Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 9, 1992 TAG: 9203090172
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE and DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In addition to the Roanoke County charge, the board accused Dr. William G. Gray of inappropriate conduct with several patients and non-patients, including sexual molestation and overmedication.
In a rare action, the board - after meeting in emergency session - decided Gray's license should be suspended immediately because he represented "a substantial danger" to the public.
That means he can no longer practice, pending a formal hearing on the charges against him. That hearing is scheduled for April 28 at the Roanoke Airport Marriott.
The board's action comes three weeks after Roanoke County police filed misdemeanor sexual battery charges against Gray, claiming the doctor sexually molested a 16-year-old boy.
The medical board detailed 10 separate charges against Gray, including allegations the doctor used drugs, threats and money to persuade patients, some of them minors, to give him sexual favors.
Most of the sex charges involved fondling and oral sex. The board also accused Gray of overstepping his role as a doctor by becoming the legal guardian of one minor and arranging for another patient to have an apartment in Gray's office building.
In one instance, the board accused Gray of instructing a patient how to abuse a prescription drug by breaking apart the capsule and snorting the powder.
On another occasion, the board said, Gray paid a patient money for sex during a therapy session.
In another charge, the board said Gray's continued sexual advances toward a patient resulted in the patient overdosing on drugs and being hospitalized.
Gray, contacted Sunday evening after the board order was hand-delivered to him at his office, said, "The charges are ridiculous."
He said the allegations stemmed from "kids I've tried to help out in the past," some of whom are "pretty flaky."
Gray, 50, said he feared many of his more than 1,500 patients would be left without proper care. He is one of only three child psychiatrists in the area and he treats the large majority of indigent patients. Among those are juveniles in detention homes and treatment centers.
"I can't see people. I can't do anything. I'm totally shut down," Gray said, complaining that he will not be able to make arrangements for his patients to be seen by other doctors.
As a result of previous publicity about the Roanoke county charges, several of his patients have attempted suicide, he said.
Gray said he was familiar with the people involved in the medical board allegations, some of them patients, some not. All were people he genuinely tried to help, he said.
"Some of these people are good, some aren't," Gray said. "Why these people came forward, I don't know."
The board accused Gray of improperly using his position as a doctor to gain sexual favors. The board claimed he did so by plying patients with prescription drugs and alcohol, offering them money, and threatening to send at least one to a mental institution.
The board also accused Gray of "indiscriminately and excessively" prescribing drugs and of providing prescription drugs to a non-patient.
In an interview last month with the Roanoke Times & World-News, one of the juveniles Gray is alleged to have sexually molested said Gray threatened his life if he ever revealed what happened. "He told me if I ever told anyone, I wouldn't live through it," said the juvenile, who was 16 at the time.
This is not the first time Gray has faced child-molestation charges before a medical review board.
In 1978, while he was practicing in San Diego, Calif., Gray agreed not to practice child psychiatry for three years and to undergo psychiatric counseling as a result of allegations that he had sexually molested a 16-year-old foster son on numerous occasions.
San Diego police wanted Gray charged with a felony because of the incidents, but prosecutors decided on the settlement because the case would have been difficult to prosecute. In addition, prosecutors were concerned that the 16-year-old might suffer "devastating psychological damage" if he testified.
by CNB