Thread: Ex-Doctor Allegedly Gave Fake Exams

Ex-Doctor Allegedly Gave Fake Exams

By Lee Romney, Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... california

SAN FRANCISCO — A former doctor in the Bay Area has been charged with 131 counts of performing fake medical exams on more than 1,400 immigrants seeking legal residency in the United States.

Stephen Brian Turner allegedly injected patients — including children and the elderly — with saline solution in place of vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and diphtheria.

Prosecutors also contend that Turner, 51, drew blood for HIV and syphilis tests but never submitted the samples to laboratories. He then reportedly indicated on immigration forms that the test results were negative.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris announced the charges Thursday in conjunction with the Medical Board of California, calling Turner's alleged actions "outrageous" for "preying on the innocent."

Turner was arrested at his Hayward home, southeast of San Francisco. He appeared in San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday, but his arraignment was postponed. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

Turner was convicted of criminal counts of indecent exposure in 1984 and 1993. The 1984 lewd conduct conviction occurred in Los Angeles and stemmed from three indecent exposure incidents in public places earlier that year.

In 1994, the Medical Board suspended his license for a year and placed him on seven years' probation.

He surrendered his license several years later but, according to prosecutors, continued to practice medicine in San Francisco's heavily Latino Mission District through last December, conducting the immigration exams.

In addition to felony counts of practicing medicine without a license and mishandling blood samples, Turner is charged with misdemeanor counts of battery, cruelty to children and elder abuse. He is also charged with felony grand theft, for collecting more than $247,000 in exam fees from the 1,417 victims.

He surrendered his license several years later but, according to prosecutors, continued to practice medicine in San Francisco's heavily Latino Mission District through last December, conducting the immigration exams.

This wonderful illegal immigration epidemic just brings out the best in everyone.

Thanks again, George.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 016987.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006

Exam gaffe slips under federal radar

By John Simerman
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Federal officials knew at least two years ago that an East Bay man could no longer perform immigrant medical exams, having surrendered his medical license in 1998 after criminal convictions for lewd conduct.

But Stephen Brian Turner remained on a federal list of doctors certified to do them, and immigration workers went on to approve hundreds of applications supported by his phony results.

On Dec. 7, state investigators raided the San Francisco office where Turner, 51, of Hayward, allegedly conducted illegal exams, drew blood that he never tested and gave patients -- including the elderly and children -- saline instead of their required immunization shots.

Turner now sits in a jail cell in San Francisco, where he faces 131 charges, including 106 felony counts, related to the alleged phony exams. Prosecutors say he examined more than 1,400 people from whom he collected $247,000, based on receipts dated from mid-2003 that investigators found at the Mission Street office where he did the exams.

Turner also did similar exams at Catholic Charities locations in the Santa Rosa and Fresno areas. Mary Kay Hackett, board chairwoman of Catholic Charities Diocese of Fresno, said Turner examined at least several dozen immigrants there in 2003 and early 2004.

A spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, under the Department of Homeland Security, said she did not know how many applications for a change of immigration status were approved with Turner's exam results attached. The agency is not planning to reopen any approved cases, said Sharon Rummery, who called that an "impossible" task.

But Catholic Charities in Fresno and the San Francisco District Attorney's Office are hoping those people come forward, given they received phantom shots and fake results on HIV and syphilis tests.

Immigrants seeking to become permanent residents must have a medical exam by an approved doctor, blood tests for HIV and syphilis and receive a battery of vaccinations.

Turner's lawyer, Herman Franck, acknowledged his client gave passing exam results to virtually every patient who paid the bargain-rate price that he promoted on fliers sent to immigration lawyers, insisting on "Cash Only Please!"

"No one was ever angry with him because he did give them all a pass," said Franck.

Turner has pleaded not guilty but acknowledges his wrongdoing and hopes to strike a deal with prosecutors, said Franck.

June Cravett, a San Francisco assistant district attorney, said her office is trying to determine if Turner gave similar exams elsewhere in the Bay Area. Turner also provided medical exams on behalf of insurance companies. That also is part of an ongoing investigation, she said.

Rummery said Turner's name was stricken from the hard-copy San Francisco region list of certified doctors in 2002 after he reported a change of address and failed to respond to a request for additional documents, including a copy of his current medical license.

The information was sent on to Washington, she said, but apparently his name remained on the federal database used for an Internet list of certified doctors.

At the time, she said, the agency did not know that Turner gave up his license in 1998, four years after the state Medical Board suspended it, citing two convictions for masturbating in public, once in the presence of two minor females.

Turner's name appears on a copy of the official Web list dated Jan. 23, 2004. That list includes 22 certified doctors or medical offices in San Francisco, 17 in Alameda County and eight in Contra Costa County.

There was no protocol for the state Medical Board to notify the agency when the board revokes a license or a doctor surrenders it. Now, the immigration agency is currently comparing its list with the Medical Board's list of licensed doctors, said Rummery.

"We're asking ourselves how we can not have something like this happen," she said.

Prompted by a suspicious local immigration attorney, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, informed federal officials in early 2004 of Turner's criminal history and the fact he had surrendered his license in 1998.

In a Feb. 19, 2004, letter to a senior immigration official in Washington, Nunes asked for Turner's name to be "immediately" removed from the "Designated Civil Surgeons" list. He was told it would be stricken.

"It's very frustrating," said Nunes, who said he was "shocked" when he heard of Turner's arrest last month. "The letter was pretty straightforward. This is something that's very serious."

After Nunes' letter, immigration officials checked Turner's medical board record, which indicated he had lost his license and had moved to Chicago, said Rummery. Since he was no longer in the Bay Area, where he was certified to do the exams, immigration officials thought he was no longer doing them, she said.

Some immigrants may have found Turner through an older, "orphan" list that remained accessible on the federal Web site, and which officials discovered only recently, she said.

"It's got to do with the complexity of that great big thing we call the Internet," said Rummery. She said it may be impossible to know just how long Turner's name remained on the official list.

In any case, despite being removed in 2002 from the San Francisco list, immigration officers continued to process applications that included his exam results.

"The examiners, they don't check the names against the list," said Rummery. "They're familiar names. They see the name of the doctor again and again, time and time again." She said the medical exams are a small piece of a large application that gets handled in a 20-minute interview.

Turner's business was widely known among immigration attorneys through his fliers and reputation as a cheap and reliable immigration exam specialist. Turner offered the exam and all vaccinations for $189, while others charged as much as $500, attorneys said.

"People would routinely tell their clients it was a good place to go," said Joren Lyons, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco. "I had heard from other attorneys, 'Oh, the Center for Health Control knows what they're doing. We never had problems with their forms."

Turner declined an interview request at the San Francisco jail. Franck said Turner is sorry for his actions.

Court records show Turner was in deep financial distress and in continuing litigation after losing a 1998 civil judgment for $1 million.

The judgment was from a 1997 Contra Costa County lawsuit that accused Turner of making numerous harassing phone calls and threats to an insurance broker after she stopped using him for insurance exams.

In December, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that he attempted to shield his property from the judgment.

Franck said Turner suffers psychiatric problems and was not "trying to pick on immigrants.

"Desperate people will do desperate things, especially desperate people who have psychiatric issues," said Franck. "The reason he probably thought he was not really hurting them is he passed them all. Everyone got a green card."

Franck said immigrants did not go to Turner for a medical diagnosis. They went because that's what the immigration service required, he said. But Cravett, the San Francisco prosecutor, dismissed the idea that Turner's alleged crimes were victimless.

"What they got at the end of the day is false information about their blood tests, and they leave thinking their kids or their elderly parents have now been brought up to date on all the required vaccinations," she said. "It doesn't matter what their motivation was."

Cravett said investigators are still looking into what Turner did with the never-tested blood.


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Reach John Simerman at 925-943-8072 or e-mail jsimerman@cctimes.com.