MEDIA
Nestor Garcia, Florida Psychiatrist, Sentenced to Prison
Nestor Garcia The Tampa Tribune Psychiatrist sentenced to prison April 8, 1998 By Keith Morelli -- Excerpt A judge sentences a psychiatrist to prison for billing Medicare and Medicaid for services he never performed. A psychiatrist convicted of submitting bills of more than $ 4.5 million to Medicare and Medicaid between 1994 and 1995 was sentenced Tuesday to 6+ years in federal prison. Nestor A. Garcia was found guilty at a December health care fraud trial. Garcia was ordered to repay nearly $ 1.7 million to federal health care programs. Garcia, 43, also was ordered to serve three years [...]
William Cone, 73-year-old Psychiatrist, gets 133 year sentence
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) PSYCHIATRIST GETS 133-YEAR TERM FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF TWO PATIENTS By The Associated Press February 12, 1998 -- Excerpt LEXINGTON, MO. - A psychiatrist who said "moral insanity" caused him to sexually abuse two patients was sentenced to 133 years in prison. Dr. William Cone was convicted in December of 19 counts of sexual assault. Circuit Court Judge Robert Ravenhill sentenced Cone on Tuesday to seven years on each count. Cone, 73, apologized to the victims and said he hoped that his case would help keep others from being victimized by "other impaired [...]
James Taylor, Psychiatrist, Pennsylvania, sentenced
James Taylor The Morning Call DOCTOR JAILED FOR BEATING * JAMES TAYLOR ATTACKED ANOTHER PSYCHIATRIST WITH A CROWBAR; TERM 6-12 YEARS. By MIKE FRASSINELLI and The Morning Call September 05, 1997 -- Excerpt Completing his plunge from prominent psychiatrist to jailed felon, Dr. James Taylor was sentenced Thursday to six to 12 years in state prison for bludgeoning a female psychiatrist with a clawed crowbar last autumn. Monroe County Judge Jerome Cheslock sentenced Taylor to an additional six months to a year in prison for intimidating witnesses in a separate tax-fraud case, bringing his total jail term to 6-1/2-13 years. [...]
Mark Green – Brookline psychiatrist, suspended
Mark Green The Boston Globe Board pulls license of psychiatrist over sex, drug allegations Brookline doctor may be mentally ill By Dolores Kong June 28, 1995 -- Excerpt The state medical board has suspended the license of a Brookline psychiatrist for allegedly having sex with a patient and incorrectly prescribing medications to patients and himself. The board also says Dr. Mark D. Green may be suffering a mental illness that led him to have a bizarre run-in with police... In April, Green called police to his home to report a housebreak, but no evidence of forced entry was found. Instead, [...]
Joseph Leggett, Casper Psychiatrist, sentenced
Joseph Leggett Casper Star-Tribune Leggett sentenced to probation for sex crimes By Deirdre Stoelzle August 2, 1994 -- Excerpt CASPER — Convicted in April of two counts of second-degree sexual assault, former Casper psychiatrist Joseph Leggett was sentenced to five years of supervised probation Monday in 7th District Court. Legett committed the sexual assaults while working in Casper between 1982 and 1986. In a plea agreement promising no jail time, Leggett pleaded no contest to two counts involving use of his position of authority as a doctor to force his patients to submit to sexual acts. One former patient [...]
Dennis Lardent, Barstow psychiatrist, arrested
Dennis Lardent Barstow Dispatch Doctor held on sex, drug misuse charges By Irwin M. Goldberg Dispatch Staff Writer February 24, 1994 BARSTOW – Police arrested a Barstow psychiatrist Wednesday on suspicion of drugging a patient and sexually exploiting her. Dennis Robert L’Ardent, 47, was arrested at his motel room at the Good Nite Inn, 2551 Commerce Parkway, at about 5:15 a.m. after family members of the victim called police, said Officer Mark Franey of the Barstow Police Department. The acts allegedly took placed in L’Ardent’s office at 900 E. Main St. and in room 237 of the motel, Franey said. [...]
William Gray, Virginia Psychiatrist, License Revoked
William Gray Roanoke Times BOARD REVOKES GRAY'S MEDICAL LICENSE November 13, 1993 The regulatory board overseeing Virginia's health professions said yesterday it had revoked the medical license of a Roanoke psychiatrist who had sex with his patients. William G. Gray "unethically exploited the physician-patient relationship by engaging in sexual activities" with four young male patients, the Virginia Board of Medicine said. The board also determined that Gray had violated medical ethics and standards of care by giving the patients housing, food, money, transportation and other gifts in exchange for sexual favors. Gray offered to surrender his license to practice medicine [...]
Vincent Festa, NY psychiatrist, charged with sodomizing
Psychiatrist Vincent Festa Vincent Festa Newsday (New York) Psychiatrist Charged July 27, 1993 A Ronkonkoma man who is a school psychiatrist at Herricks High School in New Hyde Park has been arrested and charged with sodomizing and sexually abusing teenage boys at his home, Suffolk police reported. Vincent Festa, 64, of 170 Foster Ave., was charged with two counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of third-degree sexual abuse in connection with complaints involving three Ronkonkoma-area boys. Festa was arrested Sunday by Fourth Squad detectives and was arraigned yesterday in First District Court, Central [...]
C. Donald Williams, Yakima Psychiatrist, disciplined
C. Donald Williams The Seattle Times PSYCHIATRIST HASSLED FOR PAST MISTAKES? -- INVESTIGATION REACTIVATED AFTER WOMAN INQUIRES ABOUT SEXUAL-CONTACT COMPLAINT By Peter Lewis June 22, 1993 A Yakima psychiatrist, disciplined five years ago for inappropriate sexual contact with women patients, alleges the state Medical Disciplinary Board has bowed to political pressure and is hounding him for the same conduct for which he's already been punished. Lawyers for Dr. C. Donald Williams, who are asking a federal judge to halt what they claim is harassment of the doctor, say the board acted to take his license after U.S. Rep. Jay [...]
Arthur Reider, Brookline psychiatrist, “experienced delusions”
Arthur Reider The Boston Globe Medical board acts against 3 doctors By Betsy Q.M. Tong December 5, 1992 ...In separate disciplinary matters, the board announced actions taken against two other doctors for sexual misconduct with patients. Arthur E. Reider, a psychiatrist in Brookline, was allowed to continue practice on probation after admitting to the misconduct during a period of mental illness. Dr. Richard Shader, chairman of psychiatry at the New England Medical Center, reached an agreement with the board to confine his practice to research and consultation as well as to perform community service... Reider experienced delusions that resulted in [...]
Tobias Friedman, Psychiatrist (Shreveport & Salem) – Prosecution mulled
Tobias Friedman The Boston Globe Prosecution mulled in '70s abuse claims By Tom Coakley October 27, 1992 -- Excerpt In the wake of decades-old sexual assault charges filed against James Porter in Bristol County, Salem and Peabody police are investigating a former Massachusetts psychiatrist to determine if he can be prosecuted for allegedly molesting at least two young female patients in the 1970s. The women making the charges against the psychiatrist, Tobias Friedman, hope to take advantage of the same exception to the state statute of limitations that allowed prosecutors to gain indictments of Porter in September for allegedly molesting [...]
Scott Orens, Bradenton psychiatrist “something was wrong” with him
Scott Orens Tampa Bay Times Psychiatrist loses license By Carol Gentry October 3, 1992 -- Excerpt Other doctors knew something was wrong with Bradenton psychiatrist Scott Orens. They reported him to authorities, but little was done until one night in June 1991. According to police reports, that's when Orens grabbed a little girl in a restaurant parking lot, dragged her 20 yards in a hammerlock, yanked her head back by the hair and slapped her forehand and backhand until horrified witnesses intervened. On Friday, the Florida Board of Medicine indefinitely suspended Orens' license after an expert on mental illness [...]
Case Beukenkamp, NY Psychiatrist – “extreme misconduct”
Newsday (New York) The Secret World of Case Beukenkamp By Jamie Talan and Richard C. Firstman August 18, 1992 -- Excerpt FOR THREE MONTHS in the 1960s, a young woman from Roslyn named Sandy Schlager sat mute in a corner of her Manhattan psychiatrist's office, outside the circle of her twice-a-week therapy group. The doctor, a pioneer of group therapy, had banished Schlager for talking too much. One night, as a session was about to begin, the psychiatrist, a charismatic, authoritative man with black-rimmed glasses and a black goatee, turned to Schlager and said there was only one [...]
Felix Larocca, Missouri psychiatrist, sex with teen-age patients
Felix Larocca St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) PSYCHIATRIST ACCUSED OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT LOSES LICENSE By Roger Signor August 13, 1992 -- Excerpt Missouri's agency that disciplines errant doctors has revoked the medical license of Dr. Felix F. Larocca, a St. Louis psychiatrist who the agency says had sexual relations with two of his teen-age patients in the mid-1980s. The agency, the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, announced its decision Wednesday. Larocca, medical director of Deaconess Hospital's Eating and Mood Disorders Program, resigned his position Wednesday because he no longer has a medical license, said Jerry W. Paul, hospital [...]
Melvin Wise, Florida psychiatrist, license revoked
Melvin Wise St. Petersburg Times Doctor's license revoked By Carol Gentry August 8, 1992 -- Excerpt ... Malcolmson told the board Florida needs to form a task force to ease the plight of sexual abuse victims who are getting chewed up by the system. While seven women brought complaints against Dr. Melvin Wise, two refused to testify after seeing the others skewered by Wise's attorneys. Only Malcolmson's case survived the legal process. It was the basis for the board's vote Friday to revoke Wise's license. Wise, who practiced child and adolescent psychiatry in Miami, did not appear at the hearing. [...]
David McWhirter, San Diego Psychiatrist, sued
David McWhirter Los Angeles Times SEX THERAPIST SUED BY MALE EX-PATIENT By Nora Zamichow July 30, 1992 -- Excerpt A male former patient is suing the medical director of the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, alleging that Dr. David McWhirter took advantage of his emotional problems to seduce him, and another former patient has filed notice that he intends to sue on similar grounds. McWhirter, an expert in human sexuality and head of the county's mental health facility for five years, invited the first patient to his home for dinner, where the patient said he was "forcibly dragged across [...]
Thomas Morris, Mass. Psychiatrist, accused of misconduct
Thomas Morris The Boston Globe Panel likely to clear doctor of sex abuse; Critics decry handling of women's complaints By Alison Bass, Globe Staff July 3, 1992 -- Excerpt In the latest turn in a byzantine case that has triggered bitter complaints from patient-advocates, the state medical board is expected next week to drop charges against a psychiatrist accused of sexually abusing two women patients during the 1970s. Advocates for sexual-abuse victims charge that the process was stacked in the doctor's favor because the board refused to hold a joint hearing on the two women's complaints; following separate proceedings, [...]
Edward Daniels, Boston Psychiatrist, license revoked
Edward Daniels The Boston Globe Board votes to strip psychiatrist of license By Alison Bass and Luz Delgado June 25, 1992 -- Excerpt The state medical board voted unanimously last night to revoke the medical license of Dr. Edward M. Daniels, one of the most influential psychiatrists in the Boston area, for allegedly sexually abusing four female patients over the last three decades. "Indeed, the pattern, nature, extent and severity of misconduct, including the number of patients involved and the harm" to the patients "is so egregious that we can think of no circumstances whereby the respondent could satisfactorily demonstrate [...]
Eric Burstein, Columbus psychiatrist, license revoked
Eric Burstein Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) SEX WITH PATIENT COSTS PSYCHIATRIST OHIO LICENSE May 15, 1992 By Laurie Loscocco -- Excerpt A former Columbus psychiatrist has lost his license to practice medicine in Ohio for having a three-year sexual relationship with a patient. The State Medical Board of Ohio on Wednesday permanently revoked the license of Dr. Eric Burstein, who now practices in Albuquerque, N.M. Burstein was associated with Riverside Methodist Hospitals from 1980 to 1989 and a local health maintenance organization from 1984 to 1989. The board charged that Burstein had a sexual relationship with a psychiatric patient from July [...]
John Hamilton, Columbia psychiatrist – guilty of unprofessional conduct
John Hamilton The Washington Post Psychiatry Official From Md. Had Sex With Patient; Columbia Doctor Quits as Officer of National Association After His License Is Suspended By Stephen Buckley March 6, 1992 -- Excerpt A Columbia psychiatrist resigned as an officer of the American Psychiatric Association Wednesday night after Maryland's medical disciplinary board suspended his license for a year because he had a sexual relationship with a patient. John Hamilton, 68, stepped down as a deputy medical director of the APA after the state Board of Physician Quality Assurance found him guilty of unprofessional conduct toward a 40-year-old woman being [...]
Robert Willis, psychiatrist (NY & NJ) – sentenced
Robert Willis Los Angeles Times INSIDE-TRADING PSYCHIATRIST IS SPARED JAIL; SECURITIES: A NEW YORK MAN WHO OBTAINED STOCK INFORMATION FROM A PATIENT -- THE WIFE OF A TOP EXECUTIVE -- GETS PROBATION AND A $150,000 FINE. January 8, 1992 -- Excerpt A psychiatrist who traded stocks on inside information about BankAmerica Corp. that he learned while treating the wife of financier Sanford Weill was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and fined $150,000. The sentence was surprisingly light, as the presiding judge had been highly critical of the psychiatrist, Robert Willis, 52, of Tenafly, N.J., for betraying the trust [...]
Jason Richter, Denver psychiatrist, loses lawsuit
Jason Richter Hartford Courant PBS examines issue of sex on therapist's couch By Frank Spencer-Molloy November 12, 1991 -- Excerpt That decided minority of Americans who believed Anita Hill's version of events will appreciate the blame-the-victim strategy that largely succeeds tonight when PBS's "Frontline" explores the subject of sex between therapists and patients. "My Doctor, My Lover" (9 p.m., CPTV, Channel 24 in Hartford area) shows how rape begets rape as the courtroom tactics of lawyers for a 35-year-old Denver psychiatrist accused of sexual malpractice take up where the psychiatrist, Dr. Jason Richter, left off. Canadian documentary-makers John Zaritsky and [...]
James Tyhurst, Vancouver psychiatrist, sentenced
James Tyhurst The Globe and Mail CANADA IN BRIEF Psychiatrist sentenced By CP June 26, 1991 A Vancouver psychiatrist found guilty of sexually enslaving four former patients was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison. Dr. James Tyhurst, former head of the University of British Columbia psychiatry department, was convicted earlier this month.
Michael Gilbert, Miami Psychiatrist – Gets Year for Bribe
Michael Gilbert The Miami Herald Famed Psychiatrist Gets Year for Bribe By Don Van Natta Jr. May 1, 1991 -- Excerpt Famed criminal psychiatrist Michael Gilbert stood up one last time in a Dade courtroom Tuesday and asked a judge to go easy on a mentally deficient defendant. Only this time, the defendant was Dr. Gilbert. "I regret terribly what I did, and I know what I did was an aberration," said Gilbert, 75, who was convicted in March of bribing a Metro-Dade police officer to concoct a cocaine bust against a Miami lawyer. His plea for leniency [...]
Jean Claude Pierre Hill, psychiatrist, sentenced to life
Jean Claude Pierre Hill Orlando Sentinel DOCTOR SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR MURDER April 29, 1992 Jean-Claude Pierre Hill, the Virginia physician whom a jury found guilty of first-degree murder but mentally ill in the random shooting death of an insurance executive, was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday. The verdict "guilty but mentally ill" means that Hill, 30, will receive psychiatric treatment for his illness until a doctor determines he is well enough to go into the general prison population. It took a jury less than two hours Monday to find Hill guilty of the murder of Cigna [...]