Woman gets suspended sentence for pretending to be psychologist

Louise Wightman stood yesterday and spoke in a calm voice just moments after cold torrents of anger were directed at her by a former patient and the parents of patients she treated while professing, falsely, to be a licensed psychologist.

"I am sorry for any harm I've done," Wightman said. "I really am. I know what pain is and I wouldn't want to cause anybody pain. I'm really sorry."

Despite pleas from victims that she be imprisoned, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Nancy Staffier Holtz instead imposed a six-month sentence, suspended for five years, for her convictions on May 4 of larceny, filing false healthcare claims, and posing as a psychologist.

The judge said she was swayed by the emotional testimony of the victims who appeared in court yesterday, but she said she also was influenced by more than 60 letters written on Wightman's behalf by "people from all walks of life," includ ing former patients.

Speaking from the bench, the judge also stressed that Wightman's trial and sentence had drawn heavy media coverage "because of what she did in a former life."

Wightman was known professionally as Princess Cheyenne when she worked as a stripper in Boston's Combat Zone in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the judge said the 47-year-old woman's exotic dancing career was not a factor in the criminal case.

Assistant Attorney General David Andrews, who prosecuted the case, had asked Staffier Holtz to send Wightman to prison for 2 1/2 years, saying she preyed on parents and children who sought what they thought was professional help from a licensed psychologist, who operated on the South Shore from 1998 to 2005.

But her lawyer, Katie Cook Rayburn, argued that the death last May 16 of Wightman's teenage daughter in a car crash and the loss of her business that has led to the foreclosure of her Hull home is punishment enough. She also said that Wightman admits she may have harmed some patients, but helped many more.

In court, some of those victims took the stand and delivered victim impact statements, including Kenneth Maydoney, Sr., who said he brought his depressed daughter to Wightman, spent $2,000 in fees, and broke off contact quickly enough so his daughter got the professional help she needed.

"Louise Wightman delayed my daughter's recovery for her own financial gain," said Maydoney, who asked that Wightman serve nine years in prison.

Joyce Rossi said her daughter sought treatment for an eating disorder from Wightman, but ended up worse off because Wightman did not know what she was doing.

"It's unconscionable to take a shortcut in the practice of medicine," Rossi said. "She crossed all the boundaries, moral, professional and ethical."

Wightman practiced psychology when she treated young people for eating disorders and other issues 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, many 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 career as a stripper. She said she got a diploma over the Internet.