The next time a transgendered woman asks for a castration, Douglas Lenhart promises he will just say no. "I have no intention of doing this again to animals or humans," Lenhart, 49, a former Westmoreland County businessman, told Allegheny County Judge John A. Zottola on Monday. "I'm completely out of this. Completely done."
Zottola sentenced Lenhart to three years of probation for a September 2003 botched castration procedure that put Catherine Watson, 46, of McKeesport, in the hospital for two days.
Lenhart, who now lives in Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty in July to aggravated assault and practicing medicine without a license.
Watson did not attend yesterday's hearing. According to Deputy District Attorney Janet Necessary, Watson did not want to see Lenhart go to prison.
Defense attorney James Wymard said Watson -- who was born with nonfunctioning male genitalia and has lived as a woman since she was 9 -- was "desperate" to find a doctor to perform the procedure.
"She told him she was going to do it herself in the parking lot of UPMC McKeesport," Wymard said.
Lenhart, a former Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County, resident who at the time worked for a surgical supply company, said he had done castrations on thousands of animals after working on a farm and was confident he could handle the procedure after she "begged me to do it." But when Watson began bleeding, he took her to a hospital.
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Zottola sentenced Lenhart to three years of probation for a September 2003 botched castration procedure that put Catherine Watson, 46, of McKeesport, in the hospital for two days.
Lenhart, who now lives in Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty in July to aggravated assault and practicing medicine without a license.
Watson did not attend yesterday's hearing. According to Deputy District Attorney Janet Necessary, Watson did not want to see Lenhart go to prison.
Defense attorney James Wymard said Watson -- who was born with nonfunctioning male genitalia and has lived as a woman since she was 9 -- was "desperate" to find a doctor to perform the procedure.
"She told him she was going to do it herself in the parking lot of UPMC McKeesport," Wymard said.
Lenhart, a former Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County, resident who at the time worked for a surgical supply company, said he had done castrations on thousands of animals after working on a farm and was confident he could handle the procedure after she "begged me to do it." But when Watson began bleeding, he took her to a hospital.
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