Editor’s note: All sexual assault charges against former Concord psychologist Foad Afshar, who was accused of molesting a patient, were dropped by the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office in October 2018.
The psychologist accused of fondling an underage patient last year in Concord claims he could not have molested the child because he was sending emails from another room at the time prosecutors said it occurred.
Foad Afshar, 56, of Bow testified that he stepped away briefly for a professional matter during the session on Jan. 6 of last year, according to people present in court and remarks made Wednesday at trial.
Afshar, who is charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, among other lesser charges, took the stand this week in his defense. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating today in Merrimack County Superior Court.
The 12-year-old boy says Afshar touched his genitals during the session, as he wore a headset that emits light and noise. Afshar began meeting with the boy six weeks earlier to address his erratic behavior at school, but said the sessions veered away from the issue and instead toward the boy’s anxiety over a looming hernia exam.
Afshar acknowledged that he tried to desensitize the child to the fear by exposing him to less uncomfortable scenarios – touching his arm, for instance – but never to anything sexual. He said Wednesday that he uses the headset as a tool to induce conversation, similar to providing Play-Doh or coloring books.
When the claim surfaced last year, Afshar speculated that the boy may have made it up to stop the therapy sessions. Afshar said Wednesday that the child was known to lie, and that his father had acknowledged as much at the start of treatment.
On cross-examination, prosecutors noted that Afshar never diagnosed the boy with a psychotic disorder and never tried to obtain his medical or school records.
“I do not need medical records to treat a phobia,” Afshar replied, adding that he had only technically known the boy “for three and a half hours.”
Afshar never informed the boy’s parents that he was employing touch therapy, but said he did disclose it as one of several potential therapeutic methods at the start of treatment. He described it as a effective, generally accepted approach for dealing with certain phobias and other issues.
Afshar specializes in treating children and young adults. His attorney, Tony Soltani, said he is one of the only psychologists in the county willing to counsel underage patients, precisely because of the risk of being falsely accused of behavior like that in this case. Afshar has worked in the field for more than 30 years, he said, and has never received a similar complaint.
Afshar immigrated to the U.S. from Iran as a teenager, Soltani said. He has a master’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from California Coast University, and once served as the president of the New Hampshire Psychological Association.
(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)