Scandal stirs legal questions in anti-gay cases


May 19, 2010 at 11:26 am

As reported by John Schwartz in The New York Times:

"For years, George A. Rekers has held himself out as an expert witness in court on homosexuality, arguing in cases concerning the freedom to marry and gay adoption that gay men and lesbians lead dangerous lives and raise troubled children.

"Now Dr. Rekers himself is under fire, raising new legal questions about his courtroom role.

"The Miami New Times, an alternative newspaper, revealed this month that Dr. Rekers took a 10-day trip to Europe with a male prostitute whom he apparently had met through a Web site, rentboy.com.

"News coverage has focused largely on his seeming hypocrisy, given that Dr. Rekers, a clinical psychologist and ordained Baptist minister, has written that 'leaders of the homosexual revolt' use 'manipulative techniques of classic revolutionary strategies' to keep homosexuals from trying to change their orientation.

"But legal experts say the scandal may affect more than Dr. Rekers’s reputation. They say it places obligations on those who have relied on Dr. Rekers to inform the court in at least one continuing case to modify or withdraw their arguments.

“'Each lawyer must tell the court if he comes to know that one of his witnesses has given ‘false’ testimony,' said Stephen Gillers, an expert in legal ethics at New York University. That could come into play if the expert is discredited, he added."

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