PSYCHIATRIST FACES MORE PROCEEDINGS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992                   TAG: 9202200331
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN and CHARLES HITE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PSYCHIATRIST FACES MORE PROCEEDINGS
A Roanoke family psychiatrist charged by Roanoke County police with child molestation also is under investigation by Franklin County authorities and the Virginia Department of Health Professions, the state agency that licenses doctors.
William G. Gray was charged Tuesday with three counts of sexual battery involving a teen-age boy at a residence in southern Roanoke County in September.
The teen-ager was not a patient of Gray's, police said.
Gray, 50, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"The investigation is not over," said Roanoke County Investigations Lt. G.W. Roche.
Police started investigating Gray before the alleged incidents, Roche said, after receiving information about possible wrongdoing.
Roche said the county Police Department is working in conjunction with the Department of Health Professions. Franklin County Sheriff Quint Overton confirmed Wednesday that his department also has Gray under investigation.
Gray has "a very mixed practice" of adults, adolescents and children, said James Sikkema, director of community mental health services for Mental Health Services of the Roanoke Valley. He treated patients at Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center and at a psychiatric unit of the rehabilitation center at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Sikkema said.
Gray is one of the few psychiatrists in the Roanoke area to take children on Medicaid, the federal and state health program for the poor, Sikkema said.
A medical committee at the Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center began the process Wednesday to suspend Gray's privileges to treat patients, said Administrator Jim Weiss. Gray took a voluntary leave of absence, Weiss said. If Gray decides to come back, the suspension process - which involves internal hearings - will continue, Weiss said.
A Roanoke Memorial spokeswoman had no information Wednesday on whether any steps were being taken to restrict Gray's staff privileges there.
Gray was released on a $10,000 bond after being arrested at his office in the 300 block of Washington Avenue Southwest shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB