Doctor’s License Put on 8 Years Probation for Masturbating at Cal State Fullerton

The medical license of a Santa Ana neurologist has been placed on probation for eight years due to his confessed mental illness, according to the Medical Board of California.

During the probationary period, Dr. Robert Alva Rose is prohibited from seeing female patients or those of any sex under age 18, nor can he supervise physician assistants or advanced practice nurses, states the order that went into effect on April 19.

Rose also must undergo psychotherapy, have his practice monitored by the board, complete ethics and professional boundaries courses, submit quarterly reports to the board and obey all laws, read the state documents linked to here.

Failure to abide by the probation conditions could cause license revocation proceedings to kick in, according to the disciplinary order that Rose and his attorney Gary Wittenberg accepted with their Jan. 25 signatures.

One afternoon in November 2013, the Fullerton Police Department was called to Cal State Fullerton regarding a man who was masturbating in public. He had entered a library and a women’s restroom and jacked off while watching female students. Witnesses had told police the man “kept going” even after they made eye contact with him and that the encounters were “creepy and disgusting,” according to the medical board report.

After a man fitting the description of the suspect was apprehended on campus, he at first refused to identify himself to police officers. They figured out it was Rose from his California driver’s license. The medical board report states that during questioning at the police station, Rose “acted remoseful,” said “he thought he was being careful and discreet” and that it was hard for him due to “all the pretty girls around.” He added that he had recently stopped seeing a psychiatrist who had been treating him for years because he thought he had his urges under control, adding that he would now have to resume thrice-weekly visits.

Rose was charged in March 2014 with lewd conduct in public and delaying or obstructing a police officer. He copped to the criminal counts in Orange County Superior Court on Sept. 15, 2015, when he also submitted a hand-written confession, according to the medical board. That same day, Rose was fined shy of $400, given three years probation and deemed a sex offender.

In November 2015, Rose was charged with a probation violation: failing to inform the medical board of his conviction. Subsequent court proceedings by the state sought a complete prohibition from Rose practicing medicine. Through his then-attorney Roger Diamond, Rose agreed in July 2016 to additional probation conditions that included not being in the presence of children without a probation officer present, limiting his practice to evaluating worker compensation claims without actually seeing patients and not evaluating female patients. As a result, the complete prohibition was denied.

In March 2017, Rose underwent mental and physical evaluations. He displayed no physical ailments that prevented him from reviewing worker compensation cases, according to Dr. Ronald Saltzman, while Dr. Nathan Lavid concluded it was safe for Rose to practice if he continued weekly psychotherapy with his longtime therapist and sex offender group therapy and if he only saw adult male patients. 

Failure to satisfy all those conditions would mean it was unsafe for Rose to practice, according to Lavid, who further recommended that the neurologist should curtail all use of recreational alcohol and have his psychotropic medication administered only by his psychotherapist for added pubic safety.

Besides Rose’s conviction and failure to notify the board of it, general unprofessional conduct and violation of the Medical Practice Act were cited as causes for the most recent medical license discipline.