Former Pennsylvania Psychologist Says He Reported Child Molestation, Lost License

By Michael Volpe
Daily Caller
July 30, 2012

http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/30/former-pennsylvania-psychologist-says-he-reported-child-molestation-lost-license/#ixzz228ksMjaV


Jim Singer, formerly a psychologist working in Pennsylvania, said that he reported a case of child molestation in 1986 to Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services agency, and not only was his report ignored, but soon after, in retaliation, the Pennsylvania Psychology Board prosecuted Singer and eventually removed his license to practice psychology.

As the aftermath of the Penn State University molestation scandal unfolds, most observers believe that if the proper authorities had been alerted to the crimes much earlier, many children could have been saved. That’s not always the case, says Singer.

Speaking exclusively with The Daily Caller, Singer said that most of the same Pennsylvania government agencies that were outraged over the PSU scandal — Child Protective Services, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, and the Pennsylvania State Police — all ignored and buried his report of child molestation.

In 1986, Singer was working as a psychologist at the Dubois Regional Medical Center in Dubois, Pa. During a session with a female teenage patient, Singer said the patient revealed to him that she was being sexually abused by her father. Upon having two more medical professionals confirm this, Singer said that he reported the abuse to the state’s Child Protective Services agency.

TheDC has exclusively acquired a letter from one of the two medical professionals, Dr. Albert Varacallo, vouching for the veracity of Singer’s claims.

“If all this seems hard to believe,” Varacallo wrote to then-Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey, Sr. in 1991, “I agree with you … the events of the past three years have proven to me that this nightmare is indeed a reality and not just Mr. Singer’s imagination from the stand point of any health professional, once he knew all the facts.”

“While the state is supposed to provide immunity for reporters,” Varacallo wrote, “it actually prosecutes those who seek to protect the rights of children.”

And according to a letter written by the alleged victim to Singer, she credits him with saving her life.

“I told her [the CPS case worker] that I went to Dr. Singer three weeks ago and asked him for help. I told her that if it weren’t for him, I’d be dead right now. She asked why and I told her I’d run away or commit suicide or both.”

Singer said he wasn’t merely duty bound by medical ethics and humanity to report the abuse, but by the law.

“I would have been prosecuted if I didn’t report the abuse,” Singer said.

As a psychologist and medical professional, Singer was mandated to report the abuse. By law, a failure to report would result in criminal and civil penalties. As a mandated reporter, he was also due protections like anonymity.

Instead, Singer said his name was leaked not only to the abuser but some of his other patients. In 1991, speaking anonymously to a local investigative reporter about Singer’s case, here’s what an individual that also reported child abuse recalled CPS agents saying to her:

“They [CPS officials] kept pressuring me to say something against him [Singer] and I kept telling them I didn’t know him. They then proceeded to tell me that Dr. Singer had reported child abuse. Before they left my home, I knew that Dr. Singer had reported child abuse. I knew who the perpetrator was and I knew who the victim was.”

In the same report, a female patient, also given anonymity, also claimed that CPS officials attempted to pressure her into saying bad things against Singer.

“They were trying to get us to go against Dr. Singer,” continuing, “we didn’t feel any of it was true.”