Federal court awards damages, fees to plaintiff who was sexually abused in Illinois forensic psychiatric custody

On March 31, 2026, Judge Sara Ellis of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago awarded Plaintiff Michael Dopson $150,000 for pain and suffering, plus $25,500 for therapy expenses, and legal fees, after Dopson was sexually abused by a female mental health technician at Chicago Read Mental Health Center while he was an involuntary psychiatric patient in that facility.

The case is 19-cv-0577, Dopson v. Corcoran, et al., one of a series of civil lawsuits brought for plaintiffs since 2017 against mental health professionals in the employ of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), by the law firm Kretchmar and Cecala. 

Sexual abuse of mental patients is absolutely endemic on the psychiatric plantations run by IDHS. It is very difficult for victims to obtain justice for this crime, especially when the perpetrator is female and the patient is male. Almost no one wants to admit it's happening, even when rumors about "inappropriate relationships" are constant, and strict protocol in which all staff are trained annually requires prompt reporting of the slightest suspicions. An obvious question arises from a contradiction: Why does this department of the executive branch of state government go to the trouble and expense of such elaborate training, protocol, meticulous definitions of (e.g.) what an "allegation" is, and exactly how and when mere suspicion must be reported by anyone (even the guy who refills the vending machine) who ever comes within eyesight of a "patient" in a state psychiatric institution if this proscribed behavior were not a real problem?

I recall being informed by Rodney Yoder in about 2001, that a certain minority of women are inexplicably attracted to men in criminal or involuntary mental health custody. (Rodney knew, because he married one such woman.) He explained it as sort of a sexual fetish which is more common than most people know. Sexual abuse of a psychiatric patient is a sex crime in fact. A Defendant in the first case brought by our law firm, apparently a boring suburban mom and housewife, was convicted and sentenced to prison. That civil case was litigated for seven years before the state finally settled. The victim had to wait long after the perpetrator had been released, for his compensation.

But the real problem is not that people have "fetishes" or that men naturally want sex while females are naturally intimidated by males. Most women want sex, too; and men can very easily be intimidated by anyone who has legal authority to forcibly control their bodies and their minds. Recall the terrifying arrogance of Nurse Ratchet, and the violent demise of Randall McMurphey that she was still able to confidently orchestrate, despite his powerful spirit and his ironic moral superiority. People think One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is anachronistic, but in fact psychiatry is an uglier totalitarian threat now than it was when that movie was made.

The real problem is that some people think they are innately superior to others as humans. They think the world should be better organized by themselves being in charge, able to compel lesser humans' proper thinking and behaviors. That point of view has always enabled slavery.

But people with that point of view are fools. Today is Passover.