Robert Fellmeth – Public Interest Law – NOT! or (Get Real Mr. Fellmeth)

Itzel Berrio
Office of Chief Trial Counsel
180 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Re: Response to Comments of the Center for Public Interest Law on Proposed Amendments to the Rules of Procedure Regarding the Alternative Discipline Program on March 17, 2008

Dear Ms. Berrio :

Robert Fellmeth’s critique of the ADP has an all too familiar tone and agenda. He offers up his usual unchallenged attack, full of questionable and soporific detail, combined with an a priori position against the Lawyers Assistance Program (LAP). This bait and switch approach of questioning ADP is merely a platform to attack LAP. This is typical Fellmeth/D’Angelo family business, protected under CPIL’s banner of public interest.

The methods used by CPIL to first demean, then demolish the Medical Board of California (MBC) Physician Diversion Program are now focused on LAP. The first and foremost tool is the repeated Big Lie. Fellmeth states their “audit “ revealed physicians in Diversion “harmed patients”. This is a cornerstone or Pillar of CPIL’s “Judicious Jihad”. After 25+ years of failed attempts to find a single instance of harm to a patient by a physician in Diversion, CPIL made one up. Using a disgruntled former patient whose lawsuits were thrown out of Court numerous times, CPIL established a Target Physician as emblematic of the Program’s failure to protect the public. The former patient combined her efforts with a CBS/Sacramento reporter to create and finance a false Complaint soliciting web site. With the help of CPIL’s media lobbyist, they developed inciteful stories which they gave to lazy, uncritical press organizations, stating a doctor who killed and harmed patients was allowed to continue to practice . These fed articles were then re-cycled by CPIL to create pressure on the MBC to end the Program.

In October of 2008, the Administrative Hearing of the Target Physician (the target physician of the 2004 Report ) ended. Highlights in the Hearing included prosecution witnesses testifying 1)they were pleased with the care and outcome of the Target Physician’s work , 2) they called the Complaint soliciting web site out of curiosity and were contacted by the disgruntled former patient, and 3) the former patient came to their homes, wrote out a false Complaint which she had them sign. The former patient told them to file a Complaint on behalf of those who were harmed, and that there was no risk in filing a false Complaint. At the Hearing, the Deputy Attorney General informed the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ,) that they were aware the Complaints were “contrived”.

So when Fellmeth writes about “abuses that have resulted at the hands of Physician participants in that program” we must look at the actual facts. Neither Robert nor Mrs. Julie d’angelo Fellmeth has EVER produced a single, legitimate victim.

However, CPIL was able to successfully promote and promulgate the notions of “zero tolerance” and “enforceable standards” along with their rigged “audit” in the attack on Diversion. Their “audit” of 2004 was in no way a valid audit. The lucrative appointment of Mrs. Julie Fellmeth as Enforcement Monitor was the result of a shady back door process. Shady and back door, due to the fact that the application process was hidden from more qualified parties until after Mrs. Fellmeth was appointed. An audit, to be valid, uses established benchmarks and the auditor is objective. The 2004 Report met neither of these criteria. A “zero tolerance” approach allowed CPIL to condemn the drug testing component altogether after finding a lone graduate who acknowledged “gaming” it (in fact, he eventually was detected, an appropriate intervention was made, and no patient harm occurred). CPIL’s application of “zero tolerance” could be effectively used to shut down any human endeavor.

CPIL attempted to equate any positive test result with a Relapse and condemn the program for not ejecting participants. As anyone with even the most basic substance abuse education knows, a detected positive isn’t a relapse, but rather a warning sign, which is the basis for an early intervention and relapse prevention. Extensive data from legitimate, long-term studies indicate these doctors are actually much safer than doctors in general. Recovering doctors are exceptionally and uniquely valuable to their patients and community. Senator Mark Ridley Thomas described the ones he met as “stellar individuals”. What a stunning contrast to CPIL’s demonizations and legalistic fictions!

CPIL has used its lobbying (Mrs. Julianne d’angelo Fellmeth is a Registered Lobbyist, and CPIL is the client of two additional lobbying firms) to gain other lucrative Enforcement Monitoring appointments and write Legislation. Currently, CPIL is the recipient of a large California Endowment Grant. Their stated purpose is to bring “diversity” to Regulatory Boards. But CPIL uses common terms to misdirect potential scrutiny. “Diversity” in their case means removing all Licensees from Licensing Boards. Instead, Joe-the-Plumber types, trained by CPIL, would evaluate Complaints and make decisions. CPIL would then have a field day with its overheated and unchallenged Prosecutorial rhetoric and be able to erode and eliminate as many legal protections as possible for Licensees. For example, Mrs. Fellmeth wants all Complaints to be published. That way, by the time the Joe-the- Plumber Board Members hear the Complaints, there would be built in added prejudice for reactionary and unjust decisions. Mrs. Fellmeth was rebuked by Senator Mark Ridley Thomas in the March, 2008 Meeting of the Senate Business and Professions Committee, for her utter disregard for the lives and well-being of physicians.. CPIL has been greatly enriched by attacking Licensing Boards. Around 1997, after a meeting of the MBC Liason Committee in San Diego, Mrs. Julianne Fellmeth remarked to a small group, “when CPIL started, all the good consumer issues were taken, so we decided to attack the Medical Board”. They have further enriched themselves by getting other lucrative Enforcement Monitor appointments, using their so-called “independent monitor” status. For the Fellmeths, the term independent monitor is synonymous with CPIL. They were paid insiders in the 2007 audit of MBC Diversion by the Bureau of State Audits (BSA), using their power to influence the conclusions of the Audit .

CPIL has worked for decades to place itself as the sole voice of public protection with respect to Regulatory Boards. They have made public protection a wedge issue. Either one is for public protection and must never question CPIL, or is against public protection. They have exploited the worst negative stereotypes as opposed to providing actual, relevant information. As such, CPIL has done tremendous damage, reducing the very credibility of Public Interest Law, and putting their affiliate organizations at risk.

The Bar needs to take CPIL’s Comments and rhetoric with a large grain of salt when deciding how to modify the ADP. Further, the value and future of LAP should never be left in the self serving hands of CPIL.

Respectfully Submitted

Public Interest Law – NOT! or (Get Real Mrs. Fellmeth)

Dear Mrs. Fellmeth:

For the past fifteen-plus years you have expounded on and on about openness vs secrecy. You have urged passage of laws that would make physician’s private medical records open to public scrutiny if they were receiving treatment for addictions or mental health issues, or participating in the soon to end Diversion Program. So, in the spirit of openness, how about being open about the fact that you are a Registered Lobbyist? Or that Ed Howard, too, is a Registered Lobbyist and you are his client? Please tell us about the work that KSR Advocates (another Registered Lobbying Group) has done to assist you in manipulating the media.

Why don’t you open up about how CPIL receives substantial donations from Trial Lawyers who sue MD’s, Healthcare Organizations and HMO’s? Your work against Doctors surely will benefit them tremendously.

The work you do to deny or limit MD’s constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure gives these lawyers – these cronies of yours – major advantages in Plaintiff law suits.

Please tell us about your secret and underhanded appointment in 2003 as Enforcement Monitor for Diversion. Other, more qualified, interested candidates were told to apply, then told they couldn’t, then told they were too late and the position had been filled by you. Clue us in about how this was aided by David Thornton. Tell us how you could be considered an Independent Monitor when your conclusions were foregone. Mrs. Fellmeth, Mrs. Fellmeth, the deeper one digs, the more Kafkaesque this becomes.

Your self assumed identity as a patient advocate is preposterous. Your collaborator, Tina Minasian, is a prime example. While claiming she’d been injured by a Doctor in the Diversion Program, she never mentions how she gained excessive weight and resumed smoking after major lower body surgery, in direct disregard of written and verbal orders. Outside of your fantasy world, evidence trumps accusations and media manipulations. After Minasian’s complaint to the Medical Board was thoroughly and professionally investigated, why was it rejected? Why was her Medical Malpractice case rejected all the way up to the Supreme Court of California and Minaisan ordered to pay court costs? Minasian’s self-proclaimed “Victim Posse” is equally merit-less, as are the multitudinous false complaints to the Medical Board she has solicited through her lynch mob mentality, incendiary web sites. Please tell us who pays for all this? We know you know.

The repeated lynchings in the press and other media against the Target Physician has been going on so long and is so egregious that the Medical Board’s own attorney appeared before the Board. In this unprecedented appearance, the Board’s Attorney (the Prosecutor) informed the Board that there was not a single valid complaint of Patient Harm. The Board’s own Attorney recommended the Board not take the case to trial, as it would be lost.

Mrs. Fellmeth, you like to emphasize “Zero Tolerance.” Should that be applied to you? Since benefiting plaintiff Trial Lawyers does not always equate with Public Protection, shouldn’t you have to be accountable? Let’s apply the same standard to you and Tina Minasian and demand that you disclose how your efforts benefit lawyers who sue doctors.

Julie Fellmeth’s methods of dark politics and media manipulation

The Diversion Program of California was hijacked by David Thornton, former Director of the California Medical Board. David Thornton appointed stealth Trial Lawyer Lobbyist Julie Fellmeth of CPIL as Diversion Monitor. Her 20 years of animosity towards Physicians and Diversion was legitimized and memorialized in her November 2004 biased audit. That is equivalent to hiring David Duke to audit the NAACP. Julie Fellmeth is a Lobbist for the Trial Lawyers, hiding behind the title of Consumer Advocate Lawyer. Fellmeth has a collaborator named Tina Minasian, who in turn has a victim posse she trots out to Hearings . Tina had a lower body lift. She was given written and verbal instructions not to resume smoking or put on weight. She did, then blamed and sued the MD for malpractice. It was as if she took her best pants in for alteration, put on enough weight to rip the seems, then wanted to hang the tailor. She lost the case. Her complaint to the Medical Board was investigated and thrown out. She set up a complaint soliciting web site regarding Target Physician, and would pressure and harangue callers to make false complaints to the California Medical Board, assuring them that filing false complaints carried no risk at all. The former Executive Director of the California Medical Board appointed Fellmeth as Enforcement Monitor. What Mrs Julie Fellmeth claims was the result of an “open and competitive” process was in fact done in secret w/out the knowledge of other more capable people. Please see the following websites which explains much of what has happened:

www.mbcconspiracy.blogspot.com Information on what happened to the California Diversion Program

www.standingup4truth.blogspot.com Information on the “Target Physician”

www.mbccorruption.blogspot.com Information about David Thornton, the former Director of the California Medical Board