Portland Press Herald (Maine)

January 27, 1997, Monday,

FORMER AMHI PSYCHIATRIST AGREES TO GIVE UP HIS MEDICAL LICENSE;
DR. DON L. WESTON DENIES BEHAVING INAPPROPRIATELY WITH PATIENTS AT THE STATE HOSPITAL.

BYLINE: Associated Press

SECTION: LOCAL & STATE, Pg. 2B

LENGTH: 381 words

DATELINE: AUGUSTA

A part-time psychiatrist at the state mental hospital whose conduct and mental condition came under question has agreed to surrender his professional license.
A consent agreement signed by Dr. Don L. Weston concluded that, ”due to his psychiatric illness, Dr. Weston’s clinical judgment put the health and safety of his patients at risk.”
Weston’s medical license was suspended after allegations of unprofessional conduct at the Augusta Mental Health Institute surfaced.
The consent agreement indicates that Weston, who lives in Virginia, has undergone psychiatric and neuropsychological evaluations that showed he was ”impaired in his performance as a psychiatrist because of psychiatric illness.”
Weston, a psychiatrist and psychologist who served a six-week assignment at AMHI that began last June, left July 10 after coming ”under investigation by the hospital for unprofessional conduct with patients. Further investigation disclosed concerns by the medical and nursing staff regarding Dr. Weston’s physical and mental status.”
A state licensing board suspended Weston’s license on Aug. 14. He surrendered it permanently on Jan. 14.
Assistant Attorney General Ruth McNiff said Weston could reapply for a license after receiving treatment.
Weston’s lawyer, Jeffrey Thaler, said Weston signed the consent agreement to avoid extended and expensive litigation in Maine and would seek reinstatement in Virginia, where his license was suspended after the action by the Maine board.
Thaler said Weston denies acting inappropriately at AMHI or being unfit to practice medicine and had not planned to renew a temporary one-year license in Maine.
”He feels he got caught in the middle of some political crossfire in there,” Thaler said. ”There was this kind of atmosphere so anyone that hinted at looking at things from a different perspective was suspected of being incompetent.”
Thaler said Weston, who had worked at AMHI before, found the atmosphere at the hospital changed in the aftermath of a patient slaying that occurred while he was away.
McNiff described Weston as ”kind of coming unglued at AMHI.”
”He was behaving inappropriately with patients,” she said. ”Not sexually or anything like that, but he was just acting strangely.”