A Houston therapist has been charged with assault after allegedly becoming violent with a client he was also having an extramarital affair with when she tried to end their relationship. Court documents reveal that Thaddeus Tolbert was romantically involved with Jhyah Scales before the April 29 incident, ABC 13 reports.
Tolbert is facing charges that include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and burglary.
Tolbert and Scales met for the first time when she began using his therapy services in October 2023, and they slowly became closer, escalating to giving one another hugs after sessions and sending good morning texts, court documents state. In March, Tolbert and Scales began officially seeing each other romantically.
The relationship ended in April when Scale learned that Tolbert was already married with children. She attempted to end the relationship. Court documents describe that Tolbert drew a gun on her and began to scream “for her not to leave him.”
She recalled , “He was sitting on his couch, and I was sitting on his desk, and we were talking, and I just said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to continue this,’ and he snapped.”
He only let her go after another patient knocked on the door to his office.
After Scales left the building and returned home with her child from school, Tolbert was waiting for her in her apartment complex driveway. He blocked her car with his own and followed her inside her home. Scales begged Tolbert to leave but he refused and allegedly turned violent. She claims he forcefully kissed her, choked her, and hit her.
“He pulled out his gun, like, to put to my head and pushed it down, and he, like, hit it back up, so it hit me when it came back up. And I was just, like, ‘Please just leave,’ and he said, ‘I am going to kill you. I am going to kill us both,'” Scales described.
Scales stated that Tolbert again pulled a gun when she continued to struggle, repeatedly threatening to kill them both. After allegedly hitting her in the face with his gun, Tolbert finally left.
Scales said she had extensive injuries. She told officials, “I was caught off guard. I didn’t think someone like this could be capable, because he is a mental health professional, because he’s a therapist, and because he is active in the community.”
“I feel as embarrassed as I am. I have to do something because I could’ve died in there with my child.”
Looking back on their relationship, Scales believes that Tolbert wanted to manipulate her from the beginning of their relationship.
She said, “I just got out of a very toxic and traumatic relationship, which I had to express to him as my therapist, the reason why I was in therapy. And I feel like he used everything I just told him, what I went through, was used against me.”
Tolbert is maintaining his innocence, according to his defense attorney, and he has been a therapist at Discerning Minds Consulting for eight years.
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