Hypnotist Settles Over Traffic Fatality -- Patient Believed Cult Targeted Her

A Clark County hypnotherapist will pay a $700,000 settlement to a former patient who caused a fatal car accident after becoming convinced that members of a satanic cult were pursuing her.

Patricia D. Rice, 51, of Vancouver, Wash., went to therapist Gina Gamage in 1992, seeking help to lose weight and stop smoking. Instead, she was implanted with memories through hypnosis of being sexually abused by satanists, said her Seattle attorneys Rebecca Roe and Kristin Houser.

Rice said yesterday that she came to believe the cult was targeting her because she had "remembered" what it had done.

Rice drove around Oregon for two days with her two teenage children before leaving them at a hotel and driving her car across the center line of a Portland-area highway. She said she believed that the cult members were closing in on her and that oncoming traffic would move aside.

Rice was found "guilty but insane" of first-degree manslaughter in April 1993 in connection with the June 1992 traffic-accident death of Stewart L. Williams, 54, of Portland.

Although free and in therapy, Rice is under the supervision and control of the court and the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board for 20 years.

Rice and her husband of 25 years, Ken, said yesterday she is still anxiety-ridden, afraid to go anywhere unfamiliar and disturbed at having relied on a neighbor's recommendation in finding a therapist.

"It is hard for me to take credit for being so stupid, but you assume that the word `certified' means qualified," Rice said yesterday. "I hope my case helps people pay more attention to their gut feelings if what their therapist says doesn't sound right."

Gamage and her attorney were unavailable for comment yesterday but had denied implanting the memories. The settlement was reached last week.

"Ms. Gamage illustrates that bad therapy is not simply unhelpful," Roe said. "It can be actually harmful to the point of disaster. We hope the state and therapy community will notice this settlement, which reflects such horrendous results from bad therapy, and work to prevent any recurrence."

Roe and Houser note that there is no licensing process in Washington for hypnotherapists. They need only register with the state.