A psychiatrist treating Seth T. Carey for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder testified at a hearing Wednesday to determine reinstatement of his law license that he did not diagnose the one-time candidate for district attorney as having a personality disorder.

Seth Carey appears by videoconference Tuesday before the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar Grievance Commission for reinstatement of his law license. Screenshot from video

During the second day of Carey’s videoconference hearing before the Grievance Commission of the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, Dr. Vijay Amarendran said Wednesday that he didn’t see “any direct or clear evidence of antisocial personality or narcissistic personality disorder” in Carey since he began treating him in 2020 for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But, Amarendran said such a diagnosis likely would have required more time to evaluate.

“I have a screening tool to screen for personality disorders,” he told the commission. “Personality disorders are a little bit harder to diagnose because some people may be overtly narcissistic, but they may not see themselves as narcissistic. And the screening tool I do is based on self-report, so that alone doesn’t help me establish establishing a diagnosis. Oftentimes, it takes a continuing evaluation and assessment, all very specified, like a diagnostic tool, to establish a diagnosis of personality disorder,” he said.

Carey, 47, had called Amarendran as a witness at his hearing to help persuade the commission that he has met the conditions as outlined in Superior Court Justice Thomas Warren’s Dec. 26, 2018, order that placed Carey on suspension for three years, after which he may petition for reinstatement.

One of those four requirements was that Carey would need to be successfully treated for personality disorder, a diagnosis reached by a psychologist leading up to Carey’s suspension.

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Amarendran said he hadn’t received that doctor’s evaluation and diagnosis until recently and hadn’t read it.

Cassandra Snow-Pyburn, a licensed clinical counselor who has been providing therapy to Carey weekly for nearly two years, also ordered by the judge, testified Tuesday that she had initially begun treating Carey for personality disorder, but said that diagnosis didn’t fit after she had engaged in some sessions with him, noting he had made “significant progress.”

With personality disorders, she said, it’s harder to achieve that level of progress.

She said she could see how the diagnosis of personality disorder could have been arrived at given Carey’s “disconnected” and “arrogant” temperament when she first met with him.

Instead, Snow-Pyburn said she has been treating Carey for anxiety, ADHD and impulse and emotional control.

Carey presented eight witnesses and then testified on his own behalf in support of his reinstatement petition.

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His hearing before a three-member panel of the Grievance Commission will end Thursday.

Carey filed a petition for reinstatement last year, but the Board of Overseers objected to Carey’s petition, sending the matter to the Grievance Commission for a hearing.

The commission will deliberate before filing a report on its recommendation as to whether Carey’s petition should be approved. That report will be filed with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

The other three conditions in Warren’s order that Carey must demonstrate “by clear and convincing evidence” in his efforts at reinstatement include: recognition of the wrongfulness and seriousness of his misconduct leading to the suspension; that he has shown he has the requisite honesty and integrity to practice law; and that he has established his core competence to practice law.

Among the violations cited in Warren’s order were sexual assault, witness tampering and failing to comply with a previous interim suspension order.

Carey has maintained he didn’t commit sexual assault against a woman with whom he’d had a relationship and who had lived in his Rumford home.

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The woman testified at the hearing leading up to Carey’s 2018 suspension. The judge ruled she had been sexually abused by Carey.

During this week’s hearing, Carey had attempted to introduce evidence countering that charge, but the chairman of the commission sustained objections by Assistant Bar Counsel Alan Kelley, who said that fact had been settled for the purposes of the reinstatement hearing.

Carey faces six criminal charges in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris stemming from incidents at his home in 2018 involving his former tenant.

Two of the charges are felonies, one of which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Carey was indicted last year by an Oxford County grand jury on misdemeanor charges of unlawful sexual contact, two counts of domestic violence assault and engaging in prostitution, in addition to two felony charges — attempted gross sexual assault and attempted aggravated sex trafficking.

Carey wrote in his petition that he should be judged on his competence to practice law based on his performance to represent himself during this week’s hearing before the commission, as well as his filing of civil complaints, including those most recently filed against former clients for collection of attorney’s fees.

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Asked Wednesday by Kelley whether Carey believed he had “performed competently” as an attorney representing himself during the reinstatement hearing, Carey said: “I’m not sure if I met my expectation because my expectation would be to perform better.”

During Carey’s direct examination of himself as a witness in support of his petition, Grievance Commission Chairman John J. Aromando stopped him several times, telling him he was rambling and urging him to focus his testimony on facts and not arguments.

Carey said he had “fully complied or mostly complied” with Warren’s order, admitting Wednesday he had nearly, but not fully met the requirements for continuing legal education.

Carey, who ran in 2018 for district attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, recently declared himself a candidate again for that post.

But the Secretary of State’s office recently rejected Carey’s candidacy because his law license is under suspension and he’s not registered in a political party so he can’t be on the June 14 primary ballot.

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