A newly released video shows a disgraced divorce attorney hypnotizing one of his female clients for his own sexual gratification.
Michael Fine, 59, of Ohio, was jailed for 12 years last November after pleading guilty to charges relating to the sexual abuse of six women he had hypnotized.
Now footage has emerged of him putting a client under hypnosis as part of an undercover police sting in 2014.
The video shows Fine going through some relaxation techniques with the woman, who was wearing a hidden camera, before she was put in a hypnotic trance. ‘Let’s take a deep breath … one more time. Ok, I gotta calm down, let’s do this together,’ Fine says in the video, obtained by Fox 8.
‘Each time I say the word sleep, you’re gonna go deeper and deeper, ten times deeper. One, two, three, sleep … one, two, three sleep,’ Fine said.
The session then moved to the couch where it became sexual in nature. Grasping the hand of the client — whose eyes are closed, and with his other hand resting on her shoulder, Fine told her: ‘Every time I say the word pleasure, you cannot constrain or hold yourself back, your entire body is a vessel of pleasure,’ he said.
‘When is the last time you made love?’ he asked.
‘Every time I touch you, it’s gonna be an incredible sensation,’ he said.
‘At the count of three, you won’t be able to control yourself,’ Fine also said. After a few minutes, Fine wakes the woman out of her trance and resumes talking about her case when police burst in.
Fine was arrested and charged with putting multiple women into the trances for his own pleasure.
‘He used my trust and his position as my attorney to gain information about my vulnerabilities,’ one of the victims told the court last year, as Fine was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
‘He then used that information not only to protect and defend me, but also to manipulate, hurt and take advantage of me,’ said one of the victim’s when she spoke at Fine’s sentencing hearing in November.
Police began investigating the married divorce attorney back in 2014 after two women came forward saying they believed they had been hypnotized after losing track of time and being unable to recall meetings and phone calls with Fine. One of the six women also recalled being ‘wet in her vaginal area’ and that ‘her bra was disheveled’ after she left his office or had conversations with him.
A female client, who had hired the attorney for a custody dispute in 2013, told police she thought Fine had used his hypnotic skills on her several times on the phone and during meetings in his office.
She opted to record two telephone conversations with Fine during which he used explicit sexual language before ending the calls discussing legal matters.
Investigators then wired the woman for the meeting in Fine’s office in November 2015, according to court documents.
Another woman, who hired Fine in September 2016 to represent her in a divorce, suspected she had been hypnotized after Fine started discussing relaxation and meditation techniques during their first meeting.
She told police the same thing happened in their next three meetings and she felt as though she had lost time.
Publicity of Fine’s criminal investigation prompted other women to contact authorities with their suspicions. He pleaded guilty to five counts of kidnapping and one of attempted kidnapping — and each carried a sexual motivation specification.
One of his victims read an impact statement to the court on Monday, describing how Fine manipulated her three weeks after her divorce was finalized.
‘I have come to realize it was not my vulnerability that caused this to happen,’ she said in court, according to The Chronicle.
‘I went to Michael Fine with help in getting out of a terrible and abusive situation. I paid him to help me. He used my trust and his position as my attorney to gain information about my vulnerabilities. ‘He then used that information not only to protect and defend me, but also to manipulate, hurt and take advantage of me.’
Statements from his other victims were read out in court, including a woman who now suffers from panic attacks and struggles with relationships.
‘He gets a 12-year sentence. I get a life sentence. Is 12 years long enough? Is this enough time for the pain, hurt and suffering that I now have to live with?’ it read.
‘This will be a part of who I am to become. This is now part of my being – not by choice, but by circumstance. Twelve years compared to a lifetime – just doesn’t seem fair, does it?’
The judge ordered Fine to be classified as a registered sex offender.
Fine, who was charged with taking advantage of the six women in August, agreed to permanently surrender his law license, which means he no longer can practice law in the United States.
Defense attorney Robert Housel said Fine had difficulties in his life, voluntarily gave up his law license and acknowledged what he had done by entering guilty pleas.
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