On July 14, 2017, Dr. Ricky Greenwald appeared under oath before the Vermont Superior Court to testify about my son and the trauma therapy provided by the Trauma Institute.
By that point, multiple courts had already addressed the allegations that had dominated years of litigation. The Vermont Supreme Court had affirmed that the abuse allegations against me had not been proven, and the family court had repeatedly made clear that those findings were not to be relitigated.
Dr. Greenwald’s testimony revealed not only how he viewed the case, but also what information he did and did not rely upon before forming opinions that would influence recommendations about my relationship with my son.
At the outset of his testimony, Dr. Greenwald explained that although Dr. Bambi Rattner conducted the therapy sessions, he personally assigned the case to her and “closely supervised” it. He testified that he consulted with Dr. Rattner frequently throughout the course of treatment.
He further testified that, before therapy began, the Trauma Institute had been told that my son had been abused by his birth mother and was suffering from significant trauma-related symptoms.
During cross-examination, Attorney Kevin Volz examined the foundation for Dr. Greenwald’s opinions.
Under oath, Dr. Greenwald acknowledged that he never interviewed me.
Q. “Did you ever speak to Ms. Cegalis?”
A. “Not at that time. I may have spoken with her later.” (HE DIDN’T)
Q. “Did you ever interview her towards the ends of coming up with the right therapy?”
A. “No, we did not interview her.”
He also acknowledged that he was not my son’s treating therapist, that he had not personally seen my son for years, that Marilyn Knutsen sat in on many of the therapy sessions, and that at least some of the information regarding my son’s progress came from Marilyn herself.
Despite those admissions, Dr. Greenwald later testified that the information available to him was “so definitive” that it was ethically appropriate for him to offer opinions affecting the case.
The most remarkable testimony came when Judge Helen Toor asked Dr. Greenwald to consider the legal framework that governed the proceeding.
The judge explained that, regardless of anyone’s personal beliefs, the court was required to begin with the findings already established through years of litigation. She then presented Dr. Greenwald with a hypothetical question asking him to assume that the abuse allegations had not occurred and that the child had instead come to believe they had occurred through other influences.
Dr. Greenwald responded:
“We looked at that hypothetical, and we definitively ruled it out.”
Judge Toor clarified that this was not the question she was asking. She explained that she was asking him, as an expert witness, to assume the factual framework the court was legally obligated to apply and explain what recommendations he would make under those circumstances.
Dr. Greenwald again declined.
“I can’t ethically answer that question because I can’t entertain that hypothetical.”
Elsewhere in his testimony, Dr. Greenwald explained that once a court authorizes trauma therapy, it is the therapist’s responsibility to perform the therapy as a professional, and that what others believed had or had not occurred was “not relevant” to that therapeutic role.
The transcript therefore presents a striking contrast.
Dr. Greenwald acknowledged that he never interviewed me before forming his opinions. He acknowledged that he was not my son’s treating therapist. He acknowledged that some of his information came from Marilyn Knutsen. Yet when the court asked him to offer opinions within the legal framework established by prior judicial findings, he testified that he could not ethically entertain that hypothetical.
Whether readers agree with Dr. Greenwald’s clinical philosophy is ultimately beside the point. His own sworn testimony documents the foundation for his opinions, the information he chose to rely upon, and his refusal to answer the court’s central hypothetical.
The complete transcript is provided below so readers can examine Dr. Greenwald’s testimony for themselves.
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