‘Who do you trust? … It’s like I can’t trust anybody’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/01/2018 (2986 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg woman says she’s traumatized and paranoid after allegedly being sexually assaulted by a local doctor and then taken advantage of by a man pretending to be a lawyer who offered to help her pursue a lawsuit.

The 28-year-old single mother of two, who the Free Press has agreed not to name, is one of nine former patients accusing Dr. Amir Ravesh of sexually assaulting them at a walk-in medical clinic in the Elmwood neighbourhood.

The alleged con man, Duncan James Ryan, 55, has previously served time in prison for fraud, and has been accused in a series of criminal schemes where he’s posed as a lawyer.

“I just feel taken advantage of. It’s just like he (Ryan) took advantage of me right after I had already been taken advantage of. Who do you trust? You can’t trust doctors. You can’t trust lawyers,” the woman said in a recent interview. “It’s like I can’t trust anybody.

“I’m paranoid, to be honest, extremely paranoid.”

Winnipeg police confirmed they are investigating the woman’s claims involving the fake lawyer.

The woman said in October 2017 — unable to see her regular doctor — she went to a walk-in clinic for a chest infection. While there, she said Ravesh (whose full name is Amir Houshang Mazhariravesh) sexually assaulted her.

Despite recognizing what happened wasn’t OK, she said she didn’t immediately go to police to file a report. Later that month, she was watching TV when she saw a news report stating Ravesh had been charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman.

“I lost it. I was sobbing… I thought maybe if I’d gone to police, this wouldn’t have happened to her. But then when I looked at the dates, I realized even if I had gone it wouldn’t have made a difference,” she said.

“But I didn’t want anyone to not believe her (the 19-year-old), when I knew the same thing had happened to me.”

She said she made the decision to report her assault to police, in an effort to “back up” the 19-year-old woman. The following day, she went and filed a report with the Winnipeg Police Service sex crimes unit.

Ravesh, 51, has been charged with nine counts of sexual assault and released on bail.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Following the alleged incident, the woman said she struggled to keep things together for her two children.

Needing support and not knowing where to turn — she said she’s had a difficult time accessing counselling to help her deal with trauma in the wake of the alleged assault — she eventually confided in a friend about what happened. Her friend said she knew a lawyer who could help.

That’s when she said she was introduced to Duncan James Ryan. It’s also when she said her situation went from bad to worse.

“He was very professional, very believable, very good with his words. Everything he said — now that I think back — was just so well thought out,” she said. “I told him what happened to me. He confided in me that there was a sexual assault that happened to him when he was younger. He said he wanted to help me out and that we could pursue a settlement, so I could get counselling, move on with my life, move forward.”

Between November 2017 and last week, she said Ryan led her to believe he was pursuing a lawsuit against Ravesh, through the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. At the time, she only knew him as “Duncan James.”

She said he had her sign documents and disclose information about her personal assets. By early January, she said he indicated a settlement for roughly $500,000 was imminent.

“He was making up these negotiations. He was asking me what my assets are, personal things. I’m naive. I trusted this doctor and then I trusted him. I was telling him information that I probably shouldn’t have,” she said.

Last week, the friend who introduced her to Ryan texted her, saying she should do an internet search for the name Duncan James Ryan. She found old news articles related to a man wanted on a Canada-wide arrest warrant for probation violations and a province-wide warrant for fraud and impersonating a lawyer in Alberta. 

In 2002, while working as a paralegal in Newfoundland, the man was sentenced to two years in prison for defrauding clients.

The man in the articles was the same man she thought was her lawyer. 

In addition, Alberta Justice confirmed four criminal cases have been settled against Duncan James Ryan over the past eight years. A spokeswoman for the Calgary Police Service said it has laid charges against Ryan in the past for incidents related to fraud and impersonating a lawyer.

The morning after discovering Ryan was not a lawyer, the woman went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba offices to ask about her file and lawsuit. The receptionist informed her the organization had no record of either.

She went to Winnipeg police to file a report for the second time in a little more than two months (WPS has confirmed they’re investigating). When she was finished, she had to put on a happy face and pick up her son — who has special needs — for lunch.

Later, after dropping the boy off at school, she made the decision to drive over to Ryan’s residence in Winnipeg.

“I ran up to the door. I made a huge scene. I wanted his neighbours to know what he’d done. I walked up to the door yelling, only to have someone else open it. It was the manager of the complex and he told me Duncan (Ryan) had disappeared in the middle of the night,” she said.

While Ryan was ostensibly working on her lawsuit, she wasn’t paying him. She said he claimed he’d work for free, in exchange for a portion of a future settlement. Given there was no settlement coming, she said she couldn’t speculate on what his motivation was for deceiving her.

The woman has contacted Revenue Canada and her bank in an effort to shield herself from potential identity theft.

The woman provided the Free Press with two phone numbers for Ryan. More than six calls were placed over two days but none were answered.

She said the last few months have been some of the darkest of her life, and just when she thought she could see a light at the end of the tunnel, it vanished. “I don’t sleep. I thought all this was going to be done with. I don’t even know how to get another lawyer. I can’t trust anybody now,” she said.

“What was the purpose of it? I don’t understand what he was doing. I guess that’s what con men do… He’s just gone now. He’s just gone.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe