Eric Lee Knight

Sources

1. Ex-Valley Regional family doctor sentenced to prison in assault case - Keene Sentinel (NH) - 2021-08-20, The Keene Sentinel, August 20, 2021.
2. New Hampshire medical license search - name: Eric Knight; license #11230, New Hampshire Online Licensing, June 20, 2026.
3. suspension of medical license - 25-page PDF - NH.gov - accessed 2023-01-22, State of New Hampshire Board of Medicine Concord, New Hampshire, June 20, 2026.
4. Ex-Valley Regional doctor pleads guilty to assault, avoids sex offender registry - Valley News - 2021-05-24, Valley News, March 24, 2021.
5. Cheryl Maher’s ex-husband says she is trying to destroy him and Kevin Garn - Deseret News - 2010-03-15, Deseret News, July 4, 2026.
6. court decision re: accused and his ex-wife; the accused is described as "a doctor and member of the Mormon Church", Justia Law, April 14, 2011.
7. Eric Knight, Tik Tok / Samantha Rosenthal, June 18, 2026.

• 1. Ex-Valley Regional family doctor sentenced to prison in assault case - Keene Sentinel (NH) - 2021-08-20

  • 20210820
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  • The Keene Sentinel

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  NASHUA — With a strained voice and trembling hands, a New Hampshire woman stood in court Tuesday and compared her former Valley Regional Hospital doctor, Eric Knight, to cult leaders Jim Jones and Charles Manson.

  “They all used God to control people,” she said. “I was told every day the more suffering I could endure was for a better next life.”

  The woman spoke in the middle of a three-hour sentencing hearing for Knight in Hillsborough County Superior Court Tuesday.

  It was last March when Knight, a former family practice physician in Claremont, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault in connection with sexual encounters he had with the woman during the five months he was her doctor in 2016 and 2017.

  As a general practice, the Valley News doesn’t identify the victims of sex crimes. Though Knight did not plead guilty to a sex crime, the initial charges in the case were sexual in nature.

  Under a sentence imposed Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Charles Temple, Knight could be eligible for release in as little as 16 months, contingent on completion of various treatment programs while incarcerated.

  Temple sentenced Knight to three to seven years in N.H. State Prison on one of the assault charges, with all but 24 months suspended. On the second charge, Temple sentenced Knight to three to seven years, all suspended as long as Knight stays out of trouble.

  The judge said that whether Knight completes his treatment in prison will factor “very highly” on the decision of whether to release him early.

  “The trauma and pain you caused her is horrific. … There’s no doubt a message needs to be sent to you,” Temple said during the sentencing.

  But, he noted, the ultimate goal of sentencing is rehabilitation.

  “There is a level of punishment here, but I tried to temper that with hope for your future,” the judge said.

  Knight, dressed in a dark green blazer and khakis, remained stoic as the judge read off the sentence. But at the end of the hearing, he was red-faced and crying when he turned to hug his brother sitting behind him.

  Tuesday’s case came to light in May 2017, when Knight voluntarily disclosed to the hospital that he had a sexual relationship with a patient, according to a filing by the N.H. Board of Medicine. Knight voluntarily stopped practicing medicine after the admission, and Valley Regional fired him a month later.

  According to court documents, the sexual relationship occurred while Knight served as the woman’s primary physician between fall of 2016 and summer of 2017.

  In a sentencing memorandum filed this week, Assistant Sullivan County Attorney Christine Hilliard wrote that during that time, Knight prescribed the woman pain medications that “far exceeded therapeutic doses” and that the woman “felt pressured to have sex” with Knight.

  The woman reported being injured more than once during the encounters, court documents said.

  Knight also inserted himself in the woman’s life, befriending and becoming the physician for her children, coming to her house with gifts and talking to her about his faith, Hilliard wrote.

  Court documents also referenced sexually explicit messages between the two, as well as messages in which Knight talked about the woman being “the daughter of God” and sending church elders to bless her, the memorandum said.

  Knight was originally charged with four counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, but the plea deal in March allowed him to plead guilty to the lesser charges in exchange for a lower sentence and the conditions that he will not have to register as a sex offender and will be able to reapply for his medical license.

  During investigations, Knight admitted to having a relationship with the woman as well as two other patients during the time he served as a physician in New Hampshire. He has not been charged in connection with the other two patients.

  Much of the hearing Tuesday centered on the woman’s statement to the court.

  Standing before the judge, she knotted her fingers and gripped a notebook as she spoke about the first time she went to see Knight, a doctor she thought could help her manage a chronic illness.

  When Knight told her he could cure her illness, the woman said, “It was like a miracle.”

  But the trust she had in him quickly eroded as she said Knight coerced her into painful sexual encounters, telling her “the only way to God is torture,” the woman said Tuesday.

  “It was not a relationship,” she said, turning to address Knight in court. “He’s supposed to be a man of God. He convinced me he talked to God. … I feel stupid now.”

  During his statement, Knight spoke about his decision to report his own conduct. Standing before the judge on Tuesday, he said he tried to cease contact with the woman but claimed she continued to reach out to him.

  “I chose to self-report and accept consequences,” he said.

  Knight said in addition to being fired, he was expelled from his church, and his wife filed for divorce in the spring.

  He called the dissolution of his marriage “the hardest consequence so far.”

  “I’m actually really hurt by the misrepresentation of my faith,” Knight added, saying he only “encouraged” the woman to pursue faith.

  Knight said he has been in treatment — though he did not disclose what type — since he reported his conduct and that he has “accomplished sexual sobriety,” with “one slip-up” this spring.

  “I can’t express my regret,” Knight said. “I had tried to do everything I could to accept the harm.”

  Earlier, after the woman’s statement, Knight’s attorney, Richard Guerriero, had reminded the court that Knight pleaded guilty to assault charges and that he took responsibility by reporting his own misconduct.

  “We’re here because Eric self-reported this conduct. Before any investigation, any complaint. … That’s what we want when someone makes a mistake,” Guerriero said.

  In a statement following the hearing, Guerriero added that the claims the woman made against Knight are “false.”

  “If the prosecution believed that Eric was guilty of any other crimes, they would have investigated and brought charges,” he wrote in an email Tuesday evening. “The fact is that the prosecution dismissed the aggravated felonious sexual assault charges and never filed any charges claiming a forcible sexual assault.”

  However, Temple took issue with the nature of Knight’s statement, saying that there are “two very different Erics.”

  One, he said, is a good father and Ivy League-educated doctor.

  The other, he said, “is a very dark side of Eric.”

  “I’m not quite sure you understand the level of pain you have caused her,” Temple said, pointing specifically to Knight’s demeanor during his statement Tuesday. “The only time you looked her in the face was when you said you were hurt. Not at any time did you show remorse.”

  At the same time, Temple took into account that Knight self-reported his misconduct.

  The woman declined to be interviewed following Tuesday’s hearing, but in court, she spoke about the pain she believes she will live with for the foreseeable future. She and her children now are uncomfortable seeing a doctor, which has had a detrimental effect on her health.

  “He tore my life apart. ... I’m stronger, but there are memories and scars on my body that will never go away,” she said. “I just pray every day that I could erase the memory of Eric Knight.”

• 2. New Hampshire medical license search - name: Eric Knight; license #11230

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  Name: ERIC L KNIGHT, MD
  License Information
  License No: 11230 Profession: Medicine License Type: Physician
  License Status: Voluntary Surrender Issue Date: 4/4/2001 Expiration Date: 6/30/2017
  Additional Information
  Specialty: Family Practice/Family Medicine
  Board Certification InformationMedical Education Information
  Type Facility Name Country Year
  Medical School HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL - BOSTON, MA USA 1998
  Internship MALDEN MEDICAL CENTER - MALDEN, MA 1999
  Residency MALDEN MEDICAL CENTER - MALDEN, MA 2000
  Board Certified Certification Expiration ABMS Board Specialties
  Yes AMERICAN BOARD OF FAMILY PRACTICE FAMILY PRACTICE
  Remarks
  9/25/17 - Order of Emergency License Suspension and Notice of Hearing. 10/9/17 - Preliminary Agreement not to Practice.
  Knight Eric L. M.D. - Emergency Suspension & Notice of Hearing 9-25-17 Pages: 25
  Eric Knight Pages: 5
  Knight Eric L. M.D. Preliminary Agreement not to Practice 10-9-17 Pages: 3
  Disclaimer: The New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification considers the information contained in this website to constitute primary source verification. The information viewed here is reflective of current records in our licensing database.

• 3. suspension of medical license - 25-page PDF - NH.gov - accessed 2023-01-22

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  • State of New Hampshire Board of Medicine Concord, New Hampshire

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• 4. Ex-Valley Regional doctor pleads guilty to assault, avoids sex offender registry - Valley News - 2021-05-24

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  NEWPORT — A former Valley Regional Hospital doctor who voluntarily disclosed his relationship with a patient has taken a plea deal that will allow him to get his medical license back and avoid the sex offender registry.

  Eric Lee Knight, 53, of Derry, N.H., pleaded guilty to two felony counts of second-degree assault on Monday, according to court records filed in Sullivan Superior Court. The charges carry sentences of up to seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine, according to the documents. Knight was not sentenced during Monday’s hearing.

  As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed that Knight will not have to register as a sex offender, and the state won’t restrict him from trying to get his medical license back, according to court documents.

  Knight initially faced four counts, including two felony counts of aggravated sexual assault, but prosecutors agreed to drop the other charges as part of Knight’s plea deal Monday.

  The hearing is the latest in a case that started nearly four years ago after Knight, formerly a family practice physician at Valley Regional Hospital, disclosed to the hospital in May 2017 that the had a sexual relationship with a patient, according to a filing by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine.

  He voluntarily stopped practicing medicine after the admission and the hospital fired him a month later.

  According to court documents, the relationship occurred while Knight served as the woman’s primary physician between the fall of 2016 and summer of 2017.

  In the summer of 2017, Knight disclosed the relationship on an application for a renewal of his medical license, drawing the attention of the state Board of Medicine, which investigated the incident and suspended his license in September 2017.

• 5. Cheryl Maher’s ex-husband says she is trying to destroy him and Kevin Garn - Deseret News - 2010-03-15

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  SALT LAKE CITY — Dr. Eric Knight doesn't agree on much with his ex-wife, Cheryl Maher, the woman who disclosed she hot-tubbed in the nude as a 15-year-old with Kevin Garn 25 years ago, leading him to resign as Utah House majority leader.

  But one thing that they do agree about is that Knight has some key things in common with Garn, which is why Maher may have gone public with her story.

  Knight says his similarity to Garn is that Maher has been trying to destroy him personally and professionally, and that she seeks to blame both men for her bad decisions.

  Maher says Knight and Garn are both liars, both abused her and both had affairs with young girls — and she has decided to fight them now. "I married someone who was just like Kevin Garn," she said.

  Knight's and Maher's stories differ widely about Maher's history with Garn, which of them actually sought money from him and what kind of abuse occurred.

  Knight said Maher has tried to destroy him professionally since they divorced three years ago. Knight, a medical doctor in Derry, N.H., has since remarried and has custody of their three children. (Maher also had another child from a previous marriage.) He said the state medical board and Derry police investigated allegations she made against him and cleared him.

  Knight said she threatened to keep making allegations unless he gave more concessions out of their divorce decree, "She's getting very frustrated because none of it is working," Knight said. "So that's one of the reasons I think she is lashing out" at Garn. "It is my hope that the press and public will quickly stop enabling her in these destructive efforts, and will leave the Garn family and others involved in peace. I think Kevin (Garn) has paid his dues for this many times over, and she's basically just using him because she's angry and frustrated."

  Maher, however, said, "Eric Knight is a liar." Since their divorce, "he has stalked me and perpetrated lies about me" that cost her custody. She says police are still investigating some of her complaints about him.

  Maher sent an e-mail Monday to explain why she went public with the Garn incident. "Over 25 years ago, I was saddled with a secret and indiscretion that would send my self-esteem, ability to trust and innocence spiraling," she wrote. "For the past 25 years, I have done 'what was best' for Kevin Garn, the Garn family … and desires of several other very selfish people. … Now finally, I am doing what is best for Cheryl."

  Knight portrays things differently. He says that until a few years ago, Maher considered Garn a friend who had even given her money during a tough time before they were married.

  "Actually on our honeymoon out there (to Utah), we stopped by and she introduced me to the Garns saying this was a family she knew and that she had been close with. She kind of hinted that when she was a teenager, she had a crush on him," but she would not mention the hot-tubbing incident until years later, Knight said.

  He said things changed when she was pregnant with their son in 2000, had kidney stones and became addicted to pain medication that she took for it. Maher says she became addicted after learning that her husband had an affair with a patient, was physically abusive to her and had an affair with a minor before they were married.

  Regardless, as she talked to a counselor to overcome addiction, she mentioned the hot-tubbing.

  Knight said, "It was something that she felt guilty about because she felt like when she was 15, she had an affair with a married man. The counselor said no, this wasn't an affair, you were a child, you were a victim here. So she started changing her thinking to: 'I'm a victim.' "

  Both agree Maher started blaming Garn for problems she had with drugs, a car accident when she was driving (where a friend was killed) and mental problems. Still, Knight said Maher wasn't going to act on it — until she found out Garn was running for Congress.

  "Her position was that he had never made things right with her. She didn't know if he had repented appropriately … so she was talking with me about it, and with our bishop. Our bishop contacted Salt Lake, and the response we got back was that they had looked into it, and on their end everything had been handled appropriately," Knight said.

  Maher said she tried to talk to her bishop about her husband. In 2008 she wrote to LDS President Thomas S. Monson about Garn. She received a brief reply letter from church headquarters that the matter would be reviewed.

  LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said, "Legal requirements concerning priest-penitent privilege prevents the church from talking about the specifics of meetings between members and ecclesiastical leaders." He said Maher's 2008 letter was referred to local leaders, and said the church would review to see if any further action is appropriate.

  Knight said Maher was resentful in 2002 that church leaders didn't contact her to see how she was coping. He said Maher and her sister contacted the media and called the Utah attorney general to investigate statutes of limitation and the possibility of a civil suit.

  Knight said when a reporter called Garn to ask about the allegations, "It was the first (Garn) heard about it. He called Cheryl, and said, 'What is going on? I didn't realize there was a problem. I thought everything was fine between us for all these years.' "

  It was the weekend before the 2002 GOP primary, but Garn stopped campaigning to fly East to meet Maher and Knight. "He dropped everything, all the campaigning. He and his wife flew out here, and we sat down with the bishop," Knight said. "When we finished it was all hugs and smiles and everybody was happy and everything was fine."

  After Garn lost the election, Knight said Maher started thinking of "all these other problems she was then pinning on Kevin. So she thought some further restitution was appropriate. She contacted them. They were surprised. It was months after the campaign."

  Knight said Garn offered $20,000, but Maher wanted $150,000. While the payment included a nondisclosure agreement, Knight said Garn gave it "in the spirit of restitution."

  Maher, however, said it was Knight who was pushing for money, and it was him who pushed for the $150,000 instead of $20,000, not her. As evidence, she kept many emails from the period where the Garn family was dealing primarily with Knight, not her.

  Garn has not responded to Deseret News calls since his admission before the Legislature Thursday that he had been in a hot tub nude with Maher. He said that no touching occurred.
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  Knight said Maher is looking for scapegoats. Maher acknowledged making mistakes of her own but said going public about the hot-tubbing is part of trying to put her life back together.

  She said in her e-mail on Monday, "It has been a long and painful road as I have put the broken pieces of my life back together. The inward struggles have been daunting and they have been many. At the end of the healing, I knew what had to be done" — and that was to go public, she wrote.

  "Some of you may never understand why I had the need to, in part, 'scream this from the rooftops.' The truth is that it doesn't matter who understands," she wrote. "I did what I have done for my children, for my family and for every woman who has lived through the mental, emotional, sexual or physical abuse at the hands of others."

• 6. court decision re: accused and his ex-wife; the accused is described as "a doctor and member of the Mormon Church"

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  • Justia Law

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  NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, One Charles Doe Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Errors may be reported by E-mail at the following address: reporter@courts.state.nh.us. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ___________________________ Derry Family Division No. 2010-290 ERIC LEE KNIGHT v. CHERYL ANN MAHER Submitted: March 10, 2011 Opinion Issued: April 14, 2011 Eric Lee Knight, by brief, pro se. Cheryl Ann Maher, by brief, pro se. CONBOY, J. The defendant, Cheryl Ann Maher, appeals an order of the Derry Family Division (Moore, J.) granting a final domestic violence protective order to the plaintiff, Eric Lee Knight. See RSA 173-B:5, I(a) (Supp. 2010). We reverse. The relevant facts follow. The parties are former spouses who together have three children: twin sixteen-year-old daughters and a ten-year-old son. In October 2009, the parties entered into an agreement wherein the plaintiff assumed primary residential responsibility for the parties’ children. The defendant maintains visitation with the children. On March 18, 2010, the plaintiff, who is a physician, filed a domestic violence petition seeking an order of protection from the defendant. In his
  2petition, the plaintiff asserted that the defendant sent numerous threatening and harassing emails and text messages to him, made false accusations against him in the local and national news with the intent to harm him personally and professionally, and filed false reports against him with police departments, the New Hampshire Board of Medicine (NHBM), and the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). The plaintiff asserted that “[g]iven [the defendant’s] mental state and the social circles she is in” he had “concerns for [the] safety of [his] person and property,” as well as concerns about the financial impact the defendant’s actions could have upon him. The trial court held a hearing on the plaintiff’s petition on April 19, 2010, at which both parties were present. The plaintiff submitted a number of exhibits to the trial court, including emails and text messages that he received from the defendant, which he alleged to be threatening in nature. He also submitted news articles in which the defendant was quoted as stating that the plaintiff had been an abusive husband, that he arranged for “hush money” payments to her from a man she later accused of sexual assault, and that he had caused harm to their children. The plaintiff testified as follows: My concern about risk to property and person is not so much directly from Cheryl. It’s because she’s going around telling a lot of people all this stuff and, you know, making me out to be this monster with all these things that are absolutely untrue. And the crowd that she hangs out with are basically the ones over there atthe Friendship Center. It includes a lot of people who have criminal records. And my concern has been, with all of these bizarre things that she’s saying – and it evolves over time – it becomes worse over time – that someone who considers – who believes her – someone who doesn’t know the whole story and doesn’t know the other side of the issue – might take it upon themselves to try to get justice when she claims that she’s not getting justice through any of the proper things. . . . . And through any of the proper channels. And so my concern is for my safety and safety of property, not so much directly from what she may do, as a result of all this stuff that she’s doing in media, in talking to people and describing things – making things up the way she’s doing. The defendant admitted to sending the plaintiff the emails and text messages in question, and further admitted to contacting news media and making statements that she understood would negatively affect the defendant’s livelihood as a physician and his reputation in the community. Nevertheless,
  3the defendant denied that any of her statements to news outlets about the plaintiff were false or that she made them to cause him harm. She testified that her numerous communications with the plaintiff were her attempt to force him into taking her to court because she believes he does not “listen to [her] when it comes to [the] children and their needs.” She further testified that she believed the plaintiff’s position as a doctor and member of the Mormon Church has given him credibility and that, in fact, it is the plaintiff who has caused harm to her and their children. After the hearing, the trial court granted the plaintiff’s request for a protective order. The trial court concluded as follows: This Court is entering a specific finding that based upon the intent behind the Defendant’s actions and her acknowledgement that her purpose in engaging [in] said contact was to force the Plaintiff to “take her back to Court” that her continuation with that course of conduct despite the Plaintiff’s numerous requests to cease and desist constitutes harassment under RSA 644:4 and that the Defendant’s acknowledgement that her continued involvement in [the] aforementioned campaign would negatively affect the Plaintiff’s emotional and psychological state as well as his professional reputation demonstrates to this Court that the [Defendant’s] purpose in the above referenced course of conduct was to annoy or alarm the Plaintiff without a lawful purpose or constitutional right to do so. The Court, based on the totality of the circumstances surrounding the Defendant[’]s aforementioned course of conduct finds the Plaintiff’s statement that: Given her mental state and the social circles she is in this has raised concerns for [the] safety of my person and property, as well as causing me to lose income by missing work to deal with all of this[,] to be a reasonable concern of the Plaintiff warranting Courtintervention. The sole issue on appeal is whether the evidence supports the trial court’s findings that the defendant committed one of the acts enumerated in RSA chapter 173-B, and that this conduct constituted a credible threat to the plaintiff’s safety. RSA chapter 173-B governs the protection of persons from domestic violence. The purpose of this chapter “is to preserve and protect the safety of the family unit for all family members by entitling victims of domestic violence to immediate and effective police protection and judicial relief.” Walker v. Walker, 158 N.H. 602, 605 (2009) (quotation and ellipsis omitted).

• 7. Eric Knight

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