Therapist Accused of Sexual Affair With 1978 Patient

An Orange marriage counselor was accused Monday of engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient in 1978, according to the Medical Board of California. The therapist, Leroy Jay Cordrey, could lose his license in a hearing before the Board of Psychology.

Cordrey referred inquiries to his attorney, Russell Iungerich, who called the accusation “ancient history” and “a long-dead event.” He said no sexual activity took place while the woman was Cordrey’s patient or at his office.

Iungerich said his client was the victim of “changed standards,” explaining that no statutes or regulations existed in 1978 that would have covered Cordrey’s conduct.

The attorney also said that the board’s actions in publicizing the charges were affected by the case of Ivan C. Namihas, a gynecologist who lost his medical license after more than 60 women charged him with sexual misconduct over a 20-year period. News accounts brought a flood of additional complaints against Namihas.

According to the medical board’s complaint filed Monday, the patient, identified only as “N.C.,” entered therapy with Cordrey “because she was depressed, suicidal and had marital problems.”

Subsequently, Cordrey “engaged in a sexual relationship with N.C., which took place in his office most of the time,” the complaint said.

During this period, the board states that Cordrey “disclosed his personal problems to N.C., including his own marital problems.”

In the midst of this relationship, the woman separated from her husband and, as a result of Cordrey’s “exploitation of a patient for his own gratification and personal needs,” the woman “has suffered feelings of sadness, guilt and shame and anger, to the detriment of her emotional well-being and self-image,” the complaint states.

As to the issue of changing standards, Rosalyn M. Laudati, a board member and past president of the Orange County Psychological Assn., said the American Psychological Assn.’s code of ethics “has always said there are to be no dual relationships with patients, like sexual relationships,” although there may have been “some fuzzy areas” regarding former patients.

Iungerich said that no other complaints had been filed against Cordrey in more than 20 years of practice, and he charged that the medical board’s action was “reprehensible.”