'Lucy Wightman, who drew stares in the 1970s and '80s as the celebrated stripper Princess Cheyenne in Boston's Combat Zone, held the gaze of 16 jurors yesterday as a state prosecutor accused her of fraudulently posing as a licensed psychologist and treating children whose parents had no idea she lacked the proper credentials.

"This is a case about trust, broken trust, and breaking that trust to commit theft from parents and their children," Assistant Attorney General David Andrews said as Wightman went on trial in Suffolk Superior Court on charges of treating children with eating disorders and other serious problems without a license from 1998 to 2005.

Wightman, 47, of Hull, who had practices in two affluent Boston suburbs, faces 14 counts of felony larceny, five counts of filing false healthcare claims, five counts of insurance fraud, and one count of practicing psychology without a license. Andrews said she took nearly $40,000 from unsuspecting parents while posing as a licensed psychologist after buying a bogus doctorate online from a diploma mill.

But Wightman's lawyer, Katie Cook Rayburn , said her client has a master's degree in psychology and studied five years at the accredited Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology before withdrawing for reasons Wightman will explain when testifying in her own defense.

Feeling she had completed her academic training as well as thousands of hours of internship , Wightman bought a doctorate online from Dominica-based Concordia College & University, believing it was legitimate, Rayburn said. Nonetheless, Wightman denies telling people who sought treatment that she was licensed, Rayburn said.'