Dave (imported) wrote: Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:45 pm http://www.observer-reporter.com/285445450736798.bsp

Transgendered woman testifies at assault trial

Associated Press

McKEESPORT - A man who police said posed as a doctor and performed a castration on a transgendered woman was ordered to stand trial, even though his attorney said the man did her a favor and that she didn't want him prosecuted.

Catherine Watson, 45, appeared ambivalent when McKeesport District Justice Thomas Brletic asked her if she wanted to prosecute Doug Lenhart.

"I don't want him to do this again. É I don't think he's capable," Watson, weeping, said during Lenhart's preliminary hearing Monday. She said she nearly bled to death from the Sept. 12 procedure, which was performed on the dining room table of her McKeesport home in suburban Pittsburgh.

Though Watson didn't answer Brletic's question directly, Shanicka Kennedy, assistant district attorney for Allegheny County, said Watson's wishes were irrelevant because the state was prosecuting.

Lenhart, 48, of Lower Burrell, was held for trial on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of medicine and surgery.

"Is this a case of compassion or predator? I don't know, but we're going to find out," Brletic said.

Watson testified that she is a transgendered woman who became "Catherine" when she was 6 years old. She began looking for someone to perform a castration after the doctor who was to perform sexual reassignment surgery earlier this year told her he wanted several thousand dollars more, she said.

"I just wanted to solve my problem," she said, describing herself as "desperate."

She found Lenhart through the Internet and agreed to pay him $800, with $200 up front and the rest in installments. He told her he was a doctor, but not licensed in Pennsylvania, and had performed 23 other castrations, she said.

Lenhart doesn't have a medical license. His attorney, James Waymard, said Lenhart has a doctorate and two masters degrees, but he wouldn't say in what. He also said Lenhart had "some experience in this area" and said he felt Lenhart was qualified to perform the procedure. Lenhart declined comment.

Watson said she was awake throughout the procedure. She said Lenhart told her to have something to drink and take over the counter pain medication beforehand, then sprayed her with "something to dull the pain."

Watson said Lenhart's instruments weren't sharp and that she was in "horrible pain" and screaming as the procedure went on.

She said she felt herself bleeding internally and became scared as he reopened her sutures to try to stop the bleeding.

Watson said Lenhart told her he was "having problems" and she had her partner call for an ambulance, at which point Lenhart "packed his stuff and left."

She said she spent a day and a half in a hospital. "I heard one of the doctors say, "We're losing her,"' she said.

Under cross-examination, Watson said that Lenhart "did do what I asked him to do."

Watson said she didn't recall telling Lenhart to leave before the ambulance arrived because she didn't want him to get involved, but admitted she may have.

Waymard unsuccessfully sought to have the aggravated assault charge dismissed, but conceded there was enough evidence for the other charges. He said Lenhart didn't act with recklessness or an intent to cause serious bodily injury, an element of aggravated assault.

"He did this to help her," Waymard said. "She was going to do this herself."

Lenhart "did this, really, in my opinion, as an act of kindness and charity," Waymard said.