Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

February 9, 1994, A Edition

Doctor denies he broke no-drinking agreement;
Psychiatrist denies he violated pact

BYLINE: FRANK SPENCER-MOLLOY; Courant Medical Writer

SECTION: CONNECTICUT; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 667 words

Taking the stand for the first time, psychiatrist Charles F. Stroebel said Tuesday he had not violated a no-drinking pact he had with state Department of Public Health and Addiction Services.
Stroebel said at a disciplinary hearing, which will determine whether he will keep his medical license, that he has not had a drink in more than five years. He said the one time a required blood check tested positive for alcohol, it was because his ex-wife had spiked his orange juice.
Stroebel, who has an office in Old Wethersfield and who has published a best-selling book on biofeedback techniques, is accused of sexually exploiting a female patient. The sexual accusations raised questions about whether Stroebel had violated the no-drinking agreement Stroebel previously reached with authorities.
If the charges are upheld by the Connecticut Medical Examining Board, he could lose his license to practice medicine.
Tuesday’s hearing dealt with the interpretation of sobriety tests Stroebel has undergone since he agreed to monitoring in 1990. That agreement was retroactive to 1988, the year Stroebel said Tuesday he became “clean and disinterested in alcohol.” The pact expired last year, but the licensing board imposed new restrictions on Stroebel pending the outcome of the sexual and alcohol charges brought by the state.
The person who accused Stroebel of sexual improprieties and whose identity has been sealed, said the two drank together during the time covered by the agreement.
Stroebel is seeking to lift the new restrictions, which involve regular visits by a monitor to his office, as well as daily urine screens. He said the restrictions were onerous and unneeded because his practice has dropped 60 percent as a result of publicity about his current problems.
Of the hundreds of tests done, none unequivocally showed Stroebel had been drinking from 1990 to 1993. One test, however, was unclear and a follow-up test was positive.
On Tuesday, Stroebel accused his ex-wife, Elizabeth Stroebel, of spiking a container of orange juice with a substance he said caused him to test positive for alcohol. Though estranged from him, the ex-wife continued to work in his office after he married his third wife in 1990.
According to Stroebel, he found in her cabinet an empty bottle of a substance he called Decoy Alc-O-Pos. Stroebel’s lawyer, William Reveley, entered as evidence a photograph of the purported bottle label.
During the hearing, the state raised questions about the negative tests as well. It accused Stroebel of rigging the results by diluting his urine samples. Its own tests since September showed extremely low readings of byproducts normally contained in urine.
Stroebel acknowledged he drank large amounts of fluids, but said he did so because he has an enlarged prostate, which makes urination difficult.
A witness called by Stroebel’s lawyers testified that Stroebel had been sober. The witness, identified only as David, had participated with him in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings during the years in question. Stroebel, he said, had never mentioned any relapse.
Nancy Stroebel, his current wife, took the stand to testify that in their four years living together, Charles Stroebel has never had an alcoholic drink.
On cross-examination, however, the state showed interest in areas other than alcohol. Nancy Stroebel acknowledged that she had been a patient of Stroebel’s in 1989, when she and her terminally ill husband sought his professional help. She said her husband died in September 1989 and she began living with Stroebel in January 1990.
Asked if she had ever been billed for the visits she and her husband made to Stroebel, she said, “I received a bill for $ 95, which I paid even after he moved in with me.” They live in Andover.
Stroebel’s accuser, who is identified only as Jane Doe, says she became romantically involved with him months after her husband died of cancer in 1990.
Stroebel’s lawyer denies the charge.