James Ryan

East Valley Tribune
EV psychiatrist runs afoul of 2 medical boards
By Jordan Houston
June 18, 2019

— Excerpt

The way the medical boards of California and Arizona saw it before suspending him this month, East Valley psychiatrist Dr. James Matthew Crowley Ryan had other things in mind when three different women came to him for psychiatric care.

Investigators for the California Attorney General’s office said:

When one woman told the Gilbert resident, then practicing in the San Diego area, that she had had an extramarital affair, he “told her that she should have more affairs” – then had one himself with her.

When a second woman told him of her history of sexual assault and panic attacks, he replied “Honey, I’ll prescribe whatever you want” – and made repeated efforts to seduce her while writing her prescriptions for powerful anti-anxiety medications.

When a third woman came to see a fellow psychiatrist, Ryan intervened and soon started dating her – writing prescriptions for controlled anti-anxiety medications but keeping no records to justify their use.

And after the second patient complained to Chula Vista, California, police in May 2016, Ryan moved to set up his practice in east Mesa.

He told his wife in a handwritten birthday card that he was treating CIA secret agents, that one of the three women is “the highest rated assassin of the government,” that he is “the best psych that the U.S. government has and the only one to fix their agents,” and that he had to move and change his name, investigators said.

Ryan’s past caught up with him following an extensive investigation by the California Attorney General’s office.

In March, the Arizona Medical Board summarily suspended his license to practice here. The California Medical Board followed suit on June 10, even though it had the results of the AG investigation since December.

In its suspension, the Arizona Medical Board noted that Ryan “denied all allegations documented in the accusation. Respondent reported to board staff that during the time period covered by the accusation, he was experiencing delirium that affected his ability to recall specific events.”

It also said that last February, he “refused to enter into the practice restriction and that he did not intend to comply with the interim order” requiring that he be examined by a doctor.

That the California board waited until Arizona took action was not a surprise to private investigator Kenneth Kramer, who works for PsychSearch.net, an arm of a Florida private investigation company and the world’s largest repository of disciplinary records on psychiatrists who go astray.

“Medical boards can be slow – years sometimes,” Kramer said…