PHYSICIAN WHO USED PMS DEFENSE SUES BOARD

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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303070137
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D7   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Short
PHYSICIAN WHO USED PMS DEFENSE SUES BOARD
A physician who used premenstrual syndrome as a defense in a drunken-driving case claimed Friday that the Virginia Board of Medicine acted outside the law by publicly reprimanding her after her acquittal.
The medical board hearings resulted "in a kangaroo court proceeding of the worst kind," for Dr. Geraldine Richter, said her attorney and former husband, Paul Richter.
Geraldine Richter, a Fairfax County orthopedic surgeon, has sued board director Dr. Hilary H. Connor and 29 others for $73 million in U.S. District Court.
Richter's case gained national attention two years ago when her former lawyer said that PMS, which can cause mood swings, was to blame for her driving erratically on Thanksgiving night in 1990. The arresting trooper testified that she swore and kicked at him during the arrest.
She later was cleared of felony drug charges involving four vials of prescription drugs found in her possession during the arrest. The prescriptions were not for her.
Two days after the hearings in June 1991, she was publicly reprimanded by the board in a consent decree agreed to by both sides. Her medical license was not affected.
Richter told Judge James Cacheris on Friday that the medical board did not disclose vital evidence during hearings before her trial.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB