MEDIA
Justin Psaila, Nanuet psychiatrist, Charged
Justin Psaila The Journal News (Westchester County, NY) Doctor charged in $1 million insurance fraud case By Nancy Cacioppo September 10, 2004 -- Excerpt A Nanuet psychiatrist has been accused of defrauding government insurers of more than $1 million by billing for services never rendered, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced yesterday. Dr. Justin Psaila, who has a private practice in his home, was arraigned Wednesday before Rockland County Court Judge Kenneth Resnick on a 23-count indictment. Psaila was charged with two counts of second-degree grand larceny, one count of first-degree scheme to defraud and 20 counts of first-degree offering [...]
Param Shukla, Brookline Psychiatrist, sentenced in sex assault
Param Shukla The Boston Herald Psychiatrist sentenced in sex assault January 15, 2004 By Marie Szaniszlo -- Excerpt A psychiatrist was sentenced to two years' probation yesterday for sexually assaulting a girl he had treated at Children's Hospital three years ago, prosecutors said. Param Shukla, 38, of Brookline pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. During a 2000 therapy session, Shukla offered to take the 13-year-old victim for a walk and touched her buttocks for several seconds when she bent [...]
George Kubski defense: “My Brain was Shrinking”
Psychiatrist George Kubski Palm Beach Post (Florida) PSYCHIATRIST GETS YEAR FOR PATIENT'S PILL DEATH --Excerpt He killed one of his patients by prescribing more than 20,000 pills in three months. On Friday, facing 15 years in prison, Dr. George Kubski could offer no explanation. But fellow physicians testified they had solved the mystery of how a respected psychiatrist with an unblemished record became a pill mill for at least one patient: Brain damage. And a judge agreed. In a hearing full of surprises, Circuit Judge Richard Wennet allowed attorney Patricia Woods Marin, who represents the child of the deceased, to [...]
Tom Onen, English Psychiatrist, Struck Off
Tom Onen The Independent Psychiatrist struck off for overprescribing to addicts --Excerpt A Psychiatrist was struck off the medical register yesterday for prescribing "exceptionally large quantities" of controlled drugs to patients at his private addiction clinic. In a damning ruling, the General Medical Committee said that Dr Tom Onen had shown a "reckless disregard" for the safety of his patients, two of whom died after receiving prescriptions at his south London surgery. The GMC had been told that addicts from across the south of England travelled to the clinic to take advantage of the doctor's lax prescription policy. The extent [...]
Bennett Braun, Chicago Psychiatrist, license suspended
Bennett Braun Chicago Tribune CONTROVERSIAL PSYCHIATRIST SUSPENDED; RECOVERED MEMORY CASE SPURS STATE MOVE By Lisa Donovan October 8, 1999 -- Excerpt State officials have suspended the medical license of Chicago psychiatrist Bennett Braun, considered a leader in the controversial field of recovered memory and multiple personality therapy. Starting Thursday, Braun is prohibited from practicing for two years. After the suspension, he faces a minimum 5-year probation period that precludes him from treating patients diagnosed with multiple personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder. The Department of Professional Regulation's disciplinary action comes a year after the state agency filed a nine-count complaint [...]
Allan Umar-Khitab, Cambridge Psychiatrist, Suspended
Allan Umar-Khitab Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada) HOSPITAL SUSPENDS PSYCHIATRIST FOLLOWING SEX CHARGES By Prithi Yelaja and Liz Monteiro July 28, 1999 -- Excerpt A prominent local psychiatrist charged with 11 counts of sexual offences against boys has been suspended from Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Dr. Allan Umar-Khitab, who was commonly known as Allan Khitab, had been practising in Cambridge since June 1989. He was the only full-time psychiatrist on staff at the hospital's mental health clinic. Khitab's arrest leaves hundreds, and possibly thousands, of patients in the lurch and hospital officials scrambling to find help. Reached at his home in [...]
Ramesh Vemuri, Crystal Lake psychiatrist, accused of molesting patient
Ramesh Vemuri Chicago Tribune SERVING OF COMPLAINT UPHELD IN MOLESTATION CASE July 17, 1998 -- Excerpt A former Crystal Lake psychiatrist accused of molesting a female patient was properly served with a civil complaint and must answer the charges, even though he has moved to India, a McHenry County judge ruled Thursday. Judge James C. Franz ruled that Dr. Ramesh B. Vemuri still had a legal residence at 7606 Crystal Spring Rd., Crystal Lake, when the complaint was left for him in March. Vemuri had left the country two months before. Attorneys for Vemuri had argued that the complaint had [...]
Nestor Garcia, Florida Psychiatrist, Sentenced to Prison
Nestor Garcia The Tampa Tribune Psychiatrist sentenced to prison April 8, 1998 By Keith Morelli -- Excerpt A judge sentences a psychiatrist to prison for billing Medicare and Medicaid for services he never performed. A psychiatrist convicted of submitting bills of more than $ 4.5 million to Medicare and Medicaid between 1994 and 1995 was sentenced Tuesday to 6+ years in federal prison. Nestor A. Garcia was found guilty at a December health care fraud trial. Garcia was ordered to repay nearly $ 1.7 million to federal health care programs. Garcia, 43, also was ordered to serve three years [...]
William Cone, 73-year-old Psychiatrist, gets 133 year sentence
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) PSYCHIATRIST GETS 133-YEAR TERM FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF TWO PATIENTS --Excerpt LEXINGTON, MO. – A psychiatrist who said “moral insanity” caused him to sexually abuse two patients was sentenced to 133 years in prison. Dr. William Cone was convicted in December of 19 counts of sexual assault. Circuit Court Judge Robert Ravenhill sentenced Cone on Tuesday to seven years on each count. Cone, 73, apologized to the victims and said he hoped that his case would help keep others from being victimized by “other impaired physicians.” Prosecutors said Cone, a veteran staff member at the [...]
James Taylor, Psychiatrist, Pennsylvania, sentenced
James Taylor The Morning Call DOCTOR JAILED FOR BEATING * JAMES TAYLOR ATTACKED ANOTHER PSYCHIATRIST WITH A CROWBAR; TERM 6-12 YEARS. By MIKE FRASSINELLI and The Morning Call September 05, 1997 -- Excerpt Completing his plunge from prominent psychiatrist to jailed felon, Dr. James Taylor was sentenced Thursday to six to 12 years in state prison for bludgeoning a female psychiatrist with a clawed crowbar last autumn. Monroe County Judge Jerome Cheslock sentenced Taylor to an additional six months to a year in prison for intimidating witnesses in a separate tax-fraud case, bringing his total jail term to 6-1/2-13 years. [...]