A Santa Ana psychiatrist—who was disciplined by the state medical board in December for his ill treatment of patients, family members, an Orange County judge and a medical board investigator—is now in hot water for allegedly having sex with a patient he went on to marry.
It is a twisted tale of Perez hitting on a married female patient, discussing his divorce and child custody battle with that woman, urging her to leave her husband, displaying an explosive temper to that woman and her female friend, being rude to the patient’s husband and other assorted abusive behavior.
The state’s account, which Perez and his attorney accepted with their signatures, also revealed that the psychiatrist threatened to have his ex-girlfriend, a former employee, deported and that he illegally withheld child support from their daughter. Perez also disrespected a family court judge and board investigator, according to the state.
Click here to read the amended accusation that was filed against Perez’s medical license on April 5.
It alleges three causes of discipline—sexual exploitation, sexual misconduct and unprofessional conduct—because Perez had sex with a patient he went on to marry.
She began seeing him for medical and psychiatric care in July 2014, and he prescribed her Clonazepam—which is a tranquilizer known under the brand name Klonopin and is used to treat and prevent seizures, panic disorder and the movement disorder akathisia—with three refills.
The sexual relationship began a month later, and she soon moved in with her doctor. On Sept. 11, 2014, Perez wrote her a new script for Clonazepam, this time with four refills. They married on Sept. 27, 2014.
Their divorce is now pending.
Kimberly Kirchmeyer, executive director of the Medical Board of California, points out in state documents that the complaint comes while Perez’s license is already on probation for gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, dishonest acts, failure to maintain adequate and accurate records and unprofessional conduct. Technically, the board previously revoked his license and then stayed the revocation for 35 months while he met board-imposed (and doctor accepted) conditions of probation. That probation is set to expire on Dec. 8, 2020.
Violating terms of probation can cause the lifting of the stay on license revocation. Kirchmeyer is seeking a board hearing where it will be decided whether to do that, suspend his license or extend the probation.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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