‘Cruel’ counse lor

Knocked up addict & tried ‘abort’: su it

She was schizophrenic, battered, depressed and drugaddicted. So Johanna Bernal went to the city for help.

Instead, her appointed drug counselor used her for sex and impregnated her, then subjected her to a brutal attempted abortion with his bare hands, a lawsuit alleges.

In the course of a twisted relationship that stretched four years, counselor George Alejandro allegedly kept Bernal “in a drugged state” while sleeping with her, and threatened her family members if they dared complain, according to court papers.

And Alejandro, 61, was treating Bernal despite an attempted-manslaughter conviction, not having a state drug-counseling license and two childsupport liens against him, according to records The Post uncovered.

“My family has suffered a lot at the hands of this man. I live in fear,” Bernal, 35, told The Post, speaking in Spanish.

Bernal, who came to the United States from Colombia at age 9, had become increasingly depressed by 2003 after sustained beatings from a boyfriend, with whom she had three children.

Her mother, Alicia Alvarez, reached out to the city Administration for Children’s Services and was referred to a taxpayerfunded agency called Vida Family Services, which employed Alejandro.

But he had some unorthodox treatment methods. Alejandro took Bernal to a hotel on Aug. 14, 2003, the night of the Northeast blackout, to have sex, court papers say.

He later showed up at the family home in Queens saying he wanted to check on his client. Alvarez, in court papers, said she caught him in her daughter’s room massaging her legs.

He maintained he was “lowering her stress,” court papers say.

Alvarez installed a camera in her daughter’s room to monitor future house calls. In a video referenced in court documents, Alejandro is apparently seen in a liplock with Bernal.

Bernal was eight months pregnant when Alejandro invited her to a Queens hotel room in 2004. The family says the counselor pounced on her, using “four fingers to [attempt to] abort the baby. He wanted to rip the baby out,” Alvarez told The Post.

When Bernal began to hemorrhage, he took her to a hospital where doctors stopped the bleeding, according to court papers. A sobbing Bernal called her mother from the hospital.

“Mama, he wanted to take the baby out of me,” she cried.

A furious Alvarez threatened to go to the police and to ACS but was stopped by Alejandro’s threats. “He said he would kill us.” Alvarez said. The abortion attempt failed, and Bernal gave birth to Jennifer in May 2004.

Family Court determined Alejandro to be the baby’s father, according to the family’s $20 million lawsuit filed in November in Manhattan federal court against the city and ACS.

Alejandro, who now works at a different counseling agency, denied he had a sexual relationship with Bernal and fathered her child.

Alejandro gained a state certificate as a certified addiction and substance-abuse counselor in 2005 — two years after he first began treating Bernal, records show. The state agency that issued the credentials said it was aware of his criminal background.

ACS says it is “reviewing this matter.”