Saint Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)

August 1, 1995 Tuesday METRO FINAL EDITION

PATIENT WINS $2.4 MILLION VERDICT AGAINST THERAPIST;
DOCTOR WAS ACCUSED OF PLANTING MEMORIES

BYLINE: BYLINE: MOLLY GUTHREY, Staff Writer

SECTION: MAIN; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 792 words

In a first-of-its-kind case that attracted nationwide attention, a Ramsey County jury awarded more than $2 million to a patient who accused her psychiatrist of implanting in her mind false memories of bizarre childhood sexual abuse.
The six jurors, after deliberating for about two days, ruled that Dr. Diane Humenansky was negligent in treating her patient, Vynnette Hamanne. They then awarded Hamanne $2,467,028 for past and future loss of earnings, medical expenses and pain and suffering. They also awarded her husband, Kenneth, $210,000 for the loss of his wife’s past and future “services and companionship.”
During the six-week trial, Hamanne testified that the doctor forced her to believe that, as a child, she had seen her grandmother stirring a cauldron of dead babies. The doctor allegedly told Hamanne that she had been sexually abused by family members who had been part of a satanic cult. The abuse, Humenansky told her patient, caused her to develop multiple personalities.
With this decision, said Hamanne’s attorneys, the jury apparently rejected the controversial theory of repressed memory and sent out a warning to therapists across the country to take great care when using that theory in treatment.
Repressed memory involves the theory that a person could endure repeated abuse and not remember it until much later.
The repressed memory theory has been a chic one in recent years, but it has been criticized by scientific researchers who say there is no evidence to show it is valid. A number of experts from both sides of the issue debated the trendy theory during the six-week trial.
“I think the effect is a stunning warning to therapists … and to insurance companies in that they had better start obeying the informed consent laws and stop using experimental treatments like recovered memory treatments on patients without their permission,” said R. Christopher Barden, one of Hamanne’s attorneys. “This is a huge warning shot to them.”
Many cases similar to Hamanne’s are being settled quietly across the country, Hamanne’s attorneys say. This is thought to be the first civil trial in the country regarding the false memory issue involving a patient suing her therapist. And it has won the largest verdict in a repressed memory case, said Hamanne’s attorneys. The previous record was $500,000 awarded to the father of a patient in California.
Humenansky was not in court to hear the verdict, which came after the trial before Ramsey County District Judge Bertrand Poritsky. She declined to comment when contacted by telephone.
But during the trial, the doctor testified that “when I first started out 30 years ago, doctors had patients help them in clinics. Things have changed a great deal. I wouldn’t be comfortable with doing very much of anything in the future.”
The trial was also significant because the judge ruled earlier that repressed memory is an unreliable theory that is not permissible in expert testimony. Criminal trial decisions banning repressed memory testimony had been reached earlier in New Hampshire and Maryland.
Hamanne was in court with her family and began crying soon after the verdict was announced. Later, she said she was relieved.
Humenansky’s attorneys would not comment on the verdict or the case. The six jurors also declined to comment, except for saying the verdict spoke for itself.
The case doesn’t mean the end of the doctor’s days in court.
Humenansky is the defendant in at least five other civil lawsuits that alleged she traumatized patients by making them recall false memories of childhood sexual abuse. The patients allege she subjected them to an increasingly coercive program of mind-altering drugs, hypnosis and threats. They also alleged that she discussed cases among patients, subjected them to anti-male and anti-Catholic diatribes and was friendlier with them than professional guidelines allow.
A number of experts from both sides of the issue testified during the long trial, including Elizabeth Loftus, a nationally known psychologist who recently co-authored the book, “The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Accusations of Sexual Abuse.”
“This repression folklore, I have to say, is not generally accepted,” she testified at the trial.
Monday marked a new chapter in life for the Hamanne family.
Vynnette Hamanne, her husband, Kenneth, and her daughter, Adeana, walked out of the courthouse arm in arm.
“I’m really very glad it’s done,” Vynnette Hamanne said softly shortly after the verdict. “We’ll be glad to get on with the rest of our lives.”
A friend of Humenansky’s who was in court for the verdict said Monday that the doctor couldn’t attend because she was busy treating patients.