Larocca v. State Bd. of Registration for Healing Arts

• Decision Date: 21 February 1995
• Docket Number: No. 65897,65897
• Citation: 897 S.W.2d 37
• Parties: Felix E.F. LAROCCA, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION FOR the HEALING ARTS, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 37

897 S.W.2d 37

Felix E.F. LAROCCA, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION FOR the HEALING ARTS Defendant-Respondent.

No. 65897.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Eastern District,

Division Four.

Feb. 21, 1995.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to

Supreme Court Denied April 12, 1995.

Application to Transfer Denied

May 30, 1995.

Merle L. Silverstein, Richard E. Greenberg, Rosenblum, Goldenhersh, Silverstein & Zafft, P.C., Clayton, for appellant.

Peter J. Dunne, Rabbitt, Pitzer & Snodgrass, St. Louis, for respondent.

SIMON, Judge.

Plaintiff Dr. Felix E.F. Larocca (Doctor) appeals from the judgment of the trial court affirming the decision of the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts (Board) revoking Doctor's license to practice medicine in Missouri. The Board took action pursuant to the conclusion of the Administrative Hearing Commission (AHC), which found "cause to discipline [Doctor]'s license" after a hearing on the matter. On appeal, Doctor contends that the trial court erred in: (1) overruling his motion for summary judgment and affirming the Board's action because of "the excessive and inexcusable delay of more than five years, from the time the Board was informed of the alleged misconduct and began its investigation until it filed a complaint and first informed [Doctor] of the specific charges," which constituted both a violation of Doctor's due process rights and laches; and (2) affirming the decision of the Board and the AHC because it was not supported by competent and substantial evidence. We affirm.

Our review is of the AHC's decision rather than that of the circuit court. Francois v. State Bd. of Registration for the Healing Arts, 880 S.W.2d 601, 602 (Mo.App.E.D.1994). We treat the decision of the AHC and the disciplinary order of the Board as one decision and as the final decision of the AHC subject to review. Perez v. Missouri State Bd. of Registration for the Healing Arts, 803 S.W.2d 160, 162 (Mo.App.1991). We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the findings and decision. Id. at 162.

Doctor was board-certified in both adult and child psychiatry, specializing in the treatment of eating disorders. He lectured on the subject worldwide during the 1970s and 1980s. In St. Louis, Doctor organized groups known as "BAN," for bulimia/anorexia nervosa, and "BASH," for bulimia/anorexia self-help, which met regularly with Doctor and in smaller groups led by patients called "facilitators." During 1983 and 1984, L.A. and G.D. were undergoing treatment with Doctor for eating disorders.

I. L.A.

L.A. had been one of the earliest participants in the BASH program, becoming a facilitator when the program started in 1981. While a patient of Doctor from 1980 to 1984, L.A. developed an attraction to Doctor that began by seeing him as a father figure and later became a romantic and sexual attraction.

On August 23, 1983, after a facilitators' meeting, Doctor drove L.A., then age 18, to his home, purportedly to discuss her possible paid employment with BASH. While there, Doctor gave L.A. a beer and proceeded to hug and kiss her and to touch her breasts. She jumped back, confused. He asked her to allow him to photograph her in the nude. Shortly thereafter, Doctor invited her to sit on his lap, whereupon he put his hand between her legs and told her that he loved her. She insisted that he take her home, but as he was driving, he took her hand and placed it on his penis. Doctor started to drive back to his house, but L.A. repeatedly asked him to take her home, which he eventually did. At her home, her sister's boyfriend, who was married to her sister at the time of the hearing, saw them drive up together.

The next such incident between Doctor and L.A. occurred on December 19, 1983. Because it was snowing, Doctor drove L.A. to her car. Upon reaching her car, Doctor stopped and began to touch her breasts and tell her he loved her. L.A. was confused and frightened, and Doctor suggested they return to his office to discuss her feelings. However, the advances continued at his office, where Doctor again told L.A. he loved her and asked her to take off her clothes. She walked out into the reception area, and Doctor took her back to her car.

Doctor attempted to have sexual intercourse with L.A. twice in February of 1984. On February 21, at his office, Doctor laid on top of L.A. but was unable to penetrate her. On February 28, Doctor asked L.A. to come over to his house to discuss an upcoming trip by BASH members. When she arrived around 10:00 p.m., she waited for the lights in the house to flash off and on, his prearranged signal for her to come up to the house. That evening, they undressed in the living room and attempted to have sexual intercourse, again unsuccessfully. Doctor's wife and daughter were home at the time, but he told L.A. that they had gone to bed.

In March of 1984, L.A. traveled to San Diego, California, along with Doctor's wife and daughter, a friend of the daughter, and Julie LaRose (LaRose), another BASH speaker, for a BASH meeting. L.A. stayed with LaRose in a hotel for the first three days of her visit, March 8, 9, and 10, but when Doctor mentioned that they could stay in California for an extra day or two after the meeting, LaRose was unable to stay. After LaRose returned to St. Louis on March 11, L.A. stayed at Doctor's condominium with Doctor and the others; L.A. was to sleep on a cot in the living room area. That night, once everyone had gone to bed, Doctor came out to the living room where L.A. was sleeping, pulled down her pants, and asked her to "let [him penetrate her] a few inches." He continued for five to ten minutes, but he stopped because L.A. protested that it hurt her. L.A. left California the next day.

The first time Doctor and L.A. actually had sexual intercourse occurred in his bedroom on March 16, 1984, the night he returned from California. L.A. had picked up Doctor at the airport; his family remained in California for a few more days. Doctor asked L.A. to stay at his house again the next night. When she left Doctor's house on the night of the 16th, her car became stuck in the mud on Doctor's lawn. L.A.'s father had to come to pick her up, and her car was towed out of the lawn the next day.

L.A. and Doctor had sexual intercourse several more times during the next five months. On March 17, 1984, the night after her car became stuck in the mud, L.A. was driven by a friend to Doctor's house, where they engaged in sexual intercourse. She spent the night, and left the next morning at Doctor's request by the basement door, crossing a couple of neighbors' lawns to another street, where Doctor picked her up and took her home. They again had sexual intercourse on March 21, 1984, at Doctor's house, while his family was still in California. They had sexual intercourse twice in April of 1984, both times in the basement of Doctor's house. On May 2-4, 1984, L.A. accompanied Doctor to Chicago, where he was attending a medical conference. They stayed in the same room at the Drake Hotel, and they had sexual intercourse there several times. On May 17, 1984, they had sexual intercourse in the basement of Doctor's house. On May 20, 1984, while Doctor's wife and daughter were picking up Doctor's son at college in Iowa, L.A. and Doctor had sexual intercourse at Doctor's house. They also had sex twice in June of 1984 at Doctor's house.

During that month, L.A. became involved in a dating relationship with another man, and she started refusing Doctor's advances. However, on July 4, 1984, Doctor seduced L.A. at his house. Shortly thereafter, when she told Doctor of her decision to stop seeing him, Doctor terminated and denied ever authorizing a film project on eating disorders that L.A. had been working on for several months. She felt devastated and betrayed.

L.A. ended the relationship and stopped working for BASH in August of 1984, when she learned that Doctor had been engaging in sexual relations with G.D., L.A.'s roommate at the time.

II. G.D.

G.D. began seeing Doctor as a patient in January of 1982, when she was 17 years old. Originally, Doctor saw her on an inpatient basis, but when she was discharged from the hospital in March, she began to visit his office once a week for therapy. At his request, G.D. began attending BAN and BASH meetings as part of her treatment. She continued under Doctor's care through 1982 and 1983, during which time she was hospitalized on two additional occasions for a total of about four months.

On September 6, 1983, G.D., two weeks shy of her nineteenth birthday, became upset after an argument with her mother. Her mother had gone to a friend's house, and G.D. tried to talk to her there. Upset that her mother refused to see her, G.D. deliberately backed her car into the friend's garage door. Her mother called G.D.'s father, who called Doctor. Doctor arrived at G.D.'s house, to which she had returned, and suggested that she stay at his house for the night. Doctor called his wife and informed her of the arrangement, and she assented. G.D. packed some things, hugged her father, and left with Doctor in his car.

Doctor took G.D. in the opposite direction of his house. During the ride, he began to touch her breasts and put his hand in her pants, telling her that he was trying to help her feel comfortable with her body. G.D. was shocked, and she could not believe what was happening to her. After about twenty minutes, they reached Doctor's house, and G.D. agreed to talk with Doctor in his study.

Doctor's wife greeted them at the door, and Doctor told G.D. to put her things in an upstairs bedroom. She then went downstairs to the study, and she began to discuss the evening's events with him. He asked her to kiss him, and she did. He took down his pants and had G.D. touch him. Doctor asked G.D. to take down her pants, which she did because she trusted him. He told her that she looked tired,...