NH House candidate had M.D. license pulled, had once fled the country

Now there is this report from the NH Union Leader regarding the notorious Psychiatrist and political candidate Edward Rowan. It seems that, as seen below, due to a series of unusual coincidences, suspicions are that he once fled the country to avoid legal difficulties.

A retired psychiatrist running for the state House of Representatives had his medical license suspended in 1995 after a patient accused him of having a two-year sexual relationship with her.

The patient abruptly withdrew the complaint against Dr. Edward L. Rowan of Exeter about a week after it was filed in October 1993, but the state Board of Medicine continued to investigate the charge as possible physician abuse while also questioning if Rowan had paid or pressured the patient to recant.

Rowan denied the charge 13 years ago and again yesterday. He also denied paying the woman to withdraw the charge.

The board said Rowan refused to cooperate with its probe or submit any information to support his denial. As a result, the board suspended his privilege to be re-licensed until he produced the information. The suspension was for lack of cooperation, not for misconduct, since that charge was never proven.

Rowan said yesterday he wanted to submit what the board sought but could not because the patient refused to allow it. The patient, identified in public documents as Donna Roach, then a Concord resident, also refused to provide the board with any information.

Rowan appealed the board's Nov. 8, 1995 license suspension, but the state Supreme Court upheld the board's action in June 1997.

Rowan said that in more recent years he tried three times to regain his license, "but the lawyers say I'm being buried in discovery ... I've given them everything they asked for."

Long before the controversy, Rowan, now 65, had been the director of forensic unit at the state hospital for the mentally ill from mid-1983 to 1985. Rowan said that when the forensic unit was transferred to the corrections system in the mid-1980s, he became medical director of the corrections department.

He later went into private practice in Concord and occasionally provided expert testimony in criminal trials.

In early 1994, shortly after Roach made the sexual accusation, and about the time the board began its probe, Rowan closed his practice and moved with his wife to New Zealand.

Rowan said yesterday he did not move out of the country because of the accusation or probe. He said that when he told Roach he would be closing his office, "it made her angry and she filed the complaint." But, he noted, "She withdrew it about a week later."

Rowan said that since returning to the United States 10 years ago, he has authored four books.

In his 2000 book, "The Joy of Self-Pleasuring," Rowan promotes masturbation as a key ingredient of a healthy sex life. In the 2006 work, "Understanding Child Sex Abuse," Rowan condemns abuse of children as socially unacceptable but attempts to explain the thinking of abusers. He also says that the effectiveness of treatment programs for child sex offenders is subject to question. He discusses ways to minimize risks to children, the pros and cons of public child sex offenders lists and concludes, "Much work is yet to be done to understand both sides of the adult-child sexual experience."

In 2005 he authored, "To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America" and "Cass Street Stories," a look at the histories of the homes on his street in Exeter.

Rowan is among seven Democrats and eight Republicans running in the Nov. 7 election for the eight House seats available in Rockingham County District 13. He said he is entering elective politics for the first time because "the local folks here asked me to" and because he wants to help Gov. John Lynch at the State House.

Roach's October 1993 complaint to the board stated, "I was a patient of Dr. Rowan from 1986 to 1993. During the last two years, Dr. Rowan had a sexual relationship with me while I was his patient. I am beginning to understand how badly Dr. Rowan's behavior hurt me ... I want to make sure that Dr. Rowan does not hurt anyone else."

But about a week later, Roach wrote the board, "I have decided to withdraw the complaint that I filed against Dr. Edward L. Rowan on Oct. 29, 1993. Upon reflection, I do not wish to pursure (sic) this complaint."

While probing the charge nearly two years later, the board took notice of a story in the Concord Monitor about Roach's battle with crack cocaine addiction.

The May 12, 1995 story said, "In October, she came into $10,000 but blew it all on crack by Christmas." The story did not specify what year she "came into" the money or how she got it. But the passage apparently prompted the board's hearing officer to seek from Rowan details "concerning the closure of his practice, his treatment of Ms. R, and any financial arrangements he may have had with Ms. R, as well as copies of Ms. R's medical records."

The board said Roach had "arguably waived any privilege she may have in the confidentiality of her treatment records" by filing her complaint, "and by disclosing both her history of substance abuse and receipt of a $10,000 payment 'last October.'"

In several public documents, the board shows suspicion about a financial arrangement. A pre-hearing order, for example, asked Rowan to detail "all contact he, or his representatives, may have had with Ms. R. during the period between Sept. 1, 1993 and the present and specifically admit or deny whether he entered into any written agreement with Ms. R. or any other person acting on her behalf or paid any money or other thing of value to Ms. R. during this period." An assistant attorney general later told the state Supreme Court that the board became "concerned that Ms. R. may have been pressured into withdrawing" her complaint.