Man Says Binge Led To Sex With Counselor

Kevin O’Neil was on a weeklong drinking binge when he called his counselor for help and she instead gave him sex, the 51-year-old Spokane man said in court Wednesday.

He admitted his memory may be clouded by the whiskey, wine and seven cases of beer he put away during the breakdown. But he said he’s sure about one thing: counselor Janice White had sex with him two times during that binge, when she was supposed to be helping him recover.

“That’s exactly what happened,” O’Neil told the jury Wednesday. “I may not be sure about the dates and times…. All I was thinking about was how my life was falling apart around me.”

O’Neil is suing White for violating professional standards by initiating sex during counseling sessions in 1993.

She denies the allegations and says O’Neil, who is unemployed, is lying to get cash.

O’Neil said he started seeing White at Genesis Counseling Services in 1991, when he needed treatment for depression and alcohol dependency. Within a month, White, 54, told O’Neil she found him attractive, O’Neil said.

Within six months, she told him she’d like to have a relationship with him if she weren’t married.

O’Neil told the jury he knew her behavior was wrong, but continued going to her anyway.

“I felt like she was my only friend,” said O’Neil, a former insurance agent. “(The attention) felt good and I liked it so I chose to continue.”

O’Neil said White took him out to lunch, brought prescription pills to his home and called him several times a day.

The two had sex when O’Neil broke three years of sobriety during the weeklong drinking binge in 1993, he said.

O’Neil then went into the hospital and said White cut off all but minimal contact with him.

, DataTimes