The Boston Globe
Mass. medical panel charges five psychiatrists with sexual misconduct
By Dolores Kong
June 6, 1989

The state Board of Registration in Medicine has filed sexual-misconduct charges against five psychiatrists, bringing to nine the number of current and former Massachusetts psychiatrists who have admitted or been accused in recent months of having had improper sexual contact with patients.

Several of the psychiatrists named in the five latest cases, which were initiated by the board between Sep-tember and last month, hold prominent positions. The cases came to light in a review of the board’s public files last week.

In each case, the board has issued a “statement of allegations” against the psychiatrist after a staff investigation of complaints brought by patients or others. Under the board’s procedures, each psychiatrist is given 21 days to file a response to the allegations, after which the board schedules a formal hearing. The hearing officer can recommend a range of actions ranging from dismissal of the complaint to revocation of a physician’s medical license and a fine of up to $ 10,000 per violation. About 80 to 85 percent of complaints are dismissed by the board’s complaint committee and never get to the stage of a statement of allegations, according to Consumer Affairs Secretary Paula Gold.

Some of the incidents that led to the recent charges of misconduct date back to the 1970s and, in one case, the 1960s, but the complaints were filed only recently.

“It’s a very sensitive area,” said Gold. “People may be reluctant to come forward.”

The five psychiatrists alleged to have engaged in improper sexual contact with patients are:

– Sheldon D. Zigelbaum, 58, medical director of the New Center for Psychotherapies in Boston, an authority on post-traumatic stress disorder among Vietnam veterans who has testified as an expert in court and before the Legislature. He is alleged to have had sex with two patients he was treating during the late 1970s and in this decade. The board issued the allegations May 17.
Zigelbaum and his attorney, Stephen Delinksy of Boston, denied any sexual misconduct.

“The charges are being totally denied and are untrue,” said Zigelbaum, reached at his office. “As you know, it’s a legal process. I fully respect the fairness and the equity of the board.”

Delinsky said, “Dr. Zigelbaum absolutely denies any misconduct. In fact, none of the conduct alleged in the statement of allegations occurred.”

Delinsky criticized the board’s preliminary investigation, saying the staff had failed to interview witnesses and check relevant information.

– Robert W. Ferrell Jr., 48, medical director of the psychiatric services unit of Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport. He is alleged to have had sporadic “sexual contact,” including fondling, giving massages and making failed attempts at intercourse with a patient over 10 years. He began treating her in 1976 when she was a college senior. The board issued the allegations April 19.
Ferrell’s attorney, Mitchell Benjoya of Boston, said, “Right now, I wouldn’t have any comment. . . . We are having hearings, and we expect to have full and fair ones. It’s a very complex situation. This case is highly different from most cases.”

In a response filed May 12, Benjoya said he was sending additional information to the board “for a more comprehensive understanding of the complex and tormented events herein.” That information has not been made public.

– Tobias T. Friedman, 63, chief psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Shreveport, La., and affiliated with the psychiatry department at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. The allegations issued April 5 accused him of trying to hypnotize and have sexual contact with two adolescent girls during the late 1960s and early 1970s, while he was in practice in Massachusetts.

Friedman, reached by telephone in Louisiana, said, “I have no comments now except for general denial. It’s kind of blowing it out of proportion.”

In a handwritten letter to the board dated May 3, Friedman denied the allegations.

– Leonard J. Friedman, 58, a former assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Allegations issued Oct. 19 said Friedman had engaged a patient in “sexually charged physical contact,” including mutual caressing of hands and arms and hugging, and had encouraged her to come to a therapy session “under the influence of marijuana.” He treated her from 1971 to 1975.

Friedman, reached at his Wellesley office, said, “This matter is currently under hearing, and I am not going to comment.” His attorney, Camille Sarrouf, said of the charges, “We deny them.”

“We don’t feel handholding amounts to sexual abuse,” Sarrouf said. “There was absolutely no sex involved, no kissing, no undressing or anything like that involved.”

– Arthur Reider, 52, medical director of the state-funded Center for Mental Health and Retardation in Waltham. The board’s allegations, issued Sept. 29, said Reider had sex with a patient he had treated from July 1977 to September 1981.

Reider’s attorney, Michael Blau of Boston, said in a written statement: “As you are no doubt aware, allegations against a physician are just that – allegations. Dr. Reider has responded” to the patient’s “allegations and intends to present a vigorous defense before the Board of Registration in Medicine.”

Asked yesterday about the spate of recent cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct by psychiatrists, consumer secretary Gold, who oversees the Board of Registration, said, “I don’t think you can draw the conclusion that there is more of this conduct. You can conclude that there is more attention being paid to this publicly and that there is a more aggressive board.”

Sexual relations with patients are a violation of the patient-therapist relationship, said Kathleen M. Mogul, member of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association and a clinical associate professor in psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.

“It’s an absolute violation, if the allegations are true,” Mogul said. “The American Psychiatric Association is quite unequivocal about that.”

The sexual-misconduct cases publicized earlier involved: Dr. Richard Ingrasci, a well-known Newton psychiatrist and holistic medicine practitioner, who voluntarily turned in his medical license at the urging of his colleagues; Dr. Lionel A. Schwartz, affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Hospital, who gave up his license to practice medicine in Massachusetts after three women charged he had sex with them while they were his patients in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Dr. Paul A. Walters, a former Harvard psychiatrist, who was named in a statement of allegations issued by the board May 17; and Dr. Harold Goldberg, a Needham psychiatrist suspended two weeks ago as clinical director of the state-run West-Ros-Park Mental Health Center, in Boston, after a statement of allegations was issued in February.