Trial starts for ex-stripper who had therapy practice

Lucy Wightman , who drew stares in the 1970s and '80s as the celebrated stripper Princess Cheyenne in Boston's Combat Zone, held the gaze of 16 jurors yesterday as a state prosecutor accused her of fraudulently posing as a licensed psychologist and treating children whose parents had no idea she lacked the proper credentials.

"This is a case about trust, broken trust, and breaking that trust to commit theft from parents and their children," Assistant Attorney General David Andrews said as Wightman went on trial in Suffolk Superior Court on charges of treating children with eating disorders and other serious problems without a license from 1998 to 2005.

Wightman, 47, of Hull, who had practices in two affluent Boston suburbs, faces 14 counts of felony larceny, five counts of filing false healthcare claims, five counts of insurance fraud, and one count of practicing psychology without a license. Andrews said she took nearly $40,000 from unsuspecting parents while posing as a licensed psychologist after buying a bogus doctorate online from a diploma mill.

But Wightman's lawyer, Katie Cook Rayburn , said her client has a master's degree in psychology and studied five years at the accredited Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology before withdrawing for reasons Wightman will explain when testifying in her own defense.

Feeling she had completed her academic training as well as thousands of hours of internship , Wightman bought a doctorate online from Dominica-based Concordia College & University, believing it was legitimate, Rayburn said. Nonetheless, Wightman denies telling people who sought treatment that she was licensed, Rayburn said.

"My client didn't wake up one day and say, 'Today, I'm going to pretend to be a psychologist,' " Rayburn told the jury. "She intended to help people . . . My client is not a thief. . . . She's not a fraud. And she's not guilty."

Wightman, who posed for Playboy in March 1986 and had a brief career as a bodybuilder, now has an unassuming appearance. A small woman with eyeglasses and shoulder-length, blondish hair, she wore a peach-colored linen jacket, black slacks, and black loafers yesterday.

She also wore handcuffs and leg irons before the jury entered the courtroom.

She had been free on her own recognizance since her indictment in October 2005. But Judge Nancy Staffier Holtz yesterday ordered her held on $30,000 cash bail because she failed to show up Tuesday, when the trial was scheduled to start. Wightman was in Italy and had been unable to get a flight to Boston, her lawyer said, but the judge ordered her to turn over her passport.

Neither lawyer referred to Wightman's career as a stripper in the arguments. Wightman told the Globe Sunday magazine in January 2006 that she began receiving anonymous e-mails in late 2004 threatening to expose her past and her lack of a license. About three months after she received the first threats, the story was broadcast on Fox 25 Undercover. Three days later, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation announced that it had begun an investigation that culminated with the indictment.

To obtain a license to practice psychology in Massachusetts, applicants must hold a doctorate from a state-accredited school, complete 1,600 hours of supervised training, and pass a state- administered test, among other requirements, Andrews said. Pointing at Wightman, he said she failed to fulfill any of the requirements before she opened South Shore Psychology Associates in Hingham and then in Norwell.

He said she told clients to pay her at the start of sessions, sometimes $120 an hour, and she did not accept insurance. Some parents questioned treatment their children received, he said.

Although some of Wightman's clients told the Globe last year they felt betrayed by her, others stood by the therapist, saying she was a good listener. They called the case a witch hunt by politicians seeking to exploit her past.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.