Clinic Aide Who Fondled Patients Freed

In a deal denounced by his victims, a psychologist’s aide was sentenced to a year in jail and allowed to walk away free after he pleaded no contest Monday to groping two female patients whom he had hypnotized in a clinic for victims of sexual assault.

Michael Lamont Buffington, 47, left Van Nuys Courthouse a free man because he had already served one year in custody awaiting trial, authorities said. As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed that Buffington will not be listed as a sexual offender on the statewide database recently made available to the public.

“I wish he could have been registered as a sex offender,” said one of two female victims who were set to testify against the therapist. “That’s what he did, and people should know.”

Both victims said they were angry that Buffington, who faced a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted, was not punished more harshly.

But to justify the plea agreement, prosecutors cited Buffington’s success last year in beating more serious charges that could have landed him in prison for 48 years.

Buffington stood expressionless as he entered the plea to one count of sexual exploitation and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp. He also was given one year probation, during which he was prohibited from practicing therapy. Under the plea agreement between Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Yochelson and Defense Atty. Clifford B. Scherer, Buffington will avoid state prison because he already served three months in Los Angeles County Jail and more time under house arrest.

“It will effectively serve to put him out of the psychotherapy business,” said Yochelson, of the Sex Crimes, Child Abuse and Domestic Violence unit. “And it will spare the victims from the ordeal of testifying in public.”

Yochelson said that there was no need to list Buffington as a sex offender because he said it was not required by law and because “we don’t feel he has the potential of being a repeat sex offender.”

Both victims said they felt the system was too lenient with Buffington, against whom six felony sexual assault charges were dismissed at a trial last October. A judge dismissed the charges, holding that there was insufficient evidence to show the encounters were not consensual.

Buffington was accused of fondling the two women during sessions at the Some People’s Children medical group, a North Hollywood clinic that specializes in treatment of patients who have been sexually abused. The office is run by Buffington’s wife.

One woman said Buffington fondled her in 1993 when she sought advice about leaving an abusive husband. Another told of being groped in April and May of last year while seeking help for anxiety.

Buffington was arrested after officers from the North Hollywood Division placed a recording device in the bra of one of the women. After hearing “a zipper . . . clothes rustling . . . and some very heavy breathing,” they knocked down his office door and took him into custody.

Buffington’s lawyer charged Monday that his client’s arrest and the subsequent case had not been substantiated “with one shred of physical evidence.” Nonetheless, he said Buffington wanted to put the ordeal behind him.

“He has been emotionally and financially destroyed by these totally false and improper accusations,” Scherer said. “He felt the legal system failed to provide him with justice and in the end he felt it was better to walk away that day, immediately, rather than subject himself to a jury pool he would not consider his peers.”

Scherer acknowledged one of Buffington’s victims has filed a civil lawsuit seeking punitive damages, alleging malpractice and sexual assault. He called the suit “motivated by something worse than greed.”

But the plaintiff, a former actress, disagreed. “I am afraid to go back to therapy again. It was rape in the literal and emotional sense.”

Buffington is now licensed as a therapist’s aide, according to the state Board of Behavioral Sciences. An inquiry by the board into Buffington’s actions is continuing.