Fugitive Newport Doctor Expected to Be Extradited

SANTA ANA —  A Newport Beach psychiatrist, who fled the county less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to be sentenced on sexual assault charges involving a 29-year-old male patient, is expected to waive extradition from Texas and return soon, his attorney said Friday.

Dr. James Harrington White, 47, was captured Thursday in Laredo at a border checkpoint with a 16-year-old boy. The youth, reportedly a friend of the doctor’s, had disappeared from his home in Northern California at the same time that White fled--just before his Aug. 29 scheduled sentencing. Prosecutors said they believe that the two have been traveling together.

White was accused by prosecutors of drugging the 29-year-old patient--who had become friends with him and moved into his home--and of then videotaping himself performing sex on the man while he was asleep.

White pleaded guilty to one count of oral copulation on an unconscious person and could have received up to 10 years in prison.

Paul S. Meyer, White’s attorney, said he has not talked to White since his arrest, but his understanding from talking to others who know the doctor is that he will not fight extradition from Texas to Orange County. A new sentencing date will be scheduled.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Dean Bauer said White’s flight to avoid sentencing could add another eight months to his sentence. But that decision will be made by Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown, who has considerable sentencing discretion. The judge could, for example, sentence the doctor to probation even if a new charge of flight is added to his case.

Meyer said he spoken with the doctor just the day before he was to be sentenced and had been surprised when his client did not show up in court.

Brown had been expected to order that White undergo a 90-day diagnostic study at state prison facilities at Chino, to help the judge determine an appropriate sentence. The diagnostic study is a standard procedure in Brown’s courtroom.

“I still believe that Dr. White is a candidate for a diagnostic study, and for eventual probation,” Meyer said.

The doctor’s attorney said he does not believe that White’s flight should affect the judge’s decision: “This was a very profoundly depressed man who simply could not face going to court to be sentenced. And the report I have received is that when he was picked up, he was exhibiting a pretty profound depression.”