Former Twin Cities psychiatrist gets shortened sentence for sexually assaulting patient

A onetime Twin Cities psychiatrist who thwarted one judge’s effort to impose a sentence of nearly 13 years for the repeated sexual abuse of a patient has received a shorter punishment on appeal.

Gavin P. Meany, who pleaded guilty to four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, was resentenced Wednesday by Dakota County District Judge Timothy McManus to a 7½-year term for assaulting a woman over a five-year period while he was treating her 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.

With credit for the time he served on an initial 7½-year sentence handed down in 2020, Meany has about 2¾ years of imprisonment left before a lifetime of supervised release.

When Meany appealed his first sentence from Judge Jerome Abrams, he claimed he was misled to believe that supervised release would be 10 years and not for life. McManus then sentenced Meany in November 2022 to a term of 12¾ years and retained the lifetime of supervised release.

However, a three-member panel of the state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in March that the lengthier term was excessive.

At the time of the charges, 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.

The state suspended Meany’s license to practice medicine soon after he was charged in Dakota County and revoked it upon his conviction.

His 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.