Anchorage Doctor Sentenced to 3 ½ years for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid and Tampering with Physical Evidence

State of Alaska Press Release here

The Alaska Department of Law, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, announced today that 40-year-old Dr. Shubhranjan Ghosh was sentenced to 3 ½ years of active incarceration. Dr. Ghosh pled guilty to Medical Assistance Fraud and Tampering With Physical Evidence, which he committed between 2010 and 2013 at his practice, Ghosh Psychiatric Services.

Judge Philip Volland also ordered Dr. Ghosh to repay $605,000 in restitution to Medicaid. After release, Dr. Ghosh will be on probation for 10 years, and there will be 3 ½ years jail time that the Court could impose if he violates probation. Dr. Ghosh was remanded to custody at sentencing today. The Medical Board will decide the future of Dr. Ghosh’s medical license.

In court papers, Assistant Attorney General Jonas Walker argued that Dr. Ghosh “is a con artist who happens to hold a medical license.” The State presented evidence at sentencing, including a video showing Dr. Ghosh urging an employee to sign false affidavits stating that medical services were provided when, in fact, they were not.

Judge Volland remarked the community should be “shocked” by Dr. Ghosh’s “unconscionable and unacceptable” crimes of “poaching” money from a program designed to provide medical care to a particularly vulnerable population.

The case was initiated by citizen complaint and jointly investigated by the Alaska Department of Law, Alaska State Troopers, Anchorage Police Department, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. Mr. Walker emphasized that this case is a great example of how state and federal collaboration can work to combat fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system.

The Alaska MFCU is part of the Attorney General’s Office. The MFCU is responsible for investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud and abuse, neglect or financial exploitations of patients in any facility that accepts Medicaid funds.

The information filed in the Ghosh complaint can be found on the MFCU website.

Former Psychiatrist Sentenced for Child Sex Crimes

A Report from WNEP

Michael Kessler was sentenced to state prison Friday for trying to lure a 13-year-old boy to meet him for sex back in 2013.

“Michael, why did you tell the court you're sorry? Are you sorry you got caught? Or are you sorry you did it?" Newswatch 16 asked Kessler. He had no response.

Former psychiatrist Michael Kessler of Cresco is headed to a state prison after his sentencing in Monroe County Court. Kessler admits trying to lure a 13-year-old by to meet him and engage in sexual activity, sending him child porn and more. The boy’s mother says she’s glad Kessler will be behind bars.

"It caused a lot of anxiety not knowing and knowing that he knew where I lived and was my friend and he targeted my son,” said the boy’s mother Janet VanHorn.

That mother says she monitors her children’s phones and Facebook accounts. Two years ago she caught Kessler posing online as a 14-year old boy and turned the case over to Monroe County Detectives.

"She paid attention. She caught it early. She was on top of things and she took the right steps,” said Detective Brian Webbe of the Monroe County Detective Office.

Kessler worked at Pocono Psychiatric Associates near Marshalls Creek before his license was revoked in 2012. Prosecutors say Kessler was arrested four other times for sexual incidents in Massachusetts and New Jersey without facing jail time.

"It makes you angry because all these years he thought he was above the law. It made me want to fight even harder to make sure he faced punishment,” said VanHorn.

Now Kessler faces a year and a half to five years behind bars. And this mother of two has a message for other parents after a long tough two years waiting for justice.

“Parents need to be aware that they need to keep up on your social media you need to check your kids' phones and their Facebook. You need to be on top of it all because if you're not, Lord knows what could have happened,” said VanHorn.

Houston Hospital Leaders Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison for Alarming Psychiatric Fraud Scheme

Details of the fraud allegations against Riverside General Hospital executives

The bulk of the Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations against Gibson, et al. center around Riverside’s psychiatric facilities, which are classified by the government as a “partial hospitalization program” (PHP) A PHP is technically an outpatient treatment facility, but is geared toward the round-the-clock care required for patients enduring a severe mental illness. Under government guidelines, mental health patients receiving care at a PHP must be routinely seen by a psychiatrist, guided through a care plan, and carefully monitored throughout the course of treatment.

According to the allegations, Riverside collected more than $158 million in funds from Medicare and Medicaid on behalf of PHP patients who rarely, if ever, saw a psychiatrist for their illnesses. Moreover, Riverside regularly billed the government for psychiatric services that were never rendered, mostly because the patients were in the advanced stages of dementia and unable to participate in the treatment.

Patient care aside, Riverside is also accused of offering kickbacks and financial incentives to executives group homes, as well as recruiters tasked with increasing referrals of mental health patients to Riverside’s facilities.

In addition to the three main participants listed above, six other individuals recently pled guilty to conspiring with Gibson to bring in the maximum number of Medicare and Medicaid clientele.

According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, “The former President of Houston’s Riverside hospital, his son, and their co-conspirators saw mentally ill, elderly, and disabled Medicare beneficiaries as commodities to be turned into profit centers – not as vulnerable individuals in need of health care….Rather than providing needed medical care to a historically underserved community, the defendants ran a longstanding hospital into the ground through their greed and fraud. According to the evidence presented at trial, the defendants had patients sit around the facility watching movies while they received no treatment. Meanwhile, the defendants billed Medicare more than $158 million for care that was never provided. This brazen fraud cannot and will not be tolerated.”

See Also

Department of Justice Press Release, “Former President of Riverside General Hospital Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison in $158 Million Medicare Fraud.” June 9, 2015.

Physician Sentenced for $5.5 million Medicare fraud scheme involving fraudulent billings by a psychiatric hospital

As seen in this report

A Miami-area medical doctor was sentenced recently to 60 months in prison for his role in a $5.5 million Medicare fraud scheme involving fraudulent billings by a psychiatric hospital in Hollywood, Florida.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Shimon Richmond of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office made the announcement.

Barry Kaplowitz, 54, of Aventura, Florida, a licensed physician, was convicted of making false statements related to health care matters on Feb. 20, 2015, following a six-week jury trial. In addition to the recent prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida ordered Kaplowitz to pay more than $2.9 million in restitution.

According to evidence presented at trial, Kaplowitz served as the medical director at Hollywood Pavilion (HP), a state-licensed psychiatric hospital, from approximately 2008 to 2011. During that time, Kaplowitz signed false and fraudulent medical records in order to make it appear that HP’s patients qualified for and received intensive outpatient services, even though they did not. The evidence demonstrated that Kaplowitz signed patient files for over 400 patients certifying that he had provided mental health services to each of them, even though he never saw nor provided any treatment to the patients. HP used these falsified medical records to submit over 2,800 false claims to Medicare totaling over $5.5 million. Medicare paid $2.9 million on those false claims.

Five other individuals have previously been convicted and sentenced in this case:

• Karen Kallen-Zury, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, HP’s former chief executive officer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison;
• Daisy Miller, of Hollywood, the clinical director of HP’s inpatient facility, was sentenced to 15 years in prison;
• Michele Petrie, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the head of HP’s intensive outpatient program, was sentenced to six years in prison;
• Christian Coloma, of Miami Beach, Florida, the director of physical therapy for an entity associated with HP, was sentenced to 12 years in prison; and
• Christopher Gabel, of Davie, Florida, HP’s former chief operating officer, was sentenced to six years in prison.

Psychiatrist Dr. William Lewek given max sentence for burying body in his own back yard

Taken from a Report From the Democrat and Chronicle. there is more informtion and a video at this link.

Monroe County Court Judge Christopher S. Ciaccio cited Arendt on Friday as he sentenced a Rochester psychiatrist to up to four years in prison for burying a body in a Park Avenue neighborhood backyard.

While William Lewek has numerous substance abuse and physical and mental health issues, Ciaccio said, none of those are adequate explanation for why he kept Matthew Straton's body hidden for nearly three months, even as police and increasingly frantic family and friends looked for him.

Instead, Lewek "simply put his needs and fears above others'," Ciaccio said as he gave Lewek the maximum sentence on the felony charge of tampering with physical evidence.

That physical evidence was the body of 32-year-old Straton, who died in October 2013 at Lewek's Rowley Street house and who Lewek then dragged outside and buried. The county Medical Examiner's Office was never able to ascertain what killed Straton, though during sentencing Friday there were numerous references to it very likely being of a drug overdose.

"Matt had been thrown out like a bag of garbage," Straton's mother, Kym, told the court prior to sentencing, as she described the family's frantic efforts to try to find him for more than two months. "I have nightmares of what Matt looked like when he finally was discovered."

{...]

We also have this video from the initial arrest

Man sentenced to 17 years in prison for childmolestation of his own daughter. Judge outraged at the man's psychiatrist

As reported in the Daily Telegraph

The Judge in the case had especially harsh words for the psychiatrist assigned to the case.

A truck driver will spend at least 17 years in jail for the sexual abuse of his daughter in one of the longest sentences handed down to a paedophile father in Australia.

In sentencing the 49-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, Judge Paul Conlon said it was what the community expected.

[...]

Judge Conlon, who has a ­reputation for handing down tough sentences to child sex offenders, said the truck driver had exploited her youth “in the worst possible way”.

“He has groomed his own daughter, turning her into his sexual play thing,” the judge said.

He was critical of psychiatrist Dr Olav Nielssen who told the court the repeated sexual abuse over seven years had been “opportunistic”.

Judge Conlon said the psychiatrist had seemed to treat “without any critical evaluation” the man’s comments that he had trouble “showing his feelings” to his daughter and had not known how to express himself.

“In my view, it is inappropriate to use the word ‘opportunistic’ when dealing with persistent sexual abuse of a child over a period of seven years. I am unable to have much confidence in this future risk assessment,” Judge Conlon said.

His daughter, now 28, went to Queensland police in 2007. The ­father was sentenced in Queensland to a maximum of four years with a non-parole term of just one year four months after telling the psychiatrist that “he and his daughter had a very close and open relationship and that he really loved her”.

He had pleaded guilty to three counts of raping his daughter.

[...]

Doylestown Psychiatrist Basem Shlewiet Sentenced to Prison for Fondling Patients

As seen in the Doylestown-Buckingham-New Britain Patch

A Doylestown psychiatrist convicted of fondling seven female patients during treatment will serve seven to 17 years in state prison.

Basem Shlewiet, 43, a Buckingham resident, was sentenced Monday by Judge Wallace H. Bateman,

In October, a jury found Shlewiet guilty of 16 of 18 criminal counts, including indecent assault and unlawful conduct with a minor.

Shlewiet was arrested in late 2014 after a nine-month investigation that began when Doylestown Borough Police received reports from women who said they had been touched in a sexual way during treatment at Shlewiet’s North Franklin Street office.

Initially, two of the victims told authorities that Shlewiet touched their breasts and another victim, who was 17 at the time, told authorities he touched her vaginal area. After his arrest, five more victims came forward saying Shlewiet had also inappropriately touched them.

The week-long trial included testimony from former patients, coworkers and character witnesses.

Shlewiet was represented by defense attorney Louis Busico.

Psychiatrist ordered imprisoned for Medicare fraud

A report from the Belleville News Democrat out of Decatur, Illinois

A Metro East psychiatrist is headed to federal prison for two and a half years for defrauding Medicare of $1.75 million.

Fifty-five-year-old Ajit Trikha (ah-JEET' TREEK'-ah) pleaded guilty last June in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis to two counts of health care fraud.

Trikha overbilled Medicare and Medicaid for services that weren't performed, including when he was out of the country. He also billed for group-therapy sessions that far exceeded the 12-person limit set by Medicare and Medicaid.

A federal judge has ordered Trikha to reimburse the government for the money he bilked.

Trikha established his TRX Health Systems in 2000 in Belleville, Illinois.

Psychiatrist pleads guilty to 5 misdemeanor charges

A former Albany Psychiatrist pled guilty to issuing blank prescriptions, and faces only a fine. Prosecutors say they are satisfied that the doctor no longer has his medical license.

Dr. Gerald Dariah pled guilty to five misdemeanor counts of issuing blank prescriptions, or attempting to issue blank prescriptions. He was originally arrested and charged with 67 counts. Under the plea agreement, Dariah will have to pay less than two thousand dollars in fines and court costs to satisfy his sentence. Then his record is cleared under a first offender style program.

Investigators say he signed dozens of blank prescriptions, and would let his staff fill them out for patients.

When he was arrested, Prosecutors say the Board of Medical Examiners suspended his medical license. He did not renew it in 2005.

A former prison psychologist has acknowledged having an affair with an inmate under her care and lying to federal investigators about it.

I just don't know what is is about prison psychologists who fall in love with prisoners. From Newsday.com

A former prison psychologist has acknowledged having an affair with an inmate under her care and lying to federal investigators about it.

Magdalena Sanchez faces up to six months in jail after pleading guilty Friday to making a false statement. Her sentencing date has not been set.

She was originally also charged with sexual abuse of a ward, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

An indictment filed in April accused Sanchez of having a sexual tryst with an inmate at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn between October 2005 and February 2006, and then denying it to a federal agent in September 2006.

"I was asked if I had a sexual relationship with the inmate, and I said I had not, when in fact I had a sexual relationship with the inmate," Sanchez, who is married, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr. on Friday. "I knew I was not telling the truth."

Sanchez has resigned from her prison job. She told the judge she was getting "support therapy" from a doctor.

Judge slams psychologist’s evidence for being out of touch with reality.

Another psychologist who seems to be in a world all their own. Report from South Africa.

A judge trashed the testimony of a psychologist during pre-sentencing evidence of a man convicted of murdering a former senior official in the Premier’s office.

Judge Yusuf Ebrahim lashed out at East London-based psychologist Luyanda Mapekula in the Bhisho High Court yesterday for failing to read his judgment.

Mapekula was testifying during mitigation of sentence of Bonisile Grey, convicted last year of the premeditated murder of Siphiwe Mgoduso. Mgoduso was stabbed at a family member’s funeral in Mdantsane in July 2005.

Ebrahim said he was trying to establish the actual status of Grey’s mental condition after Mapekula testified his “psychology” had diminished prior, during and after the incident. “All I have been asking since (Tuesday) is (whether) the accused is suffering from mental illness or defect,” said Ebrahim.

Mapekula replied that Grey was under severe stress and depressed because of the disintegration of his family. “It is my view that his psychological state was compromised ... there should have been intervention in the form of psychiatric evaluation to return him into a normal state.”


Ebrahim said he could not understand why Mapekula was giving the court such an assessment because it did not seem to link with Grey’s argument that he acted in self-defence.

“Did you read the court’s judgment? Because you are relying on the accused’s version, which by the way this court has rejected. I have difficulty with the way you are speculating about (his mental state). You are acting solely on what the accused has told you.

“You have not read the court judgment and what other witnesses have told the court about the events that happened on the day.”

Mapekula admitted to Ebrahim that she did not interview Qaga – whom Grey regards as his wife – because the psychologist thought she would be hostile.

Sentencing will resume today.

Psychiatrist Convicted Of Prescription Fraud Loses Appeal

Report from Maine's WMTW TV

A psychiatrist who founded a methadone clinic in Westbrook has lost his appeal of his conviction and six-month prison sentence for prescription fraud.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied the appeal of Dr. Marc Shinderman, who was found guilty in 2006 of writing prescriptions for controlled substances using another doctor's name and drug registration number.

Shinderman, who started CAP Quality Care in 2001, was not licensed to write the prescriptions in Maine and said he believed that the arrangement was acceptable.

In its ruling Tuesday, the appeals court rejected all four of Shinderman's arguments, including the trial judge's refusal to allow jurors to hear his proposed entrapment defense and the use of an obstruction of justice enhancement during sentencing.

Fake head shrinker to have head examined pending sentencing.

A followup to an odd story from over a year ago:

Fake Head Shrinker Sued for Leaving Mind Unshrunken, and Endangering a Life.

We recently received word that ex-ghost hunter Susan Crites was not only sued, but was charged with crimes, was been found guilty, and was set to be sentenced. But this has been put on hold pending a court order to have the fake head shrinker's head examined.

Here is the news story originally posted December 18th, 2007

The sentencing of Susan R. Crites, the former head of the now defunct Hedgesville-based West Virginia Society of Ghost Hunters, was postponed Monday after a judge ordered her to undergo a 60-day psychological evaluation.

Crites, 57, was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of practicing medicine without a license and five counts of practicing counseling without a license in September following a jury trial in Berkeley County Circuit Court. A separate but related charge of delivery of a controlled substance was later dismissed by the state.

Crites had originally been scheduled to be sentenced last Monday but it was continued because Crites’ then-attorney, Heidi Myers, was unable to attend because of a medical emergency.

The court’s order to have Crites undergo a 60-day psychological evaluation came as a surprise to both the prosecution and the defense, which was only made of aware of the evaluation order by Berkeley County Circuit Court Judge Gray Silver III on Monday morning.

“Note my objection on behalf of Miss Crites,” Myers told Silver.

Silver also granted a motion recently filed by Myers requesting she be allowed to withdraw from the case and a new lawyer be appointed to represent the local ghost hunter and published author. Myers filed the motion at the behest of Crites who recently decided to seek new representation.

“My services have been terminated,” Myers said.

Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely argued that the evaluation and the appointment of a new attorney for Crites would only delay sentencing, further inconveniencing the victims in the case, but Silver supported an objection by Myers, who argued that Crites would need an attorney to be able to present arguments to the court during the sentencing phase.

“Miss Crites is requesting new counsel. I am concerned that the right to counsel is a constitutional right and sentencing is still a critical stage,” said Silver, adding appointing a new attorney for Crites would not delay sentencing since the court intended to order the 60-day evaluation anyway, something Silver said would aid the court in its sentencing.

Crites will now be represented by the Berkeley County Public Defenders’ Office. The earliest Crites might be forced to undergo the evaluation is three weeks. In the meantime, Silver told Crites her newly appointed attorney could present arguments to the court against the evaluation order if she wished.

After granting Myers’ motion to withdraw, Silver was later presented with a motion by Crites she said a friend helped her draft to continue sentencing. She was stopped by Silver, who indicated Crites should wait until her new attorney was appointed before attempting to present an argument before the court.

“We don’t want you putting yourself in a position where you say something that could possibly hurt your case,” Silver said.

No new sentencing date was scheduled Monday. For each of the three misdemeanor counts of practicing medicine without a license, Crites could face fines of as much as $10,000, imprisonment terms as long as 12 months, or both. For the five counts of offering counseling without a license, Crites stands to face fines as much as $500, imprisonment as long as six months, or both.

Actually the West Virgina Society of Ghost Hunters continues under new leadership, it seems. And to their credit they have a full webpage going over all of the gory details of the scandal.

Families talk about 'worst nightmare' - man sentenced after murders, was on psych drugs.

From the Iowa City Press Citizen. A long and sand and tragic story, here are some of the essential points.

In a tearful and emotional sentencing Wednesday morning, Kyle Marin was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for killing 18-year-old cousins Molly Edmondson and Katrina Hill in Edmondson's Cedar Rapids apartment on April 23, 2006.

Marin, 21, formerly of North Liberty, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder Nov. 1. The mandatory penalty for first-degree murder in Iowa is life imprisonment without parole. Judge Robert Sosalla, who presided over the two-week long trial, ordered that the life terms be served consecutively rather than concurrently "because of the brutality of the offenses."

The sentencing also saw the only time Marin spoke out loud in the courtroom as he asked for forgiveness for his crimes.

"I will not forgive myself," Marin said. "I will do my time for the pain and suffering I have caused. I want Molly and Katrina, my friends, to know how sorry I am. ... I would like to ask for forgiveness, but I have no right."

Sometime in the early hours of April 23, 2006, Marin entered Edmondson's apartment, woke her and Hill and directed them to the bathroom, according to trial testimony. He had them strip before he brutally attacked them with knives, a hammer, a screwdriver and a pizza cutter.

Before and after the murders, Marin went to the top of a parking structure and contemplated suicide. His defense attorneys, Thomas Diehl and Dave Cmelik, argued that Marin's use of Zoloft and other prescription drugs drove him to experience suicidal and homicidal thoughts.

Marin's friendship with Edmondson and Hill was discussed at length throughout the trial. In a videotaped interview with police, Marin said the women were his best friends, and he did not know why he killed them. Marin attended two house parties with Edmondson and was staying at her apartment the night he killed the women.

[...]

In addition to the consecutive life sentences, Marin was ordered to pay $150,000 to the estates of both Edmondson and Hill, as well as court costs and attorney fees. He may seek an appeal within 30 days of his sentencing.

A number of victim impact statements are included in the original report. While the man who committed the crime deserves to go to jail, the psychiatrist who prescribed these dangerous drugs should also be held accountable.

School psychologist gets one year in jail for molesting 8-year-old boy

From the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz

Haifa District Court on Saturday sentenced a school psychologist convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy whom he was treating to one year in prison.

The court added an 18-month suspended sentence, which will be in effect for three years.

The psychologist, Farid Shehadah, was employed in a school near Hadera. The verdict says that in August 2003, Shehadah summoned the boy, who was eight years old at the time, to his office for an examination. The boy arrived along with his sister and mother, and when the two left the room, Shehadah locked the door and molested the boy.

The verdict states that Shehadah continued to molest the boy throughout 2004.

Judges Ilan Schiff, Yitzhak Amit, and Hani Horowitz wrote that such crimes leave emotional scars, especially given the relationship of trust and dependency between a psychologist and a minor

Psychologist convicted in murder case, sentenced to life for killing ex-fiancee

From the Dallas Morning News

A licensed psychologist who met a woman on Match.com and became engaged to her was convicted Friday of her murder.

Lester Winningham, 59, was convicted in the death of Deborah Houchin, a licensed family therapist.

The two had met through the online dating service and later became colleagues at the Counseling Center in Arlington, officials said.

In July 2005, the 56-year-old woman's body was found burned beyond recognition in Cooke County.

“Sometimes, things fit,” said Tiffany Burks, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney. ”When Deborah Houchin was at her home, the defendant came over and shot her in the back three times.” Ms. Houchin’s blood, she told jurors, was found in the trunk of Mr. Winningham’s car.

Mr. Winningham moved to Arlington from Temple to live with Ms. Houchin and join her and other clinicians at the Mitchell Boulevard office. Ms. Houchin, prosecutors said, assisted Mr. Winningham in finding clients and building his practice. By Christmas 2004, they were engaged.

Deborah Houchin’s sister, Marlene Wallem testified she suggested to her sister that she needed to get a prenuptial agreement.

“He got so mad,” Ms. Wallem said. “After that, he wouldn’t touch her or kiss her.”

Less than a week after the engagement, the couple had broken up but continued to date off and on, she said.

One month before she was found dead, Ms. Houchin said her sister issued a dire warning. “She told me, ‘if anything happens to me, make sure the police talk to Les,” Ms. Wallem testified.

Mr. Winningham’s attorney, Bill Ray, said investigators neglected to look at other suspects. Ms. Houchin, he said, changed her online dating profile and drew some 400 hits from other men -- all of whom could be suspects.

“She received a good deal of response,” Mr. Ray said. “We don’t know who all those people are.”

Mr. Ray had attacked the state’s case as largely circumstantial. He told jurors there was no physical evidence tying his client to the slaying.

“The only piece of evidence in this case is the blood in the back of the car,” he told jurors Friday during close arguments.

“We don’t know how it got there. We don’t know how long it’s been there,” Mr. Ray said.

Mr. Wnningham, he said, did not have time to dump a body in Cooke County, drive 90 minutes to Arlington, clean up evidence and report to work.

“The car didn’t smell like gasoline,” Mr. Ray said. “He didn’t smell like gasoline.”

Prosecutors portrayed Mr. Winningham has dejected suitor who seethed over his break-up with Ms. Houchin.

“There is no mystery killer,” said Greg Miller, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney. “He’s sitting right in this courtroom.”

Retired Swiss psychiatrist found guilty over assisted suicide

A story that we missed when it first came out. as seen on Youtube, video included below.

Retired Swiss psychiatrist was found guilty over assisted suicide killings. A court in Switzerland has sentenced a retired psychiatrist to three years, for helping three depressed people commit suicide.

Peter Baumann, who ran his own assisted-suicide association, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a country which has some of the most relaxed assisted-suicide laws in Europe.

Texas Medical Board suspends license of Psychiatrist Sergio Silva for cocaine use.

From this report in the American Statesman newspaper

An Austin psychiatrist whose license was suspended last fall after a boy he was treating was hospitalized has acknowledged using cocaine but wants to practice again, according to a new order from the Texas Medical Board.

The board last week acted again in the case of Dr. Sergio Silva, indefinitely suspending him from practice and stipulating that he not seek reinstatement before May 11. To regain his license, Silva would have to prove that he can safely practice.

Silva did not respond to a request seeking an interview Friday but said through his attorney, Penny Hobbs of Austin, that the "case was contested" and that the board's latest order represents a compromise.

"He's not admitting or denying" what is outlined in the order, which Silva signed, Hobbs said. "It's a mechanism for him, hopefully, to get his license back someday."

Silva has not practiced since September, when the board temporarily suspended him not only for his treatment of the 7-year-old boy but also for mishandling the care of a housemate. The housemate overdosed on drugs that Silva prescribed, the board determined. It also sanctioned Silva for interfering with that patient's care to the point of losing hospital privileges, for failing to return phone calls to patients and for missing appointments.

In the case of the 7-year-old, the boy's mother told Silva that the child was getting worse while on the Prozac and Strattera that Silva had prescribed. He accused the mother of not complying with his medication orders. Later, he boosted the dosage, which led to the child's hospitalization.

Silva later filed a complaint against the mother with Child Protective Services.

The new order says that from Jan. 8 to 12, Silva took part in the "psychiatric and addictive disease evaluations" at Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta. Silva indicated that he had been following a 12-step program since Jan. 22, the order said. Talbott did not recommend that Silva be allowed to resume his psychiatric practice, the order said. It said a Jan. 11 drug screen of his hair was positive for cocaine and two substances involved in cocaine metabolism.

Hobbs declined to comment on specifics in the order.

[...]

The report mentions nothing about possible criminal charges for the cocaine possession.

Psychiatrist and Child Molester - His Fate Depends on Judge

From this report

(NY) State parole officials Wednesday tried to persuade a judge to return one of the county's most notorious child molesters - who jumped parole and triggered an international manhunt - to prison for every last day remaining on his sentence.

The closed parole hearing at the Schenectady County Jail came as federal authorities continue to probe whether Alan J. Horowitz's 11-month flight throughout southern Asia should result in additional charges for his failure to register as a sex offender.

It could be several weeks before Administrative Law Judge Patricia O'Malley renders a decision in the state matter, Division of Parole spokesman Mark Johnson said.

But Johnson said parole officials are hopeful O'Malley will send Horowitz back to prison for the five-plus years remaining on his sentence for a 1992 sodomy conviction, including the 11 months he was on the run.

Horowitz, 60, a former adolescent psychiatrist who has claimed to be an ordained rabbi, was captured in Mahabalipuram, a coastal city in southeastern India in late May. In June 2006 he met with his parole officer for the last time, then hopped a plane to Japan and, authorities say, glibly penned a goodbye note of sorts to his parole officer.

At the same time, Horowitz at least nominally told officials who run the state sex offender registry he would be living in Tel Aviv, Israel, though authorities are still probing whether he ever went there. Either way, parole officials said he had no permission to leave the country.

The stunt earned him a spot on the state's list of 100 "most wanted" fugitives and landed him in the sights of federal marshals, who continue to investigate his travels overseas.

Gary Mattison, a criminal investigator with the U.S. Marshals, said Wednesday his office is working with federal prosecutors to determine whether Horowitz ran afoul of the Adam Walsh Child Protection act, signed by President Bush last year to toughen federal laws against sex offenders.

The law is named for the murdered son of John Walsh, the well-known host the popular FOX television show "America's Most Wanted," which featured Horowitz's case and helped generate the tips that led police to Horowitz in India.

Public Defender Mark Caruso, who represented Horowitz Wednesday, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Not Guilty by Reason of Cymbalta Induced Insanity: Man Kills Wife

As reported in the Statesman from Texas

A Bastrop County man who choked and stabbed his wife to death in October won't go to prison under a sentence given by District Judge Terry Flenniken.

Robert Crerar, a 67-year-old retired county probation transport officer, instead was sentenced earlier this month to 10 years of probation.

On Oct. 1, Crerar, who was taking Cymbalta and other drugs for severe depression, told his wife of 30 years that he planned to kill himself. Dolores Crerar, 73, told her husband that she "couldn't go on without you; kill me first," according to court records.

Crerar choked her, stabbed her 47 times and slit her throat before calling 911 to confess. He meant to kill himself after killing his wife but was too tired to do so, he told police.

Crerar was at a loss to explain his actions.

"I feel it's out of character for me to do something like that," he wrote in his confession. "I ask myself over and over again why did I do something like that and I can't answer that question."

But his lawyers say a doctor's decision to increase Crerar's dosage of Cymbalta four days before the murder pushed him to try to kill himself — Crerar tried unsuccessfully to hang himself the day before the murder — and kill his wife. Investigators also found other prescribed drugs, including the sleep aids Rozerem, Ambien and Lunesta, in the Crerars' house.

"He may well not have been able to control his behavior at the time of the offense," psychologist Cecil Reynolds wrote in a pre-sentencing court report.

The Crerars' family and neighbors were shocked by the murder. The Crerars were a loving couple, and Robert Crerar always made sure to kiss his wife goodbye, even before going on brief errands, recalled Gary Smith, an elder at the Crerars' church.

"He worshipped the ground she walked on," he wrote in a letter to the court.

But when Crerar began taking antidepressants after the death of his older brother in August, he changed, neighbors said. Crerar, a friendly man who delivered firewood to those in need during the winter and donated most of his vegetable garden's bounty to his church's food pantry, became withdrawn and sometimes hallucinated, according to court records.

"I looked up to him and when he started taking that medicine . . . it really messed him up," Smith wrote.

Crerar accepted a deal from prosecutors in which he'd face a prison sentence of no more than 20 years, District Attorney Bryan Goertz said. Sentences for murder convictions are up to 99 years. Under the terms of his probation, Crerar's son and daughter-in-law will care for him and make sure that he gets psychiatric treatment.

Dolores Crerar's only living blood relative, son Rick Harman, didn't oppose the sentence.

"He needs help, but I don't believe he deserves to go to jail," Harman wrote in a letter to the court. "It is just not right that he should be punished any more for something he had no control over."

Assistant District Attorney Greg Gilleland, who prosecuted the case, said he feels justice was done.

"Anybody that disagrees . . . needed to be in that courtroom" listening to Harman plead for mercy for his mother's killer, he said.