Over the past four weeks, I've written a news article and several blog posts about Sean Casey, a 35-year-old Bostonian who was charged with DUI manslaughter in the hit-and-run death of Mary Montgomery in 2001.
To recap, Casey is serving a 12-and-half year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2006 after spending two years on the lam. Casey claims his ex-lawyer Milton Hirsch and his ex-therapist Michael Rappaport convinced him he had to flee the country in 2004.
A recently sealed transcript of secretly recorded conversations Casey, his mother Genevieve, and Rappaport certainly indicate, at the very least, the Miami-based psychologist assured the convicted drunk driver no one would come looking for him.
Rappaport was harshly criticized for using techniques that hypnotize his patients, leaving them vunerable to his suggestions, like the time in 1985 he helped prosecutors obtain a plea agreement from a woman accused of moletsing children under her care. Today a reader tipped me off to Rappaport's expulsion from the U.S. Air Force in 1983.
To recap, Casey is serving a 12-and-half year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2006 after spending two years on the lam. Casey claims his ex-lawyer Milton Hirsch and his ex-therapist Michael Rappaport convinced him he had to flee the country in 2004.
A recently sealed transcript of secretly recorded conversations Casey, his mother Genevieve, and Rappaport certainly indicate, at the very least, the Miami-based psychologist assured the convicted drunk driver no one would come looking for him.
Rappaport was harshly criticized for using techniques that hypnotize his patients, leaving them vunerable to his suggestions, like the time in 1985 he helped prosecutors obtain a plea agreement from a woman accused of moletsing children under her care. Today a reader tipped me off to Rappaport's expulsion from the U.S. Air Force in 1983.
During his court martial hearing, two women testified they went to Rappaport - then a major who had served 13 years - for treatment but instead he seduced them. Prosecutors alleged Rappaport told the women they would benefit from the sexual favors. He was charged with adultery, sodomy and the use of marijuana.
He faced 19 years in prison, prosecutors wanted him to serve at least the five-year minimum, but Rappaport was sentenced to six months hard labor and kicked out of the service. Despite being thrown out of the military and a 1988 arrest for marijuana while he was on probation, the state's Board of Psychological Examiners has allowed Rappaport to keep his license.
I'm not saying Rappaport's history absolves Casey, but it is rather unsettling that prominent criminal defense lawyers like Milton Hirsch would refer clients to a therapist with some very serious problems in his past.
He faced 19 years in prison, prosecutors wanted him to serve at least the five-year minimum, but Rappaport was sentenced to six months hard labor and kicked out of the service. Despite being thrown out of the military and a 1988 arrest for marijuana while he was on probation, the state's Board of Psychological Examiners has allowed Rappaport to keep his license.
I'm not saying Rappaport's history absolves Casey, but it is rather unsettling that prominent criminal defense lawyers like Milton Hirsch would refer clients to a therapist with some very serious problems in his past.
