:
http://williamayreswatch.blogspot.com/2010/08/they-essentially-have-no-expertise.html

The reason I ask about the "real work" is that I am in possession of probably 15 psychiatric evaluations which were court ordered on foster children in the counties of Los Angeles, San Mateo and Santa Clara between the years 1987-1993. I also have another 20 or so ordered by the state or school districts in Oregon from 1994-2008. None of the children were seen for more than one or two sessions of evaluation. There was no talk therapy. There was no medication management. There was only evaluation, DSM-IV diagnosis, and recommendations about educational and therapeutic interventions.

I'm certainly not an expert but I have a few evals which are remarkable in their level of insight. What was said about a child 20 years ago (even while he was in crisis) speaks to the very core issues that person is still exhibiting. I have often advised adopting parents to pay extremely close attention to every single word of psych evals as they can be prophetic. I honestly don't know if the psychiatrists who saw my children while they were in foster care were sent to doctors who only did diagnostic evaluations or who also saw children for treatment. My now adult children have only vague memories of any of these doctors as they were all evaluated by so many other specialists. I think, that after awhile, "helping" adults become a blur for traumatized children.

We know that Ayres excelled at sexual assault. I just wonder if he was worth his salt as a psychiatrist.

As I said, there is no evidence that he ever practiced talk therapy - even with his longterm patients. Every statement made by the young male patients in his office - be it a statement that they had a crush on a girl, or that they were suicidal or hated their parents, was manipulated by Ayres in a way that was designed to get into their pants.