The Baltimore Sun

February 10, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION

Pain doctor targeted by police;
He has been accused by medical board of sexual improprieties

BYLINE: FRED SCHULTE, SUN REPORTER

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 4B

LENGTH: 570 words

A psychiatrist suspended from practice amid allegations that he traded narcotics for sex at a Baltimore County pain clinic is the target of a criminal investigation, police said.
“We are still in consultation with the state’s attorney’s office,” Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey said yesterday.
As part of their investigation, Baltimore County police seized more than 5,800 pills, including such powerful narcotics as OxyContin and morphine, last month from the Mensana Clinic operated by Dr. Nelson H. Hendler, according to state records. Three guns, including a .22-caliber Derringer found in the doctor’s unlocked desk drawer, and computer equipment also were hauled off by police.
An attorney for Hendler, a nationally known specialist in pain management, said the doctor is the victim of a “vendetta” by a group of patients bent on destroying his spotless medical career.
“These are outrageous and scurrilous charges,” said Baltimore attorney Brian G. Thompson. “The allegations made by these women will not stand the test of the court system.”
The Maryland Board of Physicians issued an emergency order this week suspending the doctor’s license. The board accused him of sexual improprieties with three patients and handing out painkillers without proper prescriptions at the Stevenson clinic.
Under state law, the medical board can order a “summary suspension” of a doctor’s license when its members conclude that “the public health, safety or welfare imperatively require emergency action.”
Thompson said the doctor “categorically denies” that he ever used drugs improperly, as also alleged in the medical board’s complaint. He said he expects the doctor to be reinstated after a hearing on the suspension set for Feb. 22.
Thompson acknowledged that the clinic had many jars of pills, issued in the names of a variety of patients, on its premises. But he said many patients returned unused pills that weren’t effective in controlling their pain. Hendler required patients to bring the old pills to his office before he would agree to write prescriptions for new medications, Thompson said.
Thompson also attacked the credibility of one of the women, a former patient whom Hendler first treated in 1999. Hendler later became romantically involved with the woman, who also became his business partner, the medical board complaint says.
The woman accused Hendler of shoving her against the wall and choking her in a Baltimore hotel room July 4, 2004. Hendler was acquitted of a felony assault charge in November of last year, according to court records.
The woman and her husband filed a civil suit against Hendler in July of last year that repeats many of the allegations stemming from the incident in the hotel room. The suit, pending in Baltimore Circuit Court, seeks compensation of $700,000 or more.
The clinic also faces a review from the state’s Office of Health Care Quality into whether it needs a state license to operate.
In an inspection last month, authorities found four patients living at the center, including a “frail female walking with difficulty with a cane.” The center has eight private and semi-private rooms on its second and third floors.
“It was not licensed by us, and it does not neatly fall into any licensure category that we have,” said Wendy Kronmiller, acting director of the office.