Trial Focuses on Validity of Recovered Memories : Psychiatry: A man’s malpractice suit against his daughter’s therapists says they created her visions of incest.

For years the memories lay buried, hidden beneath layers of pain and shame and fear. Then one day, Holly Ramona says, they crept out, convincing her that she had been raped repeatedly by her doting father between the ages of 5 and 8.

For her, the “recovery” of those dormant memories was a wrenching but necessary breakthrough, one achieved with the aid of a caring therapist she had consulted for help with an eating disorder.

But for her father it meant the collapse of a marriage, abandonment by his children, a shattered reputation and the end of a lucrative career in the Napa Valley wine industry.

Now, four years after the allegations tore up his life, Gary Ramona is striking back at those he insists led his daughter tragically astray. In a malpractice case that could break legal ground, Ramona says his daughter’s Orange County therapist and a consulting psychiatrist prompted her to manufacture memories of events that never took place.

The case, which is being played out before a Superior Court jury here, is at the frontier of the highly charged debate over recovered memory therapy, which experts call the most divisive issue to confront the mental health profession in decades.

Some psychologists contend that victims of childhood sexual abuse often repress recollections of the traumatic events and can retrieve them--sometimes in exquisite detail--years later. Others, however, assail that proposition and accuse overzealous therapists of using questionable techniques to plant false memories in the minds of suggestible patients.

Ramona’s goal--aside from winning more than $8 million in lost wages and other damages--is to convince his daughter that she was wronged and win back her love. But his case could have much broader repercussions. If he prevails and the judgment is upheld on appeal, attorneys say, it could mark the first time a therapist is held accountable for malpractice by a non-patient.

Critics of the recovered memory movement are hoping desperately for just such an outcome, arguing that it would give falsely accused molesters an opportunity to challenge therapists--and collect damages in court.

The recovered memory phenomenon “is going to go down as the psychiatric quackery of the 20th Century,” said Richard Ofshe, a social psychologist at UC Berkeley and author of an upcoming book on false memories. “If family members who are damaged by these irresponsible practitioners win the right to react in the legal setting, then maybe we can stop this epidemic.”

Psychologists, however, worry that awarding such legal rights to third parties would disrupt their relations with patients, impairing their ability to help them.

“Gary Ramona claims he can reach into the otherwise private world of therapy and just jerk his daughter back out if she says something he doesn’t like,” said attorney Jeffry Kurtock, who represents Holly Ramona’s therapist. “The question here is if you go to a therapist, who is that therapy for, for you or for somebody else?”

Now in its third week, the Ramona trial has been a source of great intrigue in the tranquil Napa Valley.

Gary Ramona, 50, is well known around the vineyards. He served as a vice president for Robert Mondavi Winery, where he supervised worldwide marketing and sales, and earned $400,000 a year in salary and benefits before he was fired.

Ramona says his life with his wife, Stephanie, and three daughters was a happy one. Home movies shown during the trial reveal family vacations to the Bahamas, high school graduations, talent shows--and numerous scenes of a cheerful Holly Ramona with a toothy smile and long, brown hair.

Her version of events is somewhat different. She has yet to testify, but lawyers representing her side said that the Ramonas had marital problems and that the family was split by jealousies over Holly Ramona’s “favorite child” status. As attorney Bruce Miroglio put it, “It wasn’t Ward and June Cleaver.”

Holly Ramona’s suspicions that she may have been molested surfaced in early 1990, when she was receiving therapy for depression and bulimia while attending UC Irvine. The memories appeared in fragments--black-and-white, freeze-frame images of a hand on her abdomen, a flurry of sheets, and, later, of her father’s head and shoulders between her raised legs.

Kurtock, the attorney for Holly Ramona’s therapist, Marche Isabella, said such memories emerged at college “because Holly was finally away from the influence of her father and in a safe place.”

But Gary Ramona--and a prominent psychiatrist testifying on his behalf--contend that Isabella planted the idea of sexual abuse in Holly’s mind.

Early in her treatment, for instance, Isabella told Holly Ramona that 70% to 80% of bulimia patients had been sexually abused. She also cited sexual abuse as a possible explanation for Holly Ramona’s fear of snakes and her long history of urinary tract infections. When she told Isabella that her father had once glanced at her in a sexual way, the therapist called it “emotional incest.”

As a child, Holly Ramona underwent a painful medical procedure in which an instrument was inserted into her urethra, and she told Isabella that a baby-sitter had once sat astride her and simulated sex. Both of these episodes could have been considered as potential causes for her images of rape, experts testifying for the plaintiffs say.

After several months of therapy, Holly Ramona--still uncertain about the meaning of her visions--said she wanted to be interviewed under the influence of sodium amytal, and Isabella agreed, even though some experts consider the barbiturate an unreliable tool for verifying memories. The drug was administered at Western Medical Center by Dr. Richard Rose, a psychiatrist who, along with Isabella and the center, is a defendant in the case.

During the interview, Holly Ramona recounted multiple episodes of abuse, although her descriptions were vague and she said she could not see her father’s face clearly. Afterward, Isabella reportedly called Holly Ramona’s mother and said, “It’s rape.”

Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Gary Ramona, testified that Isabella’s conclusion was “an outrageous misrepresentation.” Throughout their treatment of Holly Ramona, said Dietz, a professor at UCLA Medical School, Isabella and Rose failed to follow standards for acceptable therapeutic care.

Kurtock replied that Isabella and Rose were not negligent and instead helped Holly Ramona, who is now in graduate school, develop into “a charming woman leading a healthy life.” Gary Ramona’s lawsuit, Kurtock said, “is his way to get back at his daughter--to show her that even if she tries to get help, he’ll come after her.”

The day after Holly Ramona’s sodium amytal interview, she confronted her father with her allegations of rape. Despite his vehement denials, his wife filed for divorce immediately. He has had no contact with his family since.

“They destroyed my life--my career, my family, my friends, that’s all gone because of what they did,” he said in an interview. “With this lawsuit, I just hope and pray my daughter will realize the truth about what happened.”

Although the details differ, the Ramona case mirrors the experience of thousands of other parents accused of abuse by children who recover memories in therapy. Founders of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a sort of national support group for accused molesters, say that 12,000 families have sought their services since the foundation’s inception two years ago.