Woman Wins False Memory Case

The Associated Press, June 22, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A woman who said her therapist convinced her she had been raped by a satanic cult and had killed an infant was awarded $200,000 by a jury.

The jury Monday held Leah Strout Simpson to be 35 percent at fault for what happened to her.

Ms. Simpson began seeing therapist Roger Litwin in 1986, when she was in her early 20s. The therapist began treating her for multiple personality disorder, she said.

She said she spent years believing she had been involved in ritual abuse and murder, and became suicidally depressed, before realizing that what she thought were long-repressed memories were untrue.

The therapist's lawyer, Sharon Hightower, said Litwin's diagnosis and treatment were within the professional mainstream.

``There is no suggestion that her memories were implanted or suggested by Litwin,'' Ms. Hightower told the jury.