VENTURA : Panel to Review Psychologist’s Case

The state Board of Psychology has rejected a judge’s recommendation that Ventura psychologist Jerome R. Evans be disciplined for having a sexual relationship with a former client, a spokeswoman said.

But at the same meeting, the board decided to conduct its own review of Evans’ liaison with a female client, said Suzanne Taylor, the board’s enforcement coordinator.

Punitive measures ranging from suspension of his license to outright revocation are still possible, Taylor said Tuesday.

The board’s review will take at least two months, she said.

In a proposed ruling submitted to the state board, Administrative Law Judge David R. Rosenman suggested suspending Evans’ license for 120 days and placing him on probation for five years.

Rosenman wrote the proposed ruling after holding hearings in Ventura in March. Evans contended that the woman, who has not been identified, was seeing him for vocational advice, not psychological counseling.

But he billed her insurance company for a psychological diagnosis of long-term depression, not for vocational advice, Rosenman found. Their 10-month affair began in August, 1987, days after she stopped seeing Evans professionally, Rosenman said in the proposed ruling.

The woman’s husband divorced her after he found out about the relationship and she said she suffered psychological trauma, documents show.

Evans is well-known in the Ventura County psychology community for his work as an expert witness on cases involving child abuse. He is also on the medical staff of the county-run Family Care Clinic, officials said.