As reported in the News-Times of Danbury
For more than 15 years therapist John E. Thorson has provided counseling for people dealing with situations from abuse to marital and sexual problems. In a few years he will get treatment himself.
Thorson, 63, a counselor with a private practice in Bethel, was sentenced Wednesday in Danbury Superior Court 20 years in prison, suspended after three and a half years, for having sexual encounters with a female patient in 2004 and 2005.
He also received 20 years probation to begin after serving his prison sentence, at which time he must register as a sex offender and seek evaluation and treatment.
The victim, a 38-year-old woman who has a 13-year-old son, had family-violence victim's advocate Kristen Selleck read a statement in court. It told how the patient's sexual relationship with Thorson left her emotionally in a worse state than before she spent five years in therapy with him.
She started seeing Thorson in April 2002 to deal with a rocky life of mental and physical abuse and sexual assaults. Their sexual relationship began in December 2004 and ended in July 2005.
Thorson, a gray-haired man with a beard, was accompanied by his wife, Babette Thorson, and one of their grown daughters when he was sentenced Wednesday.
Judge Douglas Mintz sentenced Thorson and said that after 15 years of probation the counselor may petition the court to have the probation modified, said defense attorney Jeffrey Jowdy.
Other conditions include that Thorson have no contact with the victim and that he pay her $20,000 in restitution for money she paid him and for her future professional treatment.
Peter Bekker of New York City, a family friend of the victim, said the sentencing was "not a victory."
Rather, Bekker said, "It is not anything other than the truth. It is pretty clear (Thorson's) behavior demonstrates a disregard for the welfare and well-being of his patients."
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