MEDIA
Karen Zelas, NZ psychiatrist – her “evidence lacked balance”
Karen Zelas nzherald.co.nz Peter Ellis: Convictions posthumously quashed in landmark Supreme Court decision By Hazel Osborne October 6, 2022 -- Excerpt ... In the justices' decision, read out via livestream from the court in Wellington at 2pm, they found that some evidence at Ellis' trial was unfair and should not have been admitted. This included the evidence of the Crown's expert witness, psychiatrist Dr Karen Zelas, under section 23G of the Evidence Act 1908. Zelas gave evidence that the parents who accused Ellis of abusing seven children reported behaviour that Zelas said was consistent with sexually abused children. They [...]
Zinia Thomas, Missouri Psychiatrist, faces illegal drug charges
Psychiatrist Zinia Thomas KMOV4 Local doctor known for giving medical marijuana cards could lose her license By Lauren Trager September 26, 2022 -- Excerpt ST. LOUIS (KMOV) -- A local doctor could lose her license because she is now facing discipline for doling out medical marijuana. Dr. Zinia Thomas is also facing criminal charges. We’ve met Dr. Thomas before. She’s a licensed psychiatrist in Missouri who runs several local businesses. But she also took her medical marijuana practice on the road and that could ultimately send her career up in smoke. In 2019, News 4 Investigates went undercover [...]
Mike McPhillips, London Psychiatrist, feared complaint
Mike McPhillips MyLondon Top West London psychiatrist took own life after an official complaint was made about his work By Adela Whittingham and Josh Bolton September 25, 2022 -- Excerpt A top celebrity psychiatrist took his own life after hearing he was being investigated by the General Medical Council. Dr Mike McPhillips, who helped celebrities including The Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge, feared the complaint being made public, an inquest into his death heard. Four days after receiving an email from the GMC detailing the complaint, he called police to tell them where he intended to kill himself and asked them [...]
Bernard Calamy, Parisian psychiatrist, sentenced
Bernard Calamy Google translation Midi Libre Montpellier: twelve years in prison for the former psychiatrist who raped girls in the Gard September 10, 2022 -- Excerpt Bernard Calamy, 84, retired in Sauve, was declared guilty by the jurors of Hérault on Friday, after his appeal trial, where he had been sentenced to 13 years in prison, was broken in Avignon. His denials and his wavering memory will not have been enough. The Assize Court of Hérault sentenced Friday, September 9 a former Parisian psychiatrist, having retired in the Cévennes, to twelve years of criminal imprisonment for the rapes committed [...]
Thomas Gratzer, Twin Cities psychiatrist, charged
Thomas Gratzer Alpha News Former MPD psychological evaluator charged with sexual assault of minor By Crime Watch MN September 7, 2022 -- Excerpt A Twin Cities psychiatrist who formerly served as a mental fitness evaluator for the Minneapolis Police Department has been charged with criminal sexual conduct involving a minor. Dr. Thomas Gabor Gratzer, 57, of Edina, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor child who was known to him. The female victim, who is now an adult, told an investigator with the Edina Police Department that she’d been sexually assaulted multiple times by Gratzer starting [...]
Psychiatrist Bandy Lee fails to get Yale gig back
Psychiatrist Bandy Lee New York Post Psychiatrist Brandy Lee, who slammed Trump’s mental state, fails to get Yale gig back By David Propper September 1, 2022 -- Excerpt A prominent psychiatrist who called President Trump and his loyalists mentally ill failed to get her job back after Yale University parted ways with Dr. Bandy Lee two years ago, a judge ruled. A federal judge in Connecticut dismissed a wrongful termination lawsuit that charged the Ivy League school with violating the woman’s free speech and professional obligations when she was not reappointed to her role with the school, the Harford [...]
Keith Howard, NY Psychiatrist, locked up for eight years
Keith Howard The City 10 Years a Detainee: Why Some Spend Years on Rikers, Despite Right to Speedy Trial By Reuven Blau August 17, 2022 -- Excerpt Back and Forth Locked up for eight years, Dr. Keith Howard, who is facing a second-degree murder charge, is the second-longest-serving detainee on Rikers, records show. He’s been held without bail since May 14, 2014, when authorities charged him with killing his tenant, Karla Shah-Boguwolski, 39, in Arverne, Queens, days before superstorm Sandy. He initially fled to Maryland after the murder, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office. In 2017, his trial ended [...]
Ricardo Cruciani, trained as a psychiatrist
Ricardo Cruciani Ricardo Cruciani Law & Crime New York Jury Convicts Neurologist on a Dozen Counts for Raping and Sexually Assaulting Six of His Patients By Adam Klasfeld July 29th, 2022 -- Excerpt A New York jury convicted a former pain management doctor and neurologist of raping, abusing and sexually assaulting six of his patients whom he hooked on opioids, the district attorney’s office announced on Friday. Ricardo Cruciani, 68, has now stands convicted on a dozen charges, including a count of predatory sexual assault, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, one count of sexual [...]
Psychiatrist Chan Herng Nieng, Singapore
Singapore Psychiatrist Chan Herng Nieng Today 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned': Woman loses negligence lawsuit against psychiatrist ex-lover By Louisa Tang July 19, 2022 -- Excerpt SINGAPORE — A woman who had an extramarital affair with her psychiatrist has failed in her lawsuit against him, after she sued him for negligence for allegedly getting her hooked on pills to manage her anxiety. High Court judge Tan Siong Thye on Tuesday (July 19) described Ms Serene Tiong Sze Yin’s lawsuit as her “latest episode in her plot for revenge” against Dr Chan Herng Nieng... Despite ruling in Dr [...]
Spanish Psychiatrist Javier Criado, sentenced
Spanish Psychiatrist Javier Criado The European Times Spanish Psychiatrist Criado condemned to one year in prison July 15, 2022 -- Excerpt psychiatrist javier criado condemned in 2022 1 year of prison The 9th Criminal Court of Seville (Spain) has condemned a psychiatrist, José Javier C. F., to one year in prison for a crime against moral integrity, with the aggravating circumstance of undue delay, for the “inappropriate, vulgar and humiliating” treatment of one of his patients. In addition to the prison sentence, he was banned from communicating with or approaching the victim within 300 metres for two years and ordered [...]
Chris Warner, Army Psychiatrist, accused of rape
Chris Warner Stars and Stripes Army colonel accused of rape avoids court-martial, still faces forced retirement nearly a year later By Rose L. Thayer July 14, 2022 -- Excerpt Nearly 10 months after an Army officer faced an administrative hearing for allegations that he raped his children’s live-in nanny more than a decade ago, he remains in the service working at the Army Surgeon General’s Office, according to service officials. Col. Chris Warner, 48, is a psychiatrist who is no longer seeing patients and has no leadership role as he awaits a final approval to remove him from the Army [...]
David Henderson, North Texas psychiatrist, arrested
Psychiatrist David Henderson Courtesy of Dallas County Jail Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas) North Texas psychiatrist's license suspended after assault arrest; cache of weapons found July 14, 2022 By Jessika Harkay -- Excerpt A North Texas psychiatrist, who was an associate professor at the TCU School of Medicine and also worked at a Tarrant County mental health and substance abuse treatment center, had his license suspended after he was arrested in Dallas on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Dr. David Henderson was carrying a handgun when he was arrested at North Park Mall and [...]
Jose Santeiro, Miami Lakes Psychiatrist, Sentenced
Jose Santeiro Medscape Psychiatrist Sentenced to 54 Months in Jail for Addiction Treatment Fraud Megan Brooks July 08, 2022 -- Excerpt Psychiatrist Jose Santeiro, MD, of Miami Lakes, Florida, has been sentenced to 54 months in prison for engaging in a scheme that fraudulently billed about $112 million for substance abuse services that were never provided or were medically unnecessary, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced. Santeiro was medical director of two substance abuse treatment centers where the fraud occurred: Compass Detox, an inpatient detox and residential facility in Pembroke Pines, and WAR Network LLC (WAR), a [...]
Varanise Booker, Louisville Psychiatrist, Sentenced for Health Care Fraud
Varanise Booker Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Pennsylvania FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 16, 2022 Kentucky Psychiatrist Sentenced for Health Care Fraud Related to Referrals for Drug Testing at Greensburg Lab PITTSBURGH - A resident of Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced in federal court yesterday for one count of health care fraud, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced. United States District Judge David S. Cercone sentenced Varanise C. Booker, 67, to 36 months of probation and ordered that she pay restitution totaling $24,217.26 to the Kentucky Medicaid program. During the defendant’s plea hearing on October 5, [...]
Venkata Chintala, UK psychiatrist, suspended
BBC Former Southern Health psychiatrist did other work while on sick leave June 14, 2022 -- Excerpt A psychiatrist who called in sick, due to stress, and then worked for another provider hours later has been suspended for two months. Dr Venkata Chintala was employed by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust during January and May 2019, when she said she could not work but completed 10 appointments for another provider. She admitted misconduct and said she was "sad" and "disappointed"... But the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel said while she was found to have "some insight" into her misconduct, [...]
Rajeev Sheoran, Penticton psychiatrist, ordered to pay
Rajeev Sheoran 100 Mile Free Press Penticton psychiatrist ordered to pay Interior Health’s legal costs over failed lawsuit By Brennan Phillips May 30, 2022 -- Excerpt The Penticton psychiatrist who refused a $625,000 settlement and lost his lawsuit against Interior Health over being attacked by a patient will now also have to pay the health authority’s legal fees. In a judgment issued on May 26, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Steven Wilson concluded that the 36-day trial and the fact that IH was successful in its defense entitled it to having Dr. Rajeev Sheoran cover the legal costs... At Penticton Regional [...]
Mark Agresti, Palm Beach County psychiatrist, Sentenced
Mark Agresti Palm Beach Post (Florida) Sober-home fraud scheme doctor receives an 8-year term; Judge: Dr. Mark Agresti enabled $31.3 million insurance swindle By Jane Musgrave May 28, 2022 -- Excerpt With his wife and 90-year-old mother looking on, a once-respected Palm Beach County psychiatrist was handcuffed and led from a federal courtroom on Friday to begin serving an eight-year prison sentence for exploiting people struggling with addiction. Dr. Mark Agresti's quick transformation from free man to federal prisoner was unusual. Typically, white-collar criminals are allowed to remain free, get their affairs in order and then report to prison. But [...]
Yashwant Chaudhri, San Diego Psychiatrist, no “right to renew his license”
Yashwant Chaudhri WWLP Psychiatrist failed to document patient’s care and not properly terminate relationship By Ashley Shook May 28, 2022 -- Excerpt WAKEFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine announced Friday it has taken action... According to the Board, the following actions were taken against the medical licenses of Yashwant S. Chaudhri, M.D... Dr. Yashwant S. Chaudhri, a psychiatrist who currently practices medicine in San Diego, will not have the right to renew his license after the Board found that Dr. Chaudhri had been disciplined by the Medical Board of California for reasons substantially similar to [...]
David Ciancimino, Shelton Psychiatrist, Sentenced
David Ciancimino CT Insider Feds: Shelton psychiatrist sentenced for illegally prescribing Xanax, Adderall By Liz Hardaway May 26, 2022 -- Excerpt HARTFORD — A psychiatrist based out of Shelton was sentenced to more than three years in prison Thursday for prescribing Xanax and Adderall “with little to no medical examination,” according to federal prosecutors. David Ciancimino, 63, of Trumbull, practiced psychiatry and neurology at an office in Shelton. Law enforcement started looking into Ciancimino’s prescribing practices of various benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, and stimulants, like Adderall, in October 2020, according to United States Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery. During the [...]
Patricia Boyer, Charlotte psychiatrist – license revoked
Patricia Boyer Charlotte Observer (North Carolina) Charlotte psychiatrist loses NC medical license after having affair with a patient By Michael Gordon May 26, 2022 -- Excerpt A veteran Charlotte psychiatrist lost her state medical license this week after having a lengthy affair with a patient whom she informally kept treating and medicating with no documentation. The N.C. Medical Board revoked the license of Dr. Patricia Boyer on Monday after finding that she violated professional standards by having an intimate relationship with a current or former patient... After several years of treatment that showed "a lack of therapeutic progress," Boyer discussed [...]
John Mitchell, Emmaus Psychiatrist, arrested
John Mitchell Lehighvalleylive.com Patient death led to charges Lehigh Valley doc overprescribed drugs for 15 years, AG says By Sarah Cassi May 24, 2022 -- Excerpt A Lehigh Valley woman’s death led prosecutors to a local doctor who overprescribed opioids and other drugs to patients over a 15-year period, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office said. John Mitchell, a psychiatrist who had offices in South Whitehall Township and Emmaus, was arrested Monday and charged with 13 counts, including unlawfully administering, dispensing or prescribing schedule II controlled substances. Mitchell, 70, was released on $75,000 unsecured bail. Court papers list a Quakertown address [...]
Scot Nicolson Duffton, Tasmania psychiatrist, barred from practicing
Scot Nicolson Duffton ABC NEWS Psychiatrist barred from practising after sexual relationship with patient in Hobart By Emily Baker May 12, 2022 -- Excerpt A psychiatrist who developed a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient during at-home visits has been barred from working in mental health until 2024 after acknowledging his actions may have been "terribly damaging". Scot Nicolson Duffton in part blamed the death of his pet for the "huge violation of my professional ethics" more than 30 years into his medical career. Dr Duffton moved from New Zealand to Tasmania in June 2019 to work as a locum [...]
Robert Schnitzlein, Maryland psychiatrist, surrenders license
Robert Schnitzlein Democrat Star Psychiatrist surrenders license after sexual misconduct with patient By Natalie Jones May 8, 2022 -- Excerpt EASTON — A psychiatrist surrendered his license to practice medicine after violating sexual misconduct regulations at an Eastern Shore hospital in 2019, according to documents filed with the Maryland Board of Physicians. Former psychiatrist Robert Schnitzlein, M.D., surrendered his license on Tuesday, May 3, because he is no longer able to comply with the requirements of his suspension due to a medical condition preventing him from practicing medicine, according to a letter he submitted to the board. The Board [...]
Piet Hein van T – Makkinga psychiatrist, sentenced
Google Translation: Piet Hein van T RTV Drenthe Child psychiatrist jailed for possession of child pornography April 29, 2022 -- Excerpt A 70-year-old former child psychiatrist from GGZ Drenthe was sentenced on Friday in Zwolle to a year in prison for possession of child pornography. At the end of 2018, the man from the Frisian town of Makkinga was already convicted in Nepal for abusing underage boys. Piet Hein van T. was released early in 2020 in Nepal and returned to the Netherlands where he was arrested at the end of that year for possession and producing child pornography. According [...]
Chan Herng Nieng, Singapore Psychiatrist, sued by patient
Chan Herng Nieng The Straits Times Woman who had affair with psychiatrist sues ex-lover for prescribing 'addictive' pills By Selina Lum April 19, 2022 -- Excerpt SINGAPORE - A woman who had an affair with her psychiatrist is suing him for negligence, alleging that her former lover had freely prescribed "highly addictive" pills to her for anxiety without registering her as his patient. Ms Serene Tiong alleged that she became addicted to antidepressant drug Xanax and suffered side effects such as drowsiness and aggression because Dr Chan Herng Nieng had given her pills without ensuring that she would not become [...]