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Former stripper avoids prison sentence for posing as a psychologist
(George Rizer/Globe Staff file photo)
Louise Wightman (right) conferred with her attorney, Katie Cook Rayburn, during her trial in Suffolk Superior Court.
By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
The former stripper known as Princess Cheyenne was spared time in prison when she was sentenced today for treating patients without a license for seven years at two South Shore psychology clinics.
After emotional testimony from six victims who said they turned to her for help, Louise Wightman was given a six-month suspended sentence, five years probation, and barred from counseling. Wightman, 47, was also ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service in lieu of restitution to her victims, which she is unable to afford.
"I'm sorry for any harm I've caused," Wightman said before she was sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court. "I really am. I know what pain is and I wouldn’t want to cause anybody pain. I’m really sorry."
Standing today before Judge Nancy Staffier Holtz, Wightman faced more than 90 years in prison. On May 4, a jury found the now-demure Hull woman guilty of five counts of filing false healthcare claims, 13 counts of larceny over $250, and one count of practicing psychology without a license. Each offense carried a maximum term of five years in prison, except for the last, which carried a maximum of three months.
Despite the focus in the media, Staffier Holtz noted from the bench that the case had nothing to do Princess Cheyenne, the stage name under which Wightman gained fame in the 1970s and '80s as an exotic dancer in Boston’s Combat Zone. The judge said she received more than 60 letters on behalf of Wightman, several of which came from her former patients.
For such a "complex defendant," Staffier Holtz said that a suspended sentence was the only appropriate punishment. Over the next 12 months, Wightman will remain under home confinement, which will be electronically monitored, the judge ordered. Her six-month sentence will be suspended for five years and followed by five years probation.
Wightman practiced psychology from 1998 to 2005, when she treated adolescents for eating disorders and other serious problems in clinics in Hingham and Norwell. During trial, she testified that she never purported to be a licensed psychologist when she treated hundreds of patients, most under 18, at a practice called South Shore Psychology Associates.
Massachusetts law requires psychologists to have a doctoral degree in psychology from a program recognized by the state and to be licensed with the state Division of Professional Licensure.
Wightman acknowledged, however, that she advertised as having a doctorate in psychology, despite withdrawing from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology after completing five years of course work without earning a degree.
Wightman, who has a master's degree in counseling psychology from Lesley University, told the jury she dropped out of the doctoral program when a dean, whom she did not identify, confronted her about her storied career as a stripper in Boston's Combat Zone.
Feeling that she had earned her doctorate, Wightman told the jury, she turned to the Internet and paid about $1,300 for what she thought was a bona fide degree from Dominica-based Concordia College & University. She said she later discovered that the online degree was bogus.
Under cross-examination, Wightman acknowledged that the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology began proceedings in March 2001 to kick her out for operating what a school official described in a letter as an "independent private practice" without a license.
She also conceded that she applied to the state for a license as a mental health counselor in August 2005, six months after "Fox 25 Undercover" aired a report about her past.
