Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Bice: Gov. Scott Walker criticized by Dems for not being tougher on disgraced psychiatrist
By Daniel Bice
October 26, 2018

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Gov. Scott Walker said the buck stopped with him.

Back when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive, he said he was ultimately responsible for taking care of the problems at the Mental Health Complex.

But Democrats are saying that didn’t happen in the case of disgraced psychiatrist Karl Strelnick. During his 20 years with Milwaukee County, Strelnick was accused of having sex with one patient, being negligent in the death of another patient and allowing yet one more patient with a history of sexual violence to impregnate a fellow patient…

So Democrats are using the Strelnick case to try to push back on the Republican governor for his oversight of a licensed professional.

The psychiatrist’s messy history may be familiar to Journal Sentinel readers because the paper has documented his problems over the past 30 years.

In 1987, Strelnick’s medical license was suspended for two years after he admitted having sex with two patients during therapy while he was in private practice in Madison.

One of the women alleged in a lawsuit that he had sex with her more than 100 times over 20 months. She won a $1.1 million judgment against Strelnick in a jury trial, though an appeals court later cut the amount by $250,000.

His license was reinstated a couple of years later while agreeing not to treat female patients and to undergo counseling.

In 1991, over the strenuous objections of two Democratic lawmakers, Milwaukee County hired Strelnick to work at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.

Strelnick ran into problems at the county in late 2006 when one of his patients at the complex died from complications of starvation.

A state investigation found Strelnick and others were negligent in the woman’s death. As a result, he was transferred to a new unit at the complex. The county settled with the woman’s family for $125,000 five years later.

In 2010, Walker — then the county exec and running for governor — suspended Strelnick after the Journal Sentinel reported that a patient at the complex became pregnant after being sexually assaulted by another patient.

Another former female patient came forward around this time to allege that Strelnick was having sex with her while she was his patient years earlier. State investigators found her claims credible but believed the stress from testifying might make the woman suicidal. The matter was then dropped.

Over the years, state regulators dismissed four complaints against Strelnick — filed in 1988, 1989, 1997 and one from 2010 — without an investigation. Two others case prompted investigations in 2006 and 2007, but no action was taken against him.

Publicly, Walker moved to fire Strelnick and took responsibility for the county’s mental health problems…

Strelnick then retired in January 2011, and the state medical board cleared him of wrongdoing in the case of the pregnant woman at the complex.

Reisinger, Walker’s campaign spokesman, said there is more to the story.

He said Strelnick was hired by Jon Gudeman, who served under a previous county executive. Gudeman lobbied the state repeatedly to have the restrictions on Stelnick’s license lifted, calling the troubled psychiatrist a “good doctor.”

Doyle then appointed Gudeman to the state medical board, where he remained until 2007.

Reisinger said Walker was the county executive “when pressure mounted on Strelnick until he resigned to avoid firing.” The spokesman added that Walker also supported a bill as a state rep in 1996 that doubled the penalties for therapists who have sex with their patients.