The attorney for twin brother dentists Kent and Brent Hansen Thursday tore into the state's key witness, delving into her past sexual exploits, medical history and drug problems.
Keyna Whimpey, 29, asked the administrative law judge at the hearing if she could take a break. She left the room sobbing and broke into loud cries outside.Under questioning by attorney Jackson Howard she admitted sending nude photos of herself to Hustler magazine, dealing in "street drugs," and having sex with an unidentified doctor in Juab County.
Howard went over a list of more than a dozen Utah and Juab county doctors, having Whimpey identify them and disclose whether she obtained narcotics from them. She identified most of them as having prescribed medication for her.
In testimony Wednesday, Whimpey said the Hansens got her addicted to narcotics and would trade drugs for sexual favors from her.
"I knew if I had sex with (Kent Hansen), I could get drugs," she said. "He knew that I liked the nitrous oxide and that I liked the drugs. And I knew that he liked sex."
Whimpey said she also had sex with Brent Hansen and on one occasion he accepted photos of her topless in exchange for a prescription of Demerol, a potent pain killer to which she was addicted.
Howard has admitted Kent had engaged in oral sex with Whimpey and that Brent accepted nude photos of her. But Howard characterized his clients as "naive" and Whimpey as the aggressor.
Whimpey is considered the state's key witness in its licensing case against the 54-year-old twin brothers, being heard this week before the state Dentists and Dental Hygienists Board. A petition, issued by the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing in August 1989, alleges sexual misconduct with other patients and employees, over-prescribing drugs for patients, providing sub-standard dental care and billing Medicaid fraudulently.
Following this week's hearing, the six-member board of dental health professionals will determine whether the Hansens can continue practicing dentistry and prescribing medicine in Utah. The Hansens have offices in Midvale and Spanish Fork.
Whimpey said she became addicted to nitrous oxide, Demerol and other powerful pain killers she obtained from the Hansens. She said the nitrous oxide, a gas used to relax patients, often made her disoriented. "Once I was the music. I was the vacuum cleaner once, too," she said.
Kent Hansen knew how the gas affected her, she said. Whimpey blamed the gas for preventing her from knowing she had engaged in her first sexual encounter with Kent Hansen, sometime in 1986. She said she realized something had happened when she returned home and found semen on her breasts.
Asked why she returned again to Kent Hansen, Whimpey replied, "He gave me lots of drugs."
She said that "every time" she went to the Hansens' office after hours or on weekends to pick up a prescription she engaged in either intercourse, oral sex or some other type of sexual activity with one of them. Whimpey started weeping when she identified photos Kent Hansen had taken of her partially nude in a dentist chair in July 1988.
While Whimpey was testifying to a specific sexual encounter, Kent Hansen shook his head and whispered, "Lies." Whimpey complained that the twins were calling her names, causing a brief disruption in the proceedings.
Howard had earlier complained about too many spectators crowding into the small hearing room at the Heber M. Wells building. He said the standing-room crowd and television cameras had turned the hearing room into a "circus," making it difficult for him to conduct a "judicious inquiry."
According to testimony from two Spanish Fork police officers, Whimpey filed a complaint around September 1988 regarding her sexual relationship with the Hansens. The police then arranged to tape record telephone and in-person conversations between Whimpey and the Hansens.
In one of those conversations played during Wednesday's hearing, Kent Hansen said he was sorry for what had happened between them, although he enjoyed it.
"Sexual promiscuity is kind of fun . . . that's why it's hard to repent of it," he told Whimpey, who had a recording device in her purse during the visit in Hansen's office.
But Hansen added that he was committed to turning his life around and being a "100 percent straight arrow." A former LDS Church stake president, Kent Hansen told Whimpey that he was avoiding confessing to his church leaders because disciplinary procedures would devastate his wife and children.
A telephone conversation taped in October 1988 recorded Kent Hansen asking Whimpey not to tell licensing investigators, who were looking into his drug-prescription practices, about their encounters. "No question you were special to me and I was special to you, but that's none of their business," he told her.
Spanish Fork police Lt. Bradley Stone testified that after the taping, police called Kent Hansen into their office for an interview, where Hansen admitted to engaging in oral sex with Whimpey, fondling her breasts and taking photos of her. Hansen turned the photos over to the police.