CSA affirms revocation of doctor’s license in medicine-for-sex case

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A physician accused of exchanging medicine for sex with two patients cannot have his medical license back, the Court of Special Appeals has held.

The decision affirms the Maryland Board of Physicians‘ revocation of Donald C. Roane’s medical license.

Roane, who had a family practice in West River and Annapolis from 1973 to 2001, was accused of sexually assaulting two former patients.

The Board of Physicians suspended Roane’s license summarily in 2010 and revoked it completely a year later. Roane challenged both decisions in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, saying the board lacked authority to take both actions. He also argued both decisions were arbitrary and unsupported by substantial evidence.

The Court of Special Appeals first affirmed the license revocation, then found Roane’s appeal of the suspension moot.

Roane’s attorney, Alan H. Legum of Alan Hilliard Legum P.A. in Annapolis, was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment. The Board of Physicians’ lawyer, David E. Wagner of the Office of the Maryland Attorney General, declined to comment.

One patient, referred to in court documents as Patient A, alleged Roane had been sexually assaulting her for almost 30 years, since she began seeing him in 1974 at the age of 14.

The woman had a history of depression and sexual abuse by her father and brother, but was seeking treatment from Roane for insulin-dependent diabetes. Roane would exchange insulin and Zoloft, which is used to treat depression, for sexual favors.

Patient A filed her complaint after she started seeing a counselor in 2002.

Roane acknowledged two sexual encounters with Patient A, but claimed they did not occur while he was treating her and that he only treated her from 1975 to 1976. Because their personal relationship did not happen while she was his patient, Roane said, he did not violate any rules. Nor did he see any problems with it, “[e]xcept as far as my marital status,” he told the board.

A second patient, referred to as Patient B, claimed Roane would sexually assault her while she was lying on the examination table. This patient, who had a history of incarceration and crack cocaine abuse, began seeing Roane in 1982 while she was in her early 20s.

In subsequent visits, Patient B said, Roane would give her prescription medication in exchange for sexual favors. She filed a complaint in May 2004 after she started seeing a psychiatrist.

Roane denied having any sexual contact with Patient B.

Roane, who has been licensed to practice medicine in the state since 1965, was first charged with violating the Maryland Medical Practice Act in April 2010.

The Board of Physicians suspended Roane’s license in December 2010. In April 2011, Roane filed a petition for judicial review of the suspension in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.

The court held a hearing on the petition in November 2011, but dismissed it as moot since the board had revoked Roane’s license that June.

Roane’s motion to revise the judgment was denied and he appealed to the Court of Special Appeals.

Roane also sought judicial review of the revocation decision. The circuit court affirmed the board’s decision in March 2012.

In both circuit court hearings, Roane argued the board’s findings were not based on substantial evidence and that it had acted arbitrarily and capriciously. The circuit court, however, found he had waived those arguments by not raising them earlier.

The Court of Special Appeals upheld that decision on Thursday. It also found affirmed the board’s authority to move to suspend and revoke Roane’s license at the same time.

“As we have explained, the two proceedings spring from the same operative set of facts, and the fact that his license was revoked based on his opprobrious conduct overshadows (or, differently put, properly absorbs) the suspension,” Judge Douglas R. M. Nazarian wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.

WHAT THE COURT HELD

Case:

Donald C. Roane v. Maryland Board of Physicians, Nos. 271 & 542, September Term 2012. Argued May 2, 2013. Decided September 5, 2013. Opinion by Nazarian, J.

Issue:

(1) Did a lower court err by ruling that a doctor had waived his right to claim the Board of Physician’s findings were arbitrary and capricious? (2) Did the board overstep its authority by seeking both a summary suspension and a revocation?

Holding:

No, affirmed. (1) The doctor waived those claims by failing to timely assert them. (2) Because the doctor’s license was properly revoked, his challenge to the suspension was moot; however, in dicta, the court found the board could take both actions.

Counsel:

Alan H. Legum, of Alan Hilliard Legum P.A. in Annapolis, for petitioner; David E. Wagner, Office of the Maryland Attorney General, for respondent.

RecordFax 13-0905-01 (27 pages)