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	Lawyers Want to See Girl's Therapy Records Former Church Leader Stands Accused of Rape of 4-Year-Old By Lauren R. Dorgan Concord Monitor [New Hampshire] November 30, 2005 Attorneys for a 46-year-old Northfield man accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl are arguing that they should be able to privately review records of the girl's counseling sessions. Scott Nash, a former lay leader at Tilton's Trinity Episcopal Church, is charged with digitally raping the girl and forcing her to touch him while he babysat for her. She is now 5 years old. In court papers, Public Defender Abigail Albee argues that the girl's accounts of the alleged abuse have differed in several particulars. Any accounts she gave to her counselor may contain inconsistencies and could even prove Nash's innocence, Albee says. The possibility of the information being useful to the defense trumps the importance of doctor-patient privilege, she argues. A hearing was held on Monday, but Judge Kathleen McGuire made no decision on the defense's motion. Another hearing is scheduled for Friday. Earlier this fall, Nash reached a deal with prosecutors in which he would plead guilty to second-degree assault and serve 2 to 5 years in prison. He also agreed to a suspended sentence of 3½ to 7 years for stealing more than $4,000 from the church's food pantry. But McGuire rejected the deal because it didn't require Nash to register as a sex offender. Nash's case is now scheduled to go to trial next week. "I'm resigned at this point to trying my case," said George Waldron, assistant Merrimack County attorney. "We're preparing for trial, and I guess negotiations will continue until the trial is inevitable." Nash's attorneys found out that the girl had seen a counselor during plea discussions in the judge's chambers, according to court papers. Prosecutors mentioned that "the victim's pediatrician and counselor thought it might be painful for the victim to testify,"Waldron wrote in a filing opposing the defense's motion. He declined to comment on whether the girl would testify in the case and said he did not know if records of her counseling even exist. Any records would be privileged, he said, so he has no right to ask. He said that the defense attorney's argument that the records may be useful in Nash's defense is mere speculation. The girl only entered therapy after she'd given her accounts of what happened to her, according to Henrietta Luneau, a court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem for the girl. "It is essential to the minor victim to be able to have a confidential and safe place to talk about her feelings that the counseling provides her," Luneau wrote in a filing opposing the defense's motion. She argued that a review of records would violate the girl's trust. The girl's mother talked to her about Nash only after other abuse allegations had surfaced against him, according to the motion filed by his defense. The girl's accounts of the abuse are "inconsistent,"Albee writes, pointing to a couple of differences in the details of what was told to her mother and to investigators. Albee writes that, in counseling, the girl "may have provided inconsistent statements about the incident or admitted that it did not occur at all."
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