Witchcraft, coercion alleged in lawsuit
By Tona Kunz
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 29, 2005
A second woman has filed a lawsuit against Delnor-Community Hospital
claiming a former psychologist there subjected her to witchcraft under
the guise of therapy.
The lawsuits contend the Geneva-based hospital did nothing to rein in
the unorthodox treatments. Neither lawsuit seeks money from the
accused psychologist, Letitia Libman of St. Charles, because the
former patients fear retribution, said their attorney, Richard Stavins
of Chicago.
Deanna Whetstine, formerly of St. Charles, filed a lawsuit in Kane
County Monday asking for more than $50,000 because she was exposed to
witchcraft, threats and sexual advances at the St. Charles campus of
the hospital from July 2002 to December 2004, according to the suit.
According to the lawsuit, Whetstine went to Libman for treatment of
reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a neurological syndrome
characterized by disabling pain.
During the treatment, Whetstine claims she was taught spells, told her
current religion of Buddhism was bad and falsely told her medical
condition was terminal.
Whetstine divorced her husband at Libman’s behest and moved in with
the doctor at her home on Elm Street in St. Charles, where she was
forced to take care of the house and take nude photos of Libman, the
lawsuit contends.
Libman declined repeated calls for comment.
The lawsuit also alleges Libman shared patients’ confidential medical
files and falsified records.
Stavins said Whetstine felt threatened into continuing to see Libman.
According to the lawsuit, Libman threatened Whetstine with a gun, told
her she was an expert in poison, and said the hospital relied upon her
to decide which patients should live or die.
The lawsuit comes a little more than a week after a similar lawsuit
was filed in federal court by Shelley Standau, a North Carolina
resident formerly from Woodstock. Standau claimed she was coerced
during therapy into acts of nudity and self-mutilation and into
joining a Wiccan coven while receiving treatment from September 2001
to June 2004. Standau’s lawsuit seeks more than $1 million from the
hospital, claiming the therapy increased her depression and sparked
three suicide attempts.
Libman worked at Delnor part time from 1994 to 2002 and full time
until January.
Citing employee and patient confidentiality laws, Delnor hospital
staff declined to comment on the allegations, but did say an internal
investigation was launched in January following a patient complaint.
Libman has not worked at the hospital since January. Libman was
replaced immediately by a psychologist with 10 years’ experience to
provide continued patient care in the neuropsychological counseling
services area, officials said.
Hospital staff also reported patient complaints of Libman to the
Geneva Police Department and the Illinois Department of Professional
Regulation.
Geneva police said it directed Whetstine’s complaints to St. Charles
police, who say she never contacted them. The state professional
regulation agency would not confirm whether an investigation into
Libman was ongoing.
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