The six jurors deliberated about four hours Tuesday before finding in favor of the clinic and its director, Dr. Kathleen Coulborn Faller. Both had been sued by the man on behalf of his daughter, now 8 years old.
"We fought the good fight," the father told the Detroit Free Press in Wednesday's editions. "I wasn't in this for the money. I was in it for the people that have gone to this clinic and may go to it in the future."
Faller said she was pleased with the verdict.
"It really goes to the whole Child Protection Act and the need to provide safeguards for people who act in good faith who are trying to protect children, which is what we try to do," she said.
The father had gone to the clinic in 1992 seeking to put to rest repeated accusations by his ex-wife that he had been molesting their daughter. No criminal charges were filed.
Faller's clinic agreed to impartially interview both parents and the child, conduct psychological tests and consult with previous professionals involved in the case.
Two videotaped interviews with the then-3-year-old girl and clinic interviewer Jane Mildred resulted in Mildred filing a report of suspected child abuse with the state Department of Social Services - now called the Family Independence Agency - accusing the man of fondling his daughter.
During the interviews, the girl said her father had hurt her and she made gestures with anatomical dolls and drawings while seated in her mother's lap.
The father's attorneys claimed the "double-team" ques tioning of the girl by Mildred and the mother showed bias and was grossly negligent.
Allowing the mother to participate in the questioning was a "clinical decision" and "kind of a last-resort technique," Faller said in testimony.
The clinic later concluded the girl's string of allegations appeared to be true.
A Jackson County judge hearing the custody dispute said he disregarded the clinic's report, but he granted custody of the girl to the mother and phased in unsupervised visitation for the father.
More than two years later, the judge awarded custody to the father after Child Protective Services and state police determined the mother had been emotionally and sexually abusing the girl.
Some psychologists testified the mother had a paranoid personality disorder.
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