Persistent sleuthing uncovers state flaw
A Scientologist pored over records to find a lapse in Florida's system that disciplines medical professionals.
By ROBERT FARLEY
Published February 6, 2005
CLEARWATER - In a second bedroom converted to an office, amid file cabinets filled with cases of psychiatric abuse, Ken Kramer banged away on his Hewlett-Packard, sending e-mail after e-mail to Tallahassee, late into the night, night after night.
His focus was the psychiatric profession. And after months of dogged persistence, his work finally paid dividends last month. The state Department of Health admitted Kramer had uncovered an embarrassing flaw in its disciplinary system that may have spared hundreds of medical professionals from criminal prosecution.
Last week, state Health Secretary John O. Agwunobi announced more than 15,000 disciplinary cases investigated by the department since 1992 are being sent to prosecutors throughout the state to determine whether any criminal acts should be pursued.
This came after the Health Department's inspector general found the agency had failed to refer to prosecutors cases in which doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health practitioners may have committed criminal acts. Such referrals are required by law.
It's what Kramer had been telling them all along.
Kramer, 49, of Clearwater, is a Scientologist and shares Scientology's ardent opposition to psychiatry. He runs a public records research firm and volunteers with the Clearwater branch of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was founded by the Church of Scientology in 1969 to expose abuses in psychiatry.
Like an investigative reporter, Kramer's approach was methodical, and his purpose clear. He first assembled a list of all mental health professionals in Florida who had been disciplined administratively by the Department of Health. Then he requested those disciplinary files, one at a time to avoid copying charges.
On a $75 scanner, he copied hundreds of disciplinary actions and posted them to a Web site. Reading through them, he found numerous cases of psychiatrists having had sex with patients.
In many instances, the Department of Health suspended or revoked a doctor's license. But did they face criminal charges as well? Florida law prohibits psychotherapists from having sexual relations with patients, even if consensual.
Kramer contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to see whether the cases he identified had been prosecuted.
"What cases?" he was asked.
"Jiminy Christmas, there it is," Kramer thought.
Eventually, the inspector general's office took notice and opened its own investigation.
The result was last week's red-faced announcement by Agwunobi. Suddenly, Kramer's efforts became statewide news - a goal of CCHR.
"Clearly, we are grateful to Mr. Kramer for bringing this to our attention," said Lindsay Hodges, spokeswoman for the Department of Health.
Bay area prosecutors said they are glad the Department of Health now will forward potential cases, but question why the department sent along stacks of old cases for which the statute of limitations has passed.
"There's nothing we can do with this,' said Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe "It's a senseless act to send it to us after the statute of limitations has run."
Hillsborough prosecutor Michael Sinacore, chief of the sex offenders division, echoed that frustration, but credited Kramer.
"Clearly, he (Kramer) pointed out a provision in the law that was not being followed," Sinacore said. "Bringing that to everyone's attention, he has helped to serve justice. If he hadn't caught it, who knows how long it might have gone on."
Kramer also notched a second, recent victory, though its sweep wasn't statewide. He spearheaded opposition to a pilot program proposed for Pinellas schools and aimed at reducing teen suicide. TeenScreen sought to have students fill out questionnaires to determine whether they were a suicide risk, then provide them with mental health treatment.
Kramer saw the program as a thinly veiled attempt to get more kids into the psychiatric system and on psychotropic drugs. That, he says, is the real cause of high rates of teen suicide.
Kramer encouraged friends to e-mail the School Board and argue against TeenScreen. Bombarded with more than 700 e-mails, the board voted 6-1 not to go with TeenScreen.
After the vote, Linda Lerner, the lone board member supporting TeenScreen, took aim at Scientology.
Saying she knows valid questions surround TeenScreen, she contended that Scientologists squashed the issue. "I just think that this board is being stopped from even discusing this," Lerner said. "Yes, we've gotten e-mails from all kinds of people. The majority have been, I believe, from people who believe in Scientology, who believe psychiatrists are drug pushers, abusive and cause suicide."
Kramer said that while he rallied opposition, many non-Scientologists opposed TeenScreen. Linking Scientology to the opposition is an effort to label and marginalize it, he said.
Scientology's opposition to psychiatry dates to 1950 when Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics, a self-help book that provided the basis for the Scientology religion, which was launched in 1954.
According to Scientology literature, psychiatrists "on government payrolls" called Dianetics a hoax. The church contended the critics feared their patients would find solutions in Dianetics, "for only the price of a book."
Scientologists believe "that "mental illness' is not an illness at all, but is, in fact, caused by spiritual travail," said Clearwater church spokesman Ben Shaw. "Psychology and psychiatry are pseudo-sciences with no scientific basis for their claims."
Scientologists also blame psychiatric drugs for the decline of this country's educational system and for the rise in violent crime.
Not surprisingly, that has brought them head-to-head with the psychiatric profession.
"Most psychiatrists and the American Psychiatric Association, certainly, are in disagreement with the church beliefs about mental illnesses and whether or not they exist," said Jason Young, a spokesman for the American Psychiatric Association. "We believe they do exist and deserve care and treatment."
Scientology's methods were closely scrutinized after the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. After suffering a mental breakdown following a traffic accident in Clearwater, McPherson was taken to Morton Plant Hospital, where doctors recommended psychiatric evaluation.
But a group of Scientologists soon arrived, explained that Scientologists oppose psychiatric treatment and promised to care for McPherson. They took her the church's Fort Harrison Hotel, where she underwent a Scientology procedure called the "Introspection Rundown," in which a troubled person is placed in quiet, dark isolation. No one may speak within the person's hearing. The person is given vitamins and food and encouraged to rest. McPherson died 17 days later. Criminal charges of practicing medicine without a license and abuse of a disabled adult were filed against the church and later dropped. A civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by McPherson's family was settled for an undisclosed sum last year.
Kramer, a Scientologist since 1976, moved to Clearwater 15 years ago to be closer to the church's spiritual headquarters. He has been active for years in CCHR, which operates out of a downtown storefront on N Fort Harrison Avenue. Clearwater's CCHR has two full-time staffers and several hundred volunteers, chapter leaders say.
Kramer said he spent several thousand dollars of his own money investigating the Health Department's handling of psychiatrists.
With legislative leaders now promising a full investigation, he said, "I have confidence that the crimes of psychotherapists and others in Florida from here on out will be prosecuted.
"I have one message for criminal psychotherapists in this state. The Department of Health is now coming after you."