‘Shrink’ rap in 9/11 plot
A shocking new lawsuit accuses a New Jersey shrink of brainwashing a 9/11 widow with a series of bizarre treatments aimed at taking control of her and her autistic son’s lives.
Deborah Mandell is cast in court papers as a sleazy psychologist who preyed on Laura Weinberg for hundreds of thousands of dollars by telling her that burping could purge her of demons and that she was a “witchy queen” who oozed bad vibes.
“Her treatment went beyond all norms of decency,” said Daniel Hoberman, a lawyer for Weinberg. “She exceeded all the boundaries of a counselor by improperly injecting herself into Laura Weinberg’s life.”
Weinberg met the shrink soon after her husband, Port Authority lawyer Richard Aronow, was killed at the World Trade Center. In 2004, the New Jersey suit says, Weinberg started individual sessions because she learned the shrink taught autistic kids.
Weinberg is the mother of a 15-year-old autistic son, Willie.
“It’s clear that she put all her trust and faith in this counselor not only for her own treatment, but for that of her autistic child,” Hoberman said.
The suit says Mandell employed “bizarre, ritualistic, cult-like, negligent” methods that included bringing in a “self-proclaimed” shaman to purge Weinberg’s house of “negative energy.”
A phone number at Mandell’s office in Passaic had been disconnected.
