JANUARY 15, 2002 — As Boston focused this week on the first of two criminal trials against John Geoghan — the now-defrocked priest suspected of molesting as many as 130 children over three decades (see " Cardinal Law, the Church, and Pedophilia, " News and Features, March 23, 2001) — one question has loomed large in our minds: how is it that a child molester, whose predilections were known among caregivers of pedophile priests as far back as the 1970s, managed repeatedly to pass psychiatric evaluations?

The answer could lie in who treated the former Catholic clergyman.

The Phoenix has found that one of two local psychiatrists who medically cleared Geoghan for parish duty in the 1980s has faced allegations of sex abuse himself. Last week, the Boston Globe reported that John Brennan, a now-retired psychiatrist whose office was once based in Brookline (the Phoenix could not locate Brennan for comment), had evaluated Geoghan in December 1984 and advised the Boston archdiocese that Geoghan required " no psychiatric contraindications or restrictions to his work as a parish priest " — a diagnosis enabling the clergyman to molest dozens of children from 1984 until two years after his retirement in 1995.

But just three years after that evaluation, Brennan would become the subject of a complaint alleging he’d sexually abused a female patient. The suit — filed on November 7, 1987, with the Board of Registration of Medicine (BRM), the agency that licenses and regulates physicians in Massachusetts — charged that Brennan " had sexual relations with [the patient] during professional visits " from 1973 to 1974. According to BRM documentation, the seven-member board dismissed the suit because of " a substantial lapse of time between the hearing and our review of the recommended decision. " Five years later, on September 14, 1994, the board received a second complaint against Brennan. This female patient also alleged Brennan had assaulted her during therapy sessions for nearly 10 years, from 1973 to 1982. On October 8, 1997, the BRM threw out the second suit because, as stated in an 89-page decision, " patient’s claim against Dr. Brennan has not been proven using a preponderance of the evidence standard. "

Despite the medical board’s favorable findings, Brennan has faced other civil lawsuits by former patients alleging sexual abuse. The most recent case involves a female former patient named Jean Palermo, who sought relief for depression and anxiety from Brennan back in 1971. According to court records, Palermo alleges that Brennan " made improper advances toward her, induced and encouraged her to engage in sexual relations and/or other harmful activities, and sexually abused and exploited her. " She charges that during her treatment by him from 1971 to 1978, Brennan made sexual passes at her, which led to ongoing sexual relations during therapy. The psychiatrist denied these allegations in court documents.

In 1994, Palermo’s case was dismissed from Suffolk Superior Court after Brennan successfully argued that the statute of limitations for bringing such a lawsuit had expired. Palermo appealed — and won. But in 1997, after a lengthy trial in Suffolk Superior Court, Palermo lost her case. She has since appealed, based on the fact that her trial judge refused to allow the evidence of two other victims of Brennan. The case is currently pending at the Massachusetts Appellate Court. Records in the Palermo case show that Brennan settled a similar civil action alleging sexual abuse by a former female patient for $150,000 in the 1980s.

That Brennan, an alleged abuser, ended up evaluating Geoghan, an alleged abuser, could be mere coincidence. There are mounds of evidence pointing toward Geoghan’s guilt, while Brennan has been cleared by the Board of Registration of Medicine. Still, given Brennan’s own record of complaints, it’s hard not to wonder whether the psychiatrist looked the other way with Geoghan — or whether he was even capable of spotting warning signs.

Issue Date: January 15, 2002

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