Playing Doctor

Medical professionals try to rescue OCs infamous gang-rape suspect

Comments (0) By R. SCOTT MOXLEY Thursday, Dec 2 2004

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The 2002 case was not the doctor's first brush with controversy. In 1999, the Medical Board of California gave Rosenfeld five years' probation after the agency's investigators filed a graphic 30-page complaint. The case involved allegations of gross and repeated negligence, incompetence, dishonesty, corruption, and sexual misconduct from 1992 to 1995.

Among the agency's allegations:

* Rosenfeld overprescribed more than 664 doses of Demerol to a Laguna Beach addict already addicted to the powerful narcotic and entered into multiple, secret business relationships with the man.

* In part by using hypnosis, Rosenfeld coerced a suicidal 28-year-old female patient to perform oral sex on him and "used a foreign object (penis-shaped vibrator) to penetrate the vagina" of the patient. On another occasion, he fondled her "entire body, kissed her genitals, manipulated her genitals" and penetrated her again with a foreign object. Later, he directed the patient to shave off her pubic hair, engaged in intercourse with her and then paid $1,800 for her to undergo breast-enlargement surgery.

At the time of the investigation, Rosenfeld called the allegations false. In exchange for the dismissal of all other charges in 1999, the doctor admitted to the California attorney general's office he'd been "grossly negligent" only in connection with the drug-addicted patient. The doctor told The Orange County Registerlate last month the Demerol addict had threatened his family so he'd overprescribed the narcotic while "under duress" for several years. Despite the explanation, state authorities suspended the doctor's license for 30 days and placed him on five years' probation. Rosenfeld was also forced to attend classes on the "maintenance of patient boundaries" as well as medical ethics, pay $7,500 for the agency's investigative costs, and agree to "surveillance" of his practice. On Nov. 5, the medical board ended probation and cleared Rosenfeld's record. Two weeks later, the doctor testified for Haidl at his bail-revocation hearing.

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com