7½-year sentence for Twin Cities psychiatrist who repeatedly sexually assaulted patient

A Twin Cities psychiatrist has been sentenced to a 7½-year term for repeatedly sexually assaulting a patient in trauma therapy.

Gavin P. Meany, 39, was sentenced Wednesday in Dakota County District Court after pleading guilty in January to four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Upon sentencing by Judge Jerome Abrams, Meany was taken into custody and will serve the first five years of his term in prison and then under court supervision for life.

Dakota County prosecutors had sought a term of 15 years for Meany.

A woman told Burnsville police in 2019 that she had been abused over the previous five years by Meany while receiving psychiatric treatment from him for an eating disorder and past sexual trauma. The sexual contact first occurred in Meany's office in St. Louis Park and later in his Burnsville office and at his Apple Valley home.

The St. Louis Park allegations have led to separate charges in Hennepin County. Meany has a Sept. 23 court date in that case.

At sentencing, the woman read a victim impact statement and revealed that "I feel like I lost myself. ... My worth, my dignity, lost, gone. I don't get that back. A judge's sentence doesn't get that back, not for me, not ever."

She said that Meany would adjust her medication anytime she felt depressed in order to "make me feel happy again. … Now I see I really was an over-medicated sexual puppet for his needs, brought in for weekly appointments to satisfy him, to be raped, over and over. That's all that I was worth."

The woman also said that she's aware of other women who have come forward with "potential boundary violations." Last month, a woman filed a medical malpractice suit in Hennepin County alleging that Meany "preyed on her in a sexual manner" in 2017 and 2018.

At the time of the charges in Dakota County, Meany had been working since January 2018 as an independent contractor with Counseling Care, with offices in Lake Elmo and Burnsville. He was later fired. Meany also was a medical officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard.

Meany's license to practice medicine was suspended by the state soon after he was charged in Dakota County. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice as of Thursday shows no disciplinary history for Meany, who has been a licensed doctor in the state since 2012.

Meany's online biography said he completed his psychiatry residency at the University of North Dakota, his medical school studies at the University of Sint Eustatius in Barbados and his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482