HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Ramona false memory case concerns a California man, Gary Ramona, who successfully sued psychiatrists who supposedly implanted
false memories In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation ...
of abuse into his daughter. This was the first instance of a lawsuit against a therapist over implanted memories. It was also the first instance of a person who was not a patient bringing a malpractice suit in this field.


Background

Gary Ramona was a vice president for worldwide marketing of
Robert Mondavi Robert Gerald Mondavi (June 18, 1913 – May 16, 2008) was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted label ...
Winery and made an annual salary of $400,000, and was married to Stephanie Ramona. Daughter Holly Ramona, a student at the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, had experienced bulimia and depression and sought treatment in the beginning of 1990. From 1989 to 1990, she was treated at Western Medical Center in
Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...
. Marche Isabella, a counselor for children, families, and marriages, told Holly and Stephanie that bulimia was usually caused by incest. Isabella stated that sexual abuse affected 60–70% of her patients experiencing
eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...
. Isabella had not received much training in the eating disorder realm although initial reports stated that this was her specialty. Western Medical chief of psychiatry Richard Rose also treated Holly Ramona. Holly, at this point believing her father raped her, agreed to take sodium amytal, administered by Rose, which was meant to recover memories. Holly Ramona confronted her father at a March 15, 1990 meeting at Western Medical, in which her mother was also present. She accused Gary of raping her from the time when she was 5 until when she was 8, and that these memories were triggered when her father looked at her in a sexually charged way during a Christmas 1989 visit to their house. Gary's wife Stephanie divorced him, and he lost his family and job. Isabella moved to Virginia and continued her career there, while Rose moved to Hawaii and stopped practicing psychiatry. Holly Ramona entered a master's program in clinical psychology at
Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...
.


Lawsuit

In
Napa County Napa County () is a County (United States), county north of San Pablo Bay located in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 138,019. The county seat i ...
Superior Court, Gary Ramona, represented by lawyer Richard Harrington, sued Western Medical, Rose, and Isabella, stating that the parties gave his daughter false memories and that the alleged sexual abuse never occurred. He asked for $8,000,000 for wages he would have earned if he had not lost his job and general damages. Lenore Terr, an advocate of recovered memories, served as the chief witness of the defense. Terr was cross-examined on whether Holly Ramona's flashbacks of abuse were accurate, and she stated that the one in which Holly gave a dog oral sex was not accurate. During the trial, Harrison Pope, a
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
physician and expert on bulimia, stated that bulimia was not influenced by one being sexually assaulted as a child. In 1994, the jury voted 10–2 against the defendants, and awarded Ramona $500,000, with half corresponding to loss of future wages and the other half loss of past wages. Stephanie Ramona stated that she continued to believe the therapists and her daughter. Jury foreman Thomas Dudum stated that he disliked how Ramona perceived the verdict as a victory and that the jury intended "to make it clear that we did not believe, as Gary indicates, that these therapists gave Holly a wonder drug and implanted these memories." B. Drummond Ayres Jr. of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' stated that the decision bolstered critics against the repressed memory theory. In the ''Harvard Law Review'', Bowman and Mertz published an analysis of the Ramona case in the context of California courts’ history of third-party tort liability. They reported that the Ramona case was “atypical” and a “major diversion from the current state of tort law.” No adequate precedent for the third-party responsibility imposed in Ramona was found, and the authors concluded that the legal system should not hear future lawsuits imposing similar third-party liability upon therapists.


Legacy

Author Moira Johnston wrote the 1997 book '' Spectral Evidence: The Ramona Case: Incest, Memory, and Truth on Trial in Napa Valley''.


See also

* Recovered-memory therapy *
False memory syndrome In psychology, false memory syndrome (FMS) was a proposed "pattern of beliefs and behaviors" in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by false memories of psychological trauma, recollections which are strongly believed by the i ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


Ramona v. Superior Court (Ramona) (1997)


1990s trials 1994 controversies in the United States Medical malpractice