Yahoo Movies 'Nobody cares': Columbus-area man took his own life after accusing doctor of sexual abuse
Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of reported sexual abuse that may be offensive to some readers or painful to survivors.
Andrea Turner walked along the second-floor hallway of her Columbus home and stopped outside her son’s bedroom door.
She overheard Lamont wake up and shower unusually early that summer morning — about 4 a.m. on July 31, 2019. She stood there at his door for a few minutes, silently thinking.
Her son had been acting strange lately. Then again, it had been a difficult few years since Lamont told his parents that he had been sexually abused by his doctor from 2013 through most of 2015.
Lamont was 26 years old, an outgoing teacher and a masterful chess player known to his family as the kind of person who could brighten anyone's mood with his wit, sense of humor and impressions of relatives and historic figures.
But Andrea Turner said much of her son's charm seemed to slip away after he said that he had been abused by his doctor. He suffered from recurring nightmares and panic attacks, she said, and was struggling to move on.
She had thought about knocking on Lamont’s door that morning but wondered if maybe she had been overthinking it.
“I wanted to go in, but I didn’t. So I went downstairs, paused and went back upstairs,” she said, fighting back tears. “I was feeling something, but I didn’t know what it was.”
Andrea Turner went out to her car and sat for a minute. She had thought about calling her son from the road but instead sent him a text before she pulled away for work.
Upon returning home, she said, she realized she should have trusted her gut that morning.
She saw a series of notes on the coffee table in the family room and immediately ran upstairs to Lamont’s room. He wasn’t there.
She hurried back to the first floor, where she read the notes written by Lamont. The messages told Andrea Turner that her son was in the basement.
There she found Lamont’s lifeless body. Her son had taken his own life, she said, after years of fighting off thoughts of suicide brought on by his doctor's sexual abuse.
Later, Andrea Turner read the note Lamont had left her — that said he knew she cared.
“One of the things he said was, ‘I heard you at my door. I wanted to open it, but I didn’t,'” she said of Lamont's note. “'I saw you sitting in the car. I wanted to call you, but I didn’t.'”
Accusations of abuse
Lamont died July 31, 2019, almost two years after he had told his parents that he had been sexually abused by his family physician, Dr. Mark White.
White declined to be interviewed for this story through his attorney and insisted that all sexual interactions with Lamont were consensual. He has not been charged with a crime.
Lamont began seeing White as a primary care physician in 2012. White had been a doctor for Lamont's cousin and his father, James Turner.
Before he took his own life, Lamont wrote a detailed description of his encounters with White. Lamont wrote that when he met White, he looked up to the doctor as a mentor of sorts.
White would on occasion buy him lunch or dinner. Lamont, who identified as gay, would talk to the doctor about politics, issues affecting the gay community, his career and life in general, he wrote.
Lamont later came to see White’s willingness to do such things as a way of grooming him for future sexual encounters.
The first time it happened was January 2013, Lamont wrote.
Lamont was 18 when the abuse began, he wrote. White was in his 50s, according to records.
White took Lamont to his Clintonville home to hang out. There, White offered him a massage to get rid of some tension in his back, Lamont wrote in his notes and other writings.
The doctor told Lamont to take his shirt and pants off and lay face down on a bed. Lamont wrote that he did as instructed.
White stripped down to his underwear, climbed on top of Lamont and began to massage him, according to his writings.
Right away, it hit Lamont that something was off. Lamont wrote that he felt nearly frozen on the bed.
Lamont said he noticed a change in the doctor’s demeanor.
White began whispering in Lamont’s ear, asking him how he felt, Lamont wrote. He tried to kiss Lamont, who turned away to avoid his lips.
The doctor then removed his underwear and Lamont’s and began grinding his penis against his 18-year-old patient, Lamont wrote.
He proceeded to perform oral sex on Lamont and masturbated him until he ejaculated. Lamont said that White then ejaculated on him.
Lamont wrote that he told the doctor he didn’t feel good and left the bed. White followed him to the couch and asked if Lamont wanted to sleep in his bed with him.
Lamont declined, and wrote that he instead laid on the couch wide awake the entire night until White drove him back to his Ohio State University dorm the next day.
Something similar would happen four more times, Lamont wrote. White's attorney Larry James disagreed and said there were just two sexual encounters while Lamont was the doctor's patient.
While Lamont claimed that White abused him after he became a patient, Larry James said the two began a "consensual intimate relationship" beforehand. That "relationship" continued while Lamont was under the doctor's care, the attorney said.
White's attorney also disputed Lamont's written statements that the encounters with White made him suicidal. Instead, he said Lamont had been struggling with his sexuality and suicidal thoughts long before seeing the doctor.
Regardless, sexual encounters between doctors and patients have been ethically prohibited for centuries.
When it comes to the uneven power dynamic between physicians and their patients, consent isn’t possible, said Wendy Murphy, adjunct professor of sexual violence law at New England Law Boston, a private law school in Massachusetts.
“We know you cannot actually freely consent in such a power disparate relationship,” Murphy said. “There are innumerable reasons why you should never accept that as a defense and why, of course, we have ethical rules in place.”
The last time White abused Lamont was in October 2015, Lamont later wrote. Lamont was living with his parents and they were out of town so White came over.
The doctor sensed his reluctance during the encounter, Lamont wrote, and upon leaving told him that he felt “icky” about the sexual encounters.
Lamont felt something far worse.
“When he left, I felt a deep sense of death wash over me,” Lamont wrote.
'Finish what you started'
Nearly 16 months passed after Lamont’s last encounter with White.
Then in January or February of 2017, Lamont felt like he was having a heart attack. An ambulance was called and emergency medical workers told him his heart seemed fine.
What Lamont thought was a heart attack was actually a panic attack brought on by the abuse, he later wrote. At that moment, Lamont decided to tell his parents about White.
His father insisted Lamont tell police. But the Turner family said police never pursued charges.
By the time Lamont opened up to his parents, a civil lawsuit wasn't an option either. Under Ohio law, adult victims of sexual abuse only have a one- to two-year window during which they can file a civil lawsuit.
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Lamont confronted White about the abuse and the doctor blamed him for it, he told his father. Lamont felt like there was nothing he could do, his family said.
“Knowing what my son went through, I watched him talk to police and do everything like you're supposed to do,” James Turner said. “He said nobody cares.”
Lamont taught English at Linden McKinley STEM Academy. Although he loved his job, he needed a change, according to his parents.
So, he looked abroad and in 2018 left the Columbus area to teach English as a second language in Thailand.
But his family said Lamont felt like he still couldn’t escape the PTSD he suffered because of White’s abuse. He told his mom he was having nightmares about it and would sometimes wake up with a fever.
“Well, you probably need to finish what you started here by bringing justice to Dr. White,” Andrea Turner said she told her son.
After a year abroad, Lamont came home. It became clear rather quickly though, that he was still suffering.
He sought help from therapists and started talking more about death, his family said.
One time, he told his sister that when he died he didn’t think he wanted a funeral.
But Lamont played the conversation off as if he was joking around. It was a small detail that seemed insignificant in the moment that the family would later come to believe was a sign of what Lamont planned to do.
In the days before Lamont’s death, his father was traveling for work, driving a semi-truck.
James Turner wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he needed to call his son and check in. When Lamont picked up the phone, he told his father he was fine, his father said.
“It was really strange,” James Turner said. “Early that morning … I got up and I prayed. My prayer was simple: Lord, protect my family and watch over my family.”
'Circle the wagons'
Lamont's death capped a difficult two years during which, his family said, he struggled to move on from the abuse.
After Lamont died, the Turners gave their son's writings to the State Medical Board of Ohio. The abuse, Lamont wrote, led him to have suicidal thoughts, severe anxiety and caused him to withdraw from the people he cared about the most.
“As my son said, the victims suffer while the perpetrators continue to live their life and go on as if nothing's happened,” Andrea Turner said.
During a medical board probe, White admitted to investigators in September 2020 that he engaged in sexual conduct with a patient on two occasions, records show.
The board cited White for sexual misconduct in November 2021. Then, on May 11 2022, the board fined White $6,000 and suspended his license for one year.
It was the lowest fine and the shortest suspension the board can require of a physician for sexual misconduct that includes physical contact, according to state guidelines.
The Turners praised the board for taking some action. But they questioned why the punishment wasn’t more severe and wondered if physicians on the medical board should be judging fellow doctors.
"They circle the wagons," said Lamont's grandmother, Virginia Jacobs.
'Mante means courage'
Since Lamont died, the Turners have refused to let his memory fade.
They’ve found ways to honor him however they can.
Before Lamont died, he wrote a book the family is considering trying to publish. Lamont titled the book “Mante Means Courage." "Mante," his family said, occasionally doubled as a nickname for him.
His father may buy a banner with his son's photo to hang on the side of his truck.
“We're going to fight and do what we can do,” James Turner said. “We're going to do everything we can to shed a light on this.”
Every year on July 31, the anniversary of Lamont’s death, the family gathers to remember him. In 2022, they drove to his alma mater, Walnut Ridge High School on the East Side, to release red, white, black and purple balloons in his memory.
The Turners each wore a T-shirt with Lamont’s picture. His mom wore a shirt that read “Mante means courage.”
Before releasing the balloons, the family huddled together and said a prayer under the hot July sun. Then Lamont’s mom, dad, sister and grandmother spread out in a row and looked to the sky.
“We love you Mante,” his mom and sister each said as the strings slipped out of their hands and the balloons drifted toward the heavens. “We love you.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, you can reach Ohio's 24/7 Crisis Text Line by texting 4HOPE to 741741 or call the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-221-5445 or the Teen Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-294-3300. The national Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-8255/TALK (1-888-628-9454 for Spanish speakers).
How to get help and report sexual abuse by a medical professional
▪ To file a report, call your local police or sheriff’s department.
▪ To file a complaint, visit the State Medical Board of Ohio online , or call the board's confidential complaint hotline at 1-833-333-7626.
▪ Call the Ohio Sexual Violence Helpline at 844-6446-4357.
▪ For a directory of rape crisis centers in each of Ohio's 88 counties, visit the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence online.
▪ To speak with someone confidentially, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or chat online.
▪ For more information on child sexual abuse, visit the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network online.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Columbus-area man took his own life due to doctor's sexual abuse
