NEW: Ayres lawyer plans to file motion to dismiss search warrant
As with Ayres’, Scull’s prosecutors built their case on the back of a search warrant, which prosecutors won to search through the psychiatrist’s medical records for potential victims. However, an appellate court later ruled that the court order granting the search warrant was a violation of psychotherapist-patient privilege.
“If we’re correct, then a search warrant authorizing the wholesale discovery of new victims would have been illegal,” Weinberg said, outside the court room, of Ayres’ case.
If a judge grants Weinberg’s motion, the DA’s case against Ayres could be seriously crippled: Prosecutors initiated their case against Ayres with the help of three alleged victim, each of whom was located after a San Mateo Superior Court judge issued a search warrant of Ayres’ medical records.
Nonetheless, prosecutor Melissa McKowan indicated in court that the defense’s plans to file the motion would not affect the District Attorney’s criminal prosecution of Ayres.
The DA is charging Ayres with a total of 21 counts of lewd and lascivious acts against seven children younger than 14. According to court records, five of the seven victims range in age from 21 to 29 and claim to have been abused between ages 9 and 12.
REDWOOD CITY — The defense attorney for Dr. William H. Ayres, the child psychiatrist suspected of molesting dozens of pre- adolescent boys in San Mateo County for decades, will file a motion invalidating the search warrant upon which the DA has built its entire case.
Doron Weinberg, Ayres’ attorney, told a San Mateo County judge that he plans to file the motion, but had not decided whether he plans to do so before or after Ayres’ preliminary hearing, which was scheduled today for June 28.