Kinky Internet Photos Land Family Court Psychiatrist in Hot Water

​This week's SF Weekly cover story examined the sometimes disastrous child-welfare decisions made by officials in California's family courts. In one of those cases -- and in many others not discussed in the story -- a court-appointed psychological expert helped determine which parent would get child custody after a divorce.

Many court-reform advocates question the fitness of some of these custody evaluators to be making decisions about child welfare. Such concerns have been stoked by a Los Angeles Times article this week about a prominent family-court psychiatrist who was thrown off a case after a client discovered his "lewd" Facebook photos and postings "allegedly promoting illegal drug use, unprotected sex, and male prostitution."

Dr. Joseph Kenan, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, charged his clients hefty fees, running to tens of thousands of dollars, for performing court-ordered custody evaluations. One of those clients was apparently perturbed when she went online and found photos of Keenan baring his buttocks to the camera and Facebook postings promoting Rentboy.com, the gay male escort site, the Times reported.

Another photo depicted a woman kneeling with a straw over a mirror with lines of white powder. Additionally, LA Sheriff's deputies once discovered a burnt meth pipe when called to Kenan's house, according to the newspaper.

In a written statement, Kenan argued that the concerned mother "misunderstands the bawdy humor I occasionally present to my friends, as evidenced by some of those pictures. I do NOT promote what she is concerned I promote. My comments are entirely in jest. In fact, my comments serve to educate the community's problems through satire."

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