Therapist Who Groomed and Molested Under-Age Patient Fails to Remove Possibility of Life in Prison

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins this morning denied a motion by Batie’s attorney,  Michael Lambert of Daytona Beach, to dismiss the most serious of the four charges: rape (or sexual battery) of an underage victim by a custodian–that is, a person in charge of the victim at the time of the assault. That charge alone carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Other charges add up to a maximum of 35 years.

Lambert argued that there was no custodian relationship–that Batie, as her therapist, was like a lawyer with a client. The client always has the freedom to walk out or fire the attorney, therefore is not in the attorney’s control, or custody. Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, who is prosecuting the case, disagreed, comparing the relationship to something more akin to a teacher with a student. That teacher is in charge of the student for whatever period of time the student is in the teacher’s class. Same goes for a therapist entrusted with the safety and responsibility of a child during a therapy session.

Perkins, relying on a state Supreme Court definition of the meaning of “custody,” agreed with the prosecution, potentially setting a precedent in Florida law. The judge and the two attorneys had found no such precedent that could shed light on the custodial matter of a therapist or social worker abusing a child in the therapist’s charge.




“Do you find it odd that this hasn’t come up before?” Perkins asked Clark. “I couldn’t find a single case that dealt with this context. I’m sure Mr. Lambert looked, and I’m sure you looked, and so between the three of us we haven’t had a single case involving a psychologist. I find that odd.”

“I don’t know judge other than maybe there aren’t that many psychologists who behave like Mr. Batie,” Clark said, “who are inappropriate sexually with a minor. And that’s obviously what we’re dealing with.”

The assaults, to which Batie confessed, according to his arrest report, took place in late June 2021. The girl was 16 and had just completed her junior year in a local high school. But she had already had 10 previous sessions with Batie, most of them during the school year. The district had referred her to Palm Coast Counseling on Hargrove Grade “for behavior therapy,” according to court papers. Batie worked there. She was assigned to him starting that April 19. A parent or grandparent would sit in a car or the waiting room during the 50 to 60-minute sessions.

The day of the incident was to be Batie’s last with Palm Coast Counseling, before starting a job with a different company. The girl was aware. According to court papers, she brought a gift to Batie that last day–a book about body language. According to the motion to dismiss, she wrote a note “with a flower on it, expressing her feelings for him, that she will miss him, providing him with her telephone number, and stating, with regard to her body language, ‘I’m kind of obvious, aren’t I?'”

His arrest report states he had “groomed” the girl during previous sessions.




Batie used the session to abuse her, first by having her perform oral sex on him, then himself, claiming he was “very good at it,” doing so in turn to the girl. “Throughout the incident, the victim advised that [she was] scared and uncomfortable, but afraid to resist as [Batie] was much bigger and stronger,” the arrest report states. “At the conclusion of the sexual assault[s], the victim advised that [Batie] told [her] that [she] could not say anything about the incident as it could cause [Batie] to get in ‘big trouble’ since he was an adult and the victim was a minor.”

Under Florida law, even consensual sex between a person 16 or 17 and a person older than 24 is illegal. It is statutory rape. Batie faces two such counts, each a second degree felony, each carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Batie was arrested in Volusia County and has been at the Flagler County jail since Aug. 5, 2021, on $450,000 bond on the three lesser charges, and on no bond on the charge of sex with a minor by a custodian. Had Lambert been successful in today’s argument, Batie could have posted bond and been freed until the plea and sentencing dates.

“This is really a question of law more than fact,” the judge said at the beginning of today’s hour-long arguments: the facts of the case are not in dispute by either side anymore. Batie had even come close to pleading several weeks ago. A plea date was set. But Lambert pulled back. “I had no comfort level and I still don’t, advising him to enter a plea to this count, because I don’t believe there’s a factual basis to support it.  Whereas to the other ones, yes, we’ve discussed it.”




Both sides made strong arguments–the stronger for each being original, having only incidental precedent to fall back on–like a case involving an ROTC leader who brought home a student and had sex with that student, in the student’s home.  But that case was too distant from the Batie case, where the judge had to decide at what point the custodial relationship kicks in. 

To Lambert, the custodial relationship is defined by something similar to a parental role. “Another line of demarcation with a parent or a guardian and the clinical social worker, besides the lack of control, is that the clinical social worker cannot step into the shoes of a parent,” Lambert argued. “The demarcation is that this person is totally disassociated from that. As a matter of fact, I think probably the first thing that is said by a clinical social worker is: please understand, I’m not your parent. I’m not here as your parents. You can tell me anything you want, and I cannot divulge it to anyone. That’s why we’re here. I’m here to listen. And I’m here to suggest. Nothing more. So no matter what the client was saying to the social worker, the social worker can’t go and abridge that and tell a parent. Teacher can. Teacher would probably be expected to.”

The law addressing custodial responsibility was enacted by the Florida Legislature, Lambert said, to address situations involving an uncle caring for a child, a neighbor, or someone who routinely watches over a child other than the child’s parent.

Clark saw it more as a matter of control and responsibility. The victim’s parents had turned over that responsibility for the duration of the sessions to Batie.

“It’s clear as day they were submitting their child for treatment with Mr. Baie, they were consenting to that,” Clark said. “This young lady had no real rights like I would if I was seeing a counselor. I have more rights than she does in the sense that I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. I don’t have to turn to my mother and say, Mom, I don’t want to go to this person anymore. Can you discharge me? I can make that decision for myself. A minor cannot.” So in the Batie case, her parents “said here please treat my child for whatever her issues were. That’s your role. They entrusted him with her safety and her well being, period. They thought they were bringing their daughter there for counseling, and that she would be safe there in those closed-door sessions with the defendant, and she went there for many months during the time he was able to develop a rapport with her, and obviously went way beyond the bounds of a typical relationship.”




After noting the uniqueness of the case, Perkins said the case bore interest because “when we’re talking about a custodial relationship, it doesn’t get more fundamental than that.” He took guidance from a Supreme Court decision, with two elements in play: custody and control. Both must be present. He defined control as being part of a custodian’s official capacity: a teacher in a classroom, a coach on the field or the locker room, a therapist in an office.

“So really, for our purposes, I don’t think there’s much factual dispute about the official proximity, the location where this occurred,” Perkins said. “The question is really one of control. Is there sufficient control here to give rise to a custodial relationship?” The answer was yes: the child’s parents had dropped her off for a session, delegating authority. At that point, Batie had “control within the parameters of the relationship.”

“That’s sufficient factual basis to support the charge,” Perkins said, “and on that basis, I’m gonna deny the motion to dismiss.”

Batie is heading toward his Nov. 7 possible plea with the sexual assault by a custodian charge, punishable by life, the two  charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and the third degree felony count of sexual misconduct by a psychotherapist. It is not yet clear what the state’s offer for a plea is, or whether it will be a plea with an agreed upon prison term, or an open plea.

An open plea leaves the sentencing decision entirely to the judge, who may decide to impose a sentence at the lowest end of the guidelines–or impose the maximum. It is very unlikely that the sentence will be anywhere near the maximum, especially if the victim and her family, who are likely involved in the decision, agree to a lesser punishment. Nevertheless, because of Batie’s age–he is 61–even a mid-range sentence of 20 years could equate to a life sentence.

Batie was in court today, appearing much thinner than he was when he was arrested. He did not address the court. Twice he looked back at two of the four people who were in the courtroom, the first time flashing a big, knowing smile, then, after Perkins’s decision, looking more dejected just before a bailiff ushered him out.