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A forensic psychologist at the Tinley Park Mental Health Center faces charges for allegedly manipulating and misleading a patient to perform sex acts in exchange for her release from the facility, and then giving her money in an attempt to keep quiet about the assaults, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced today.

Dr. Robert Eizinga, 66, of Tinley Park, is charged with Sexual Misconduct with a Person with a Disability and Official Misconduct, both Class 3 felony charges. The charges follow an investigation by the State’s Attorney’s Special Prosecutions Bureau and the Illinois State Police.

According to prosecutors, the defendant has been employed by the State of Illinois Department of Human Services for over 20 years. At the time of these alleged incidents, he was working at the Tinley Park Mental Health Center (TPMHC) as the court liaison to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Guardianship and Advocacy Commission mental health attorneys. Eizinga also counseled patients at the facility.

According to court records, on April 25, 2010, the victim in this case, a 45-year-old woman, was voluntarily admitted to TPMHC suffering from depression. A few days after the victim was admitted, the defendant approached the victim and asked to speak to her alone. The victim believed that the defendant was her doctor and accompanied him into an empty conference room at the facility. The defendant told the victim that he was going to try to help her and she could not leave the hospital.

Two days later, according to court documents, the defendant brought the victim into the same conference room and told her he wanted to be her friend. Eizinga also told the victim that he had a sex addiction, and was getting a divorce from his wife. He also told the victim that he wanted to make her “feel better”. The defendant then made sexual advances toward the victim and she asked to leave. Eizinga then fondled the victim, exposed himself and told the victim to perform a sex act on him. Defendant falsely told the victim that he could keep her in the Tinley Park Mental Health Center or send her to the Read Mental Health Center if she did not comply. The victim performed the sex act because she believed that the defendant would not allow her to be released from facility if she did not, according to prosecutors.

The next day, Eizinga brought the victim into a different room and asked the victim to kiss him. The victim kissed the defendant. The defendant then unzipped his pants, exposed himself and ordered the

victim to perform a sex act on him. The victim complied. When the defendant asked her to perform another sex act, the victim refused. At this point someone attempted to enter the room and the meeting ended.

After this second encounter, the victim called her sister and told her what happened. The victim’s sister made numerous telephone calls to the TPMHC, attempting to talk to someone regarding what the victim alleged and to have her sister discharged. On the day she was discharged, the defendant went into the victim’s room and gave her $20 and a business card with his name and cell phone number written on it. The business card was later recovered by investigators.

Upon the victim’s return home, the defendant called the victim from his cell phone while in his car, which was parked outside the victim’s residence. The victim went to the defendant’s car and was driven by the defendant to a cell phone store. Eizinga then purchased a cell phone for the victim, using the name “Sam Doe”. After purchasing the phone, the defendant took the victim back home.

The next day, Eizinga went back to the victim’s residence and gave her a bank money envelope containing five twenty–dollar bills. As the defendant handed the victim the money, he asked the victim not to tell the police because he could lose his job. During the following week, the defendant and the victim spoke several times on the cell phone purchased by the defendant. Defendant told the victim that he spoke with his sex therapist who advised him to give the victim money to “keep her mouth shut.”

On May 12, 2010, the victim called TPMCH to make a complaint against the defendant.

Eizinga was then placed on administrative leave. Later that day, the defendant called the victim and wanted to know what she had told TPMHC. Eizinga asked the victim how much money it would take for her not to take the matter to court.

According to investigators, records from TPMHC corroborate the victim’s dates of admission and discharge from the facility. Cell phone records also corroborate the phone calls made by the defendant and the victim on the phone purchased by Eizinga and given to the victim.

Eizenga appeared in Cook County Circuit Court in Bridgeview on Thursday, where a judge set his bond at $150,000 and ordered him to appear in court again on Feb. 7.

State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked investigators from Illinois State Police as well as investigators and prosecutors from her office’s Seniors and Persons with Disabilities Unit for their work during the investigation of this case.

The public is reminded that criminal charging documents contain allegations that are not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the state has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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