Cooper v. Board of Professional Discipline, 25006.
| Decision Date | 28 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 25006.,25006. |
| Citation | 4 P.3d 561,134 Idaho 449 |
| Parties | James C. COOPER, M.D., License No. M-4567, Petitioner-Appellant, v. BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL DISCIPLINE OF the IDAHO STATE BOARD OF MEDICINE, Respondent. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley, Boise, for appellant. Merlyn W. Clark argued.
Uranga & Uranga, Boise, for respondent. Jean R. Uranga argued.
James C. Cooper, M.D., appeals from a decision of the district court, acting in its appellate capacity, affirming a decision of the Idaho State Board of Medicine's Board of Professional Discipline (the Board). The Board concluded that Cooper engaged in improper sexual conduct with a patient and imposed a six-month suspension of Cooper's license to practice medicine. We reverse.
The executive director of the Idaho State Board of Medicine filed a complaint against psychiatrist James C. Cooper charging that Cooper "used his position as a physician to engage in improper, inappropriate, unprofessional and unethical sexual contact or conduct" with his patient J.H. Specifically, the complaint alleged that Cooper had a sexual encounter with J.H. in November 1995. The complaint charged that this conduct violated I.C. § 54-1814(7) and IDAPA 22.01.01.101.03.d (Board Rule 101.03.d) (both regarding failure to meet the standard of health care) and I.C. § 54-1814(22) and IDAPA 22.01.01.101.04.d (Board Rule 101.04.d) (both regarding abuse or exploitation of a patient).1
The Board appointed attorney Steven F. Scanlin to be its hearing officer for the matter. At the two-day hearing, J.H. and her sister testified for the Board and ten witnesses testified for Cooper. The record also contained the deposition testimony of one witness specifically requested by the hearing officer.
Five months later, the hearing officer issued findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations (Original Findings). The major finding was as follows:
Dr. Cooper engaged in a sexually exploitive relationship with JH.... Dr. Cooper ... used his therapeutic relationship to inquire about her sexual activities. Even though he knew of her sexual feelings towards him, he continued to discuss issues of a sexual nature with her and allowed her into his house. He failed to diagnose and treat her psychiatric problems of sexual exploitation but rather became part of them. He also failed to take adequate precautions in treatment or in his personal contacts with her to prevent the exacerbation or furtherance of these problems. Eventually, Dr. Cooper became either a real or imagined lover to JH. He failed to address this problem but rather became part of it, as well as he failed to diagnose and treat her Borderline Personality Disorder (which probably came at least in part from sexually exploitive relationships) and, in this regard, may have exacerbated her condition.
Based on this finding, the hearing officer concluded that Cooper failed to meet the standard of health care and engaged in abuse or exploitation of a patient. He recommended, among other things, that Cooper receive a six-month suspension of his license.
Cooper moved for reconsideration, citing among other issues the hearing officer's failure to make a finding as to whether Cooper had sexual contact with J.H. as charged in the complaint. In response, the hearing officer issued amended findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommended order (Amended Findings). The conclusions of law were slightly expanded to include the following:
Dr. Cooper took unjust advantage of JH by instigating and continuing a relationship with her over a five year period that inappropriately promoted feelings of sexual attraction by JH toward him, and of which he had knowledge, with disregard for her specific problems and vulnerability. This culminated in a sexual encounter on or about November 25[sic], 1995.2
The hearing officer also included more specific findings of fact, including findings that J.H. and Cooper had a sexual encounter on November 25, 1995 at Cooper's townhouse and that J.H. described Cooper's townhouse in great detail. He found J.H.'s depiction "of what happened to her being a sexual encounter" as more believable than Cooper's "denials that he had violated the `boundaries' of the patient-physician relationship." He stated that J.H.'s calm and collected demeanor made her more believable than the nervous and emotional Cooper, who expressed "somatic complaints" of runny nose and headache. The hearing officer also opined that the results of tests administered by psychiatrist Richard Worst indicated that Cooper "had the capacity to engage in a sexually exploitative relationship" with J.H.
The Board, in its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Final Order (Final Order) unanimously adopted the hearing officer's amended findings and conclusions of law. It modified the recommended sanctions and specified that Cooper pay $12,373.65 in costs.
Cooper filed a petition for judicial review. The district court affirmed, concluding that there was sufficient evidence of sexual intercourse between Cooper and J.H. to support the Final Order. Cooper filed a timely notice of appeal.
J.H., a junior in high school, was referred to a clinical social worker in March of 1990 because of difficulties with her schoolwork and with social interaction. J.H. had a history of being physically abused by her alcoholic father and had been sexually abused by older cousins. The clinical social worker diagnosed J.H. with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and with Conduct Disorder because she had symptoms of alcohol and drug use, lying, and physical confrontations with family members. She referred J.H. to a psychiatrist for consultation and medication. The psychiatrist diagnosed J.H. with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but stopped treatment because J.H. would not take her medication and was unwilling to follow his recommendations. The clinical social worker then referred J.H. to Cooper, a licensed psychiatrist at the Learning Disabilities Clinic (Clinic) at the Elks Rehabilitation Hospital.
Cooper first saw J.H. as a patient in November 1990. J.H. initially agreed to a course of psychotherapy with Cooper, but abruptly stopped treatment after three sessions. A month later, J.H. had another appointment with Cooper. She told him that she had left psychotherapy because she was attracted to him. Because neither J.H. nor Cooper believed that these feelings would interfere with medication management, they resumed a doctor-patient relationship limited to medication therapy and monitoring. The medication management continued on approximately a monthly basis until November 1995 except for a fifteen-month hiatus during J.H.'s pregnancy and its aftermath. On at least two occasions, Cooper recommended psychotherapy for J.H. and referred her to other mental health professionals in the Boise area, but J.H. did not follow up on the referrals.
At the Board's hearing, J.H. testified to the following events. In late 1994, when J.H. was divorcing her husband, Cooper started calling her about twice a month and having telephone sex with her. These phone calls became more frequent in the fall of 1995. She also had many personal meetings with Cooper at his office "behind his receptionist's back." Sometimes the receptionist would be there but J.H. would see Cooper when he didn't have appointments. On these occasions, J.H. would visit with Cooper from half an hour up to two hours at a stretch. In addition, sometimes Cooper would extend J.H.'s 15-minute office appointments up to an hour.
Cooper denied having personal phone calls or visits with J.H. either during or after business hours. Jackie Severt, Cooper's clinical secretary, testified that the office's physical layout made it impossible for anyone to get to Cooper's office without her knowledge. Cooper was rigorous in meeting his appointment times, Severt said, and she usually scheduled sixteen 15-minute appointments on each of the three half-days that Cooper worked at the Clinic.
J.H. testified that, at Cooper's request, she met Cooper at Ann Morrison Park in April 1995 and they talked about their mutual feelings for several hours. They met on a Wednesday afternoon, probably April 19. Cooper denied that this meeting took place and produced documentary evidence that he was in Hawai`i from April 18 through 25.
J.H. testified that Cooper invited her to his home many times. On June 9, 1995, she testified, she and Cooper met outside the Burlington Coat Factory by prearrangement and she followed him to his house. This took place in the afternoon or early evening and she stayed, hugging and kissing Cooper, for up to an hour. Cooper wanted her to stay for dinner, but she declined because she had to pick up her boyfriend at the airport that evening.
Cooper denied J.H.'s account. He testified that he never invited J.H. to his home. Cooper and his friend Joan Uberuaga both testified that, on June 9, 1995, Cooper met Uberuaga at 6:00 p.m. at a downtown Boise restaurant. Both produced documentary evidence showing the dinner date. Cooper testified that, before November 1995, he only encountered J.H. outside a clinical setting once, when she parked next to his car at a grocery store and they exchanged pleasantries.
Cooper received a four-page handwritten letter from J.H. on November 20, 1995. It began with the explanation, "I want to get this off my chest, and my appointments don't give enough time." In the letter, J.H. claimed that she was not truthful when she told Cooper she quit therapy because she had sexual feelings for him. The letter continued with a rambling discussion of J.H.'s infatuation with Cooper going back to 1991, but did not mention any walks in the park, invitations to Cooper's townhouse, telephone sex, or long discussions.
Concerning events on the pivotal day of November 24,...
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