August hearing scheduled for former child psychiatrist

From the Daily Reveiw

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has spent months building its case against Dr. William Ayres, a nationally recognized child psychiatrist accused of molesting dozens of boys.

Next month, a San Mateo County Superior Court judge will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to put Ayres on trial.

They say that Ayres, 75, is guilty of molesting dozens of pre-adolescent boys in San Mateo County — and the abuse, they say, has spanned decades.

Since Ayres' arrest in April, the case against the now-retired doctor has grown. Initially, Ayres was charged with 14 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with three children under the age of 14. Now he faces a total of 21 counts of lewd and lascivious acts against seven children.

Ayres, a former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is expected to appear in court for his preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Aug. 7, the date set by a judge Thursday.

Prosecutor Melissa McKowan told the judge that she estimated the hearing would last about a half-day.

During the brief court appearance, the prosecution and the defense stuck strictly to scheduled business.

The prosecution did not file any additional charges against Ayres, and the defense refrained from filing any motions.

During Ayres' last court appearance in May, defense attorney Doron Weinberg announced that he planned to file a motion invalidating the search warrant upon which the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has built its entire case. However, Weinberg told reporters outside of court that he would wait to file such a motion until after the preliminary hearing.

Weinberg also took the opportunity to reiterate past statements attesting to the likelihood of his client's innocence. The accusations against Ayres by numerous individuals were likely the result, he said, of either "mistake, false memory or suggestion.

"Nothing that I have seen or heard so far from the witnesses changes my opinion that Dr. Ayres did not molest anyone," Weinberg said.

Prosecutor Melissa McKowan has claimed that Ayres molested at least 39 people. The case against Ayres has been built on the claims of seven men who fall within the legal statute of limitations for child molestation cases. State law requires that molestation charges be brought before the accuser turns 29 or that the alleged crime occurred after Jan. 1, 1988.

The brief court appearance Thursday was attended by a local couple whose son, they claimed, was the individual who initially filed the 2003 civil suit that alleged that Ayres had molested him.

The couple, who declined to give their names, spoke of their son's struggle with the suit — which was settled out of court and did not require Ayres to admit any guilt — and of their son's inability to participate in the current criminal case due to the fact that his alleged molestation falls outside of the statute of limitations.

They claim their son was abused by Ayres during the mid- to late 1970s.

"He was only 12, he was a little boy." his mother said outside of court Thursday, her eyes red-rimmed and teary. "We sent our kid to get help. The guy was supposedly a helper.

"You tell me what parent in their right mind would send their child to a child psychiatrist to have their genitals examined," she said, her voice quaking. "Does that make any sense? In those days, parents did not know; in those days, parents were very trusting, especially of physicians."

From the 1960s through his retirement several years ago, Ayres presided over a thriving practice. He treated scores of children and evaluated hundreds of wards of the county's juvenile court.

Ayres, who remains out of custody in lieu of $750,000 bail, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.