Hypnotic Mind Coach Accused in Teen Rapes

Georgia cops say "psychotherapist" may have preyed on others during seminars.

ByABC News
April 17, 2008, 8:09 AM

April 17, 2008 — -- Carmine Edmund Baffa describes himself as a hypnotist and psychotherapist who hosts coaching seminars in life improvement in Georgia and around the country.

Police in Gwinnett County, Ga., say Baffa's a rapist, child molester and fraud who preyed on a pair of teens in 2006 and 2007 during "therapy" sessions at his former home.

A "preliminary investigation indicated that Mr. Baffa posed as a hypnotist and psychotherapist," the Gwinnett County Police Department wrote in a Wednesday release, 10 days after Baffa's arrest.

"Mr. Baffa would conduct therapy sessions where a 13-year-old girl and 19-year-old woman told investigators they were raped by Mr. Baffa," according to the police release.

The 13-year-old said her "sessions" with Baffa occurred between August 2006 and August 2007. The 19-year-old told investigators that she met Baffa in the fall of 2006 and that he raped her Jan. 1, 2007.

Baffa, 52, was arrested without incident by Gwinnett's special victims unit. He remains behind bars at the Gwinnett County Detention Center.

Baffa already has been charged with felony rape, sexual assault, child molestation, aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery. Police believe the purported therapist may have targeted other victims who have not yet come forward.

"This investigation has also revealed that there may be other victims involved," police wrote in the release, asking anyone who may have had "inappropriate" contact with Baffa to contact authorities.

In addition to using his house as a training venue, Baffa hosted hypnotism and psychotherapy seminars at hotels in Gwinnett and Cobb counties in the metropolitan Atlanta area as well as nationally, according to police. His seminars, originally called "Mindsight," were recently renamed "Precious Video Productions."

Baffa offered individual coaching sessions to both adults and children, police said.

The exact nature of those seminars remains unclear, though information posted on the Internet by a Baffa client and his own Web site provide some insight.