3rd time is charm for psychiatrist and girlfriend

From the Gillete News Record

Lyndon Steinhaus and Darcy Bogenrief were able to dodge fate once. They were even able to do it a second time.

But three times turned out to be pushing their luck too far.

That's how many times law enforcement caught up with the on-the-run former Campbell County Memorial Hospital psychiatrist and his live-in girlfriend before the couple was held for good.

Steinhaus and Bogenrief, 46 and 41 respectively, were originally arrested in November after they allegedly tried to use the identity of Steinhaus' ex-wife to order jewelry, pay off overdue debt and make bank transfers. The couple made an initial appearance in Circuit Court in December on charges of identity theft and conspiracy to commit identity theft and were released on bond.

Soon afterward, deputies tried to serve Steinhaus with an eviction notice for the hospital-leased apartment he and Bogenrief had been living in, hospital lawyer Tom Lubnau said Thursday at a Circuit Court eviction hearing.

Bogenrief, an Illinois lawyer, had asked for permission to spend Christmas in Mound City, S.D., but neither she nor Steinhaus were where they said they'd be.

Several days before Christmas, deputies tracked Steinhaus down at a Belle Fourche, S.D., motel room, Lubnau said. However, the psychiatrist skipped town before they were able to serve him with the eviction notice.

“Mr. Steinhaus was on the lam and in violation of his bond at that point,” Lubnau noted at Thursday's hearing.

The couple popped up again Dec. 23 when they tried to cross the Canadian border near Shelby, Mont., Lubnau said. Canadian authorities noticed that Bogenrief was drunk, searched the couple's car and found the Campbell County bond papers.

The Canadians detained the couple and notified Shelby and Campbell County authorities, at which point Bogenrief was also arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, Lubnau said.

Steinhaus was released on bond, he said. However, Campbell County faxed Shelby a new warrant against Steinhaus for prescription drug fraud, and they rearrested him and then released him on a $10,000 bond.

Steinhaus was scheduled to appear for a hearing to determine whether to extradite him back to Wyoming, Lubnau said. But he never showed at the hearing.

Brownsville, Tenn., police came across the couple Thursday for the third - and final - time. Officers stopped the couple on suspicion of reckless driving, and their names popped up on a national crime database, said Brownsville Assistant Chief Johnny Blackburn. The couple has waived extradition back to Wyoming, he said.

Campbell County Investigator Duane Peyrot said Bogenrief and Steinhaus are now being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.

Meanwhile, Steinhaus is facing added drug charges locally, with the possibility of federal drug charges.

The state Pharmacy Board's records show that Steinhaus wrote about two dozen separate prescriptions to Bogenrief between May 18 and Nov. 27. The prescriptions were for methylin and methylphenidate hydrochloride, which are generics for the attention deficit disorder drug Ritalin.

In all, Steinhaus allegedly issued about 3,000 tablets, or about 64,800 milligrams of the drugs, according to court documents. If Bogenrief had taken the maximum recommended dosage every one of the 193 days between May 18 and Nov. 27, that would have totaled only 11,580 milligrams.

Steinhaus is now charged with 27 counts of unlawfully dispensing a controlled substance.

Peyrot and Lubnau said investigators also were told about a package of prescription drugs that was mailed to Steinhaus' workspace from Pakistan. Hospital staff notified Campbell County investigators about the package soon after.

Peyrot did not want to comment on the details of that case because it is international in nature and could eventually be turned over to another agency.

Magistrate Kenneth DeCock agreed at Thursday's hearing that deputies and the hospital could go ahead and kick Steinhaus out of the hospital-leased apartment.

Hospital Interim CEO Andy Fitzgerald said the hospital fired Steinhaus in November but gave him until Dec. 15 to move out. When they checked the apartment after his arrest, though, they found the “significant damage to every room in the house, including the furniture.”

“I just, assumed, being a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, that he would clearly move out when he indicated he would,” Fitzgerald said.