Dr. John Anthony Hatherley has anything but a clean slate.
He's been on a rocky road of prescription drug addiction, diversion programs and run-ins with the California Medical Board for the past decade.
The one-time emergency room doctor, who had recently been running Aesthetic Body Solutions in Dana Point, allegedly violated several conditions of his probation, which the Medical Board of California then revoked.
Last week, his license was surrendered voluntarily and he lost all rights and privileges to work as a doctor in the state.
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Hatherley had a couple of surgeries in 1999 and got hooked on Vicodin, which he then prescribed to himself, in excess, for several years, according to a document housed on the medical board's website.
In 2002, he voluntarily entered the medical board's diversion program and quit abusing Vicodin, so the board let him start working again, although not full-time.
Then, he tested positive for morphine in 2003 and alcohol in 2004, the document says, both of which violated terms he had agreed upon with the board. As a result, he was terminated from the diversion program.
He started to work full-time again in March of 2005, but the medical board filed for — and was granted — an interim suspension against Hatherley in June of that year. So, that August he did a 30-day stint at the Betty Ford Center in-patient program and “made good progress,” the document says. So, instead of revoking his license, the board placed him on five-year probation.
The terms of the probation included: partaking in the diversion program, abstaining from use of any controlled substance, unless prescribed by someone else for “a bona fide illness or condition,” abstaining entirely from alcohol, submitting to drug tests at unspecified times and undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
He started the diversion program again in early 2006, but tested positive for alcohol twice that year. One time he drank one-and-a-half-glasses of wine, the document says, and the other time he drank two glasses at his wife's wine and cheese party.
Along with consuming alcohol, Hatherley allegedly filled prescriptions without notifying the board, didn't immediately submit for drug tests and didn't continue with his psychotherapy. He's also accused of dishonesty and corruption, for swearing under the penalty of perjury that he had complied fully with the aforementioned terms.
