Psychologist Convicted of Molesting 2 of His Students

An Altadena psychologist described by prosecutors as “a very sick man” faces up to 10 years in prison after a jury this week convicted him on nine counts of molesting his foster son and another boy.

Jim Mercer, a 44-year-old former foster parent and teacher of learning-disabled children, was found guilty Wednesday of nine counts of oral copulation and lewd conduct with adolescent boys.

He was found not guilty on two other counts, and another count was dismissed when the Pasadena Superior Court jury deadlocked on it.

“He’s a very, very disturbed person. He is a very sick man. . . . I was frightened what he might do if he was acquitted,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marlene Sanchez, who prosecuted the case.

All the incidents occurred between 1990 and 1992. The two victims, 14 and 15 at the time the molestations began, were Mercer’s students at Pasadena’s Marianne Frostig Center for Educational Therapy, a school for troubled youths and those with learning problems. The boys’ identities were not revealed because of their ages at the time of the molestations.

Jurors rejected Mercer’s defense that he was repeatedly raped and beaten by his foster son who threatened to go to police and say the psychologist was a molester if Mercer complained. Mercer testified he was too embarrassed to tell authorities at first when charges were filed against him in June.

“It almost worked, because he played on the boys’ troubled backgrounds and the fact they were older adolescents. Some jurors told me they really questioned the charges,” said Sanchez, who spoke to jurors afterward.

However, Sanchez said, jurors decided the concerns were outweighed by a taped confession Mercer made to police shortly before his arrest in June. All nine of the guilty verdicts corresponded with behavior he admitted to on the tape. On the tape he admitted to having sex with one boy “about 60 times.”

The molestation was revealed June 15 when one of the boys told a therapist at the Frostig Center. Mercer then was interviewed by police and afterward took an overdose of pills. Police arrested him while he was recovering from the overdose at Pasadena’s Huntington Memorial Hospital.

Mercer will be held in the county jail until his sentencing Jan. 14.

Sanchez said she hopes Judge Thomas Stoever does not show any leniency toward Mercer, whom she described as a manipulative man who tried to use the victims’ backgrounds to build a defense.

“I am definitely going for the maximum,” Sanchez said. “I want to keep him off the streets for as long as possible.”