Melvin Levine, Part II: When Mobs Rule

This post has been updated (scroll to bottom).

*3/20/2009 Final Update:  I HATE COVER-UPS!!!
*2/17/2011 Dr. Melvin Levine: Back In The News

After putting up this post a while back - on the subject of Dr. Melvin Levine (the UNC-Chapel Hill Behavioral Specialist accused of child sexual abuse), I found myself battling mostly anonymous commenters who've, among other things, accused me of "defending" evil child molesters.

Yeah, sure. Like that would ever happen. Obviously, these people do not know who they are dealing with.

At least some of the commenters seemed to be involved, in some fashion or the other, in the criminal case (key word, criminal - meaning, there must be some evidence) of William Hamilton Ayres - a California child psychiatrist accused of sexually molesting his patients (his case is scheduled to go to trial next year). One was an investigative journalist pushing a guilt-by-association theory.

I got tired of it and closed the thread a while back.

Yesterday, I got a "comment" on my "It Gets Old" post - from someone called "Somerville" (with one Blogger profile view - mine):

"A new blog discusses and takes on your essay about Dr. Mel Levine."

Now one does not have to be a child psychiatrist to understand that it was both a taunt and an invitation. And I took the bait. Once. I read the post and responded there. I won't be going back for debate - or to field the jabs and barbs. My response is "top-leveled" here. It's pretty much all I'm going to say on the matter.

I would like to thank "Somerville" for the tip on this post inviting a response (the tip was left on an unrelated post at my blog).

You could've just sent an e-mail.

This whole thing feels like a set-up for a roast (someone apparently expects me hop on and "defend" child molesters) - but you deserve a response - if only because your tactics are low-ball.

It's going to be a long one.

I have made it clear - over and over again, that my post on Dr. Levine's situation was borne of disgust . . . with a plaintiff's lawyer who made statements which were patently false - about what is and what is not necessary during physical examinations for ADHD.

If you are going to quote me, quote me in context. The "scum-sucking piece of excrement" I was referring to was the lawyer I criticized - not ANY of the people who subsequently posted (unless they are lawyers too).

Additionally, treating someone accused of a crime FAIRLY and with a little thing called DUE PROCESS IS NOT treating them with "kid gloves". It's treating them the way YOU would expect to be treated if you were falsely accused and INNOCENT.

And OBTW, go back to school. Due process IS a fundamental right in this country (please refer to the 5th and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution) - and is a concept that dates back to the Magna Carta. It stands between us and mob rule. It's tragic that your premise is that it is not (ala, "Damn the proof, burn Levine at the stake!").

My blog cites a case where a doctor's life was destroyed after being FALSELY ACCUSED of sexual misconduct. You left that part out in this rant.

I don't equate the basic cannons of justice with "hero worship" - or "supporting" child molesters.

As is clearly stated, I locked the thread because I got tired of people coming onto my blog and making accusations they would not stand behind by signing their name. That, and my blog is not a courtroom - not to mention that you may actually being doing a disservice to your legal case by blogging about it (of course, that's a notion I myself have discounted - in an effort to serve a greater good).

I oftentimes think the effort is misguided.

In point of FACT, as the first commenter on this thread noted, Dr. Levine gave up his medical license pending a legal resolution of the civil claims. He's not practicing - all the more tragic if he's innocent or falsely accused.

But the bottom line is that he is NOT a threat to anyone right now.

Ergo, if your intent is truly as noble as you say, you/others already have what you wanted.

You've "stopped" him.

If there is, indeed, anything to stop.



While the accusations fly, many people/parents/patients have come forward and said Dr. Levine changed their lives for the better. I am not going to discount that.
[I suppose I should insert here that given that, from I know of him (through the professional grapevine) and because so many people have come forward to support Dr. Levine and to challenge/question the allegations against him, I still have an extremely hard time believing that the charges are true. I've never met Dr. Levine - but he's been described to me as a "lovable geek" - dedicated to his patients and his work. I simply cannot comprehend that someone in his position could be that stupid or brazen - especially in an academic setting (at Chapel Hill or Boston Children's no less). And I simply don't put much stock in "repressed memories" that "surface" decades after alleged events. I need evidence - something besides a slick/posturing lawyer with an eye on a deep pocket, and a pointed finger (I would hope others need that too). It's a free country and I can have that honest opinion. Moreover, the civil actions filed against Levine have NOTHING to do with the criminal case pending against a child psychiatrist thousands of miles away in California. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.]

Here's the thing. You can blog about this all day and it's not going to change anything.

[Haven't I learned that the hard way?;)]

Take the case to court. Vet it there. But don't ask me to join your lynch mob.

Furthermore, I won't be your punching bag. If you had looked at anything on my blog beyond the one post you seem to be so obscessed with, you would know that I am well-versed on taking on bad medicine and bad doctors.

I've spent ten years of my life battling a hospital that would have had me turn my back on a dying baby. I was fired because I did not roll over and go back to sleep when the nurses called - I went in and I save that child's life - and (despited being threatened with termination if I did not keep my mouth shut) I reported the bad medicine to hospital peer review AND the NC Medical Board (which did NOTHING).

I blew the whistle. And my life, as I knew it, was destroyed. I've gotten no help from the government I served or local law enforcement:

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-duke-boys-and-asheboro-nc.html

I also poured myself into child advocacy and child abuse cases until being taken for a ride by a local DA (and possibly, a "victim"):

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2006/06/district-attorneys-license-to-rape.html

In the post you cite/ridicule, I also play "devil's advocate" on the issue of the NC Medical Board not doing what needs to be done to investigate claims and discipline bad doctors. I ask the same questions you do.

Were you asleep?

Do you not understand how hard it is - how professionally risky it is - to take on one's licensing board to tell them that they are not coming anywhere close to doing the job they're supposed to do?

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2008/06/dogs-and-ponies-one-does-not-even-get.html

Try it sometime.

I have "spoken out". I've tried to get the local & state newspapers to listen - but they've got their nose buried up the butts of the local economic machines (that put the well being of hallowed institutions above all else) and have buried my case - and downplayed others.

I may be in court soon myself because I have had enough of the "white wall" and the jurisdictional dodge - that would shield and protect bad doctors (and yes, child molestors) while putting good people (patients/nurses/doctors) in harm's way.

So get this through your head. Where the case of Dr. Levine is concerned, I am sick of people putting their words in my mouth.
I do not "support" William Ayres (I barely know who he is).
Moreover, if it is PROVEN in court that Dr. Levine molested children, I will not have ANY use for him either. He will be dead to me.

But in the meantime, I am NOT going to participate in the mob mentality that would turn Dr. Levine into a Pediatric version of "strange fruit".

I'm not coming back to this blog to "debate" anything. So let me say this before I go. Life is not fair. There is a reason they call a battle a battle. Sometimes when you're wronged or wounded, it's never made right and you do not heal.

Grow up. And at least get your facts straight before you aim your own "vitriol" in my direction.

And, as you encourage people to "get to know" their Pediatrician, understand that you're not helping your cause by attacking one of the few Pediatricians in North Carolina who has been in the deepest/darkest trenches fighting the battles no one else would fight.

The very LAST thing I have done is ignore the problem of physician accountability in medicine.

Put that in your pulpit and smoke it.
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Addendum: When I went back to check links, the author of the "new blog" had responded to my comment. More than anything else, I am deeply disturbed by "Deep's" notions about due process - which are, in my opinion, fundamentally misguided and dangerous (I hate linking Wikipedia sometimes, but it's just so easy).
Witch Hunts are so 1692.

The mealy-mouthed, "thank you very kindly" bit (for, "in some cases", "standing up" and "doing something") was just too much to take after spending the better part of a morning responding to the misrepresentations and just plain false assertions in "Deep's" diatribe.

As for the, "thank you for reading", I read because I was sucker-punched.

I posted a retort (couldn't resist). Read all about it. I'm not going back.

The comments on this post are closed. I will accept e-mails. 4:26 PM Addendum: I just got an e-mail from the journalist mentioned at the beginning of this post - who is, in fact, "Somerville". Her name is Victoria Balfour, a self-described expert on child sexual abuse, and she continues to pummel me with "facts" about the Ayres case in California . . . a case that has NOTHING to do with Melvin Levine . . . a case that I've not said or blogged one word about until today.

I want to SCREAM at this woman: Hello!?! What part of ,"I'm NOT defending . . . nor have I EVER defended . . . William Ayres!" do you not get?

And I am sorry, North Carolina may very well be the land of Nifong, but you do NOT get to just point and crucify Dr. Melvin Levine without ANY evidence! Show me some evidence - as opposed to a line of young men (not children anymore) and slick lawyers wanting money!
Furthermore, as the REAL child abuse expert in this conversation (i.e as opposed a victim, someone trained to do the exams & interview - with the experience born of hard knocks to be objective) . . . not to mention someone who has the evidence to convict in her case . . . but who can't get past Garland Yates' office door), I have the MULTIPLE scars from falling on my sword for abused & neglected & medically-mismanaged kids.

Your beef simply is not with me. For I'm not the kind of doctor who would have kept referring kids to William Ayres if I "knew" he was a pedophile. Nor would I have simply stopped referring my patients and not cared about anybody else. I WOULD HAVE REPORTED THE GUY. I WOULD HAVE RAISED HELL. And I would have not stopped until he was stopped. I HAVE PROVEN THAT!!!

SO WHERE DO YOU FRICKING GET OFF?I wanted to say it in our e-mail exchange (alas, it might be construed as "vitriolic"). Instead I've said it here. I feel better now. But not much.

She says (obviously not getting that I HATE to be patronized), "It sounds like you had a very painful experience with the hospital in North Carolina. But I hope you will see that all cases are not the same."

Actually, Ms. Balfour, that's kind of my point. I blogged about Melvin Levine, NOT William Ayres.

The cases are NOT the same.

Journalists KILL me.

**Author's note. I've tweaked this post several times tonight.
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10/15/08 Update. Well. I've gotten some e-mails on this post. And several of them are from the journalist whose name is quoted here. She wanted me to remove her name for "legal reasons" . . . i.e. she could be called as a witness for the prosecution in the Ayres case (subject to brutal cross-examination).

After careful consideration of her request (which included going back to "Deep's" thread and reading some of the comments - all anonymous - left there after I bowed out). I have decided to leave her name up. I have nothing to hide. Nothing was "off-the-record". And I'm still feeling just a tad set-up.

Besides, even if I removed her name, (1) she's already known to the prosecution/defense because of some of her previous writings . . . and (2) the original version of (and updates to) this post are in the ether somewhere anyway - locked in a Google cache - just waiting for a good private investigator to pull it all up.

I think it's pretty stupid for the victims in this (criminal) case to be blogging on it while it's in play (anybody remember Flea?) - but who am I to talk? Of course, mine's not in play (yet) . . . you see, this victim with hard evidence of a crime hasn't gotten the time of day.

The journalist made weak excuses for the author of "AyresWatch" . . . As you can see, the guy who does the Ayres blog has an enormous amount of anger about being a victim and tends to lump Ayres with other pediatricians and child shrinks.

I told her that this time, "Deep" had "lumped" the wrong Pediatrician. Being a victim of CSA did not given him a free pass if he was making assertions that were not true. And if "Deep" had spent ANY time on my blog at all, he would KNOW that I've NEVER "supported" child molesters . . . therefore it stands to reason that I don't have to "stop supporting child molesters".

I'm not calling her to have a soul-searching conversation about victimhood either. For the very same reasons she cites, I prefer for our contact to remain by e-mail. It's easier to put interrogatories in the mail.

I also feel compelled to answer a couple of criticisms of my (two) posts on Mel Levine . . . leveled by the anonymous commenters at the "AyresWatch" blog.

Upon reading both posts, I will concede that where Melvine Levine is concerned (and ONLY Mel Levine), perhaps I did not show enough "empathy" for the alleged victims. I suppose it would be easier if I thought there were truly victims in this case - and I do not.

Only time and a lot of legal maneuvering will tell.

As I've said before, my impression of Melvin Levine (based on the NC medical grapevine) is that he is a "lovable geek" . . . a kind of absent-minded professor . . . BRILLIANT, soft-spoken and perhaps even just a little socially-inept - like Tony Shalhoub's "Monk". By all reports, he is dedicated to his work and perhaps very intense in his clinical approach. Moreover, he is a sub-specialist who worked in an academic setting - he saw the cases ordinary Pediatricians like me found vexing. In the difficult cases (i.e. the ones he saw) it's his job to rule out the medical "zebras" before focusing on the ADHD/other behavioral disturbances . . . and he is of the generation where no one gave a second thought to telling a child to strip naked and submit to a detailed exam/measurements/photographs (if you have any question about that - look no further than any of the classic Pediatric textbooks). It's that generation of children that the young men now lodging complaints hail from.

As I was telling a friend a few days ago, Pediatric Endocrinologists actually carry around (for lack of a better description) a bag of different sized "balls" - to compare and contrast testicle size. Sometimes they measure things. Furthermore, in order to examine the male genitalia, you have to touch them (ergo, "Turn your head and cough"). In no way, shape or form does any of it qualify as "fondling".

Melvin Levine is also of the generation that taught my generation that children deserved privacy in their interviews and exams - in order to generate trust.

I don't know anyone these days (myself included) who ever examines a child alone. A parent or a nurse has to be in the room. Indeed, I prefer for interviews about sexual behavior to be witnessed by a nurse as well - so nothing you talk about can be misconstrued.

And that leads me to this story - the reason why this case touches a raw nerve with me . . . the reason the tactics of these particular bloggers (victims or not) send cold chills down my spine.

A few years back, I was working in a hospital-owned practice in a pseudo-metropolitan North Carolina bedroom community. I was there covering a practice that had literally melted down. The Pediatricians . . . an entire group . . . well-established and beloved by their paitents . . . all got angry enough at administrators to leave en masse . . . moving about a half-hour up the road (out of reach of the hospital's "no-compete").

And WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA'AM! I had another job.

Just as when I was drop-kicked from Randolph Medical Associates, this practice did a horrible job of informing parents & patients . . . mostly because they wanted to keep "the business" for themselves. Now, I don't believe this practice was as maleovent as RMA (in that the hospital did not outright lie to patients - as Robert Morrison, Jim Kinlaw & company did in my situation) but, apart from a standard form letter, they did not take great pains to get the word out about what had happened.

The communication was so bad that the physicians who left put up billboards on the local highway with their faces on milk cartons.

I loved it. The billboards were a scream.

So every parent and many of the older patients coming in during that initial period after the doctors absconded (the time frame I was covering) were very angry and frustrated. Their beloved doctors were gone . . . and, without any say in the matter, they were left with temporary physicians like me (I always make it clear I'm a temp doc . . . NOT a new/permanent doc).

The clinical staff (as opposed to the suits who made the mess) bore the brunt of this frustration and anger. It's part of the job sometimes, but in this particular situation, it was often vicious.

Many of these people were REALLY pissed off.

One day one such angry Mother came in - with her teenaged son - for a scheduled sports physical. Only I was not the doctor she had scheduled with . . . he was gone/she had not been informed . . . and moreover, I was a woman . . . and her son wanted a man.

But I was "it" that day. The schedule was a mess, and it would be months before she could reschedule with a male physician.

This woman complained to the receptionists at the front desk, and at triage, and to the nurse who put her son in the room, and ultimately to me - as if any of the people she was complaining to could do anything about it. After having my ear chewed off as soon as I entered the room (and with a tight smile on my face), I politely but firmly told the Mother it was me or nobody - and she had the choice to proceed or reschedule.

The young man was not happy to be seeing a lady doctor . . . ergo he was your typical sullen, adolescent of very few words. No biggie. I can deal.

The Mother elected to get it done.

So, with the Mother glowering in the corner of the room. I conducted the physical exam as quickly and efficiently as possible - with a minimum of conversation. It was about doing what you had to do to complete the form. This thing needed to be over - for everybody's sake - as soon as it could be over.

Now adolescent sports physicals are about hearts and hernias. At the very end of the exam came the time for the young man to unzip, turn his head and cough. For privacy, I asked the Mother to turn her back & face towards the wall (she had to stay in the room as a chaperone), and I proceeded with a very quick check of the young man's genitals. I sat on a roller-stool several feet in front of him - my face at eye level with his "equipment", visually inspected the genitals, and then did the hernia exam (talking him through it as I went). It took no more than 15 seconds - if that. It really could not have been more sterile or clinical.

Sometimes in a situation like that, if you know the child/parent, you can get away with some levity (the boys are almost always embarrassed - some are mortified - others think it's hysterical). This was not one of those times. It was strictly business.

I completed the sports forms, gave them to the Mother, and thought not a lot about the encounter after they left. There was no way I could've made this lady happy and there just wasn't any point in losing a lot of sleep about it. It was just another of thousands of patient encounters - not really memorable at all except for the Mother's vitriol.

A week or so later, I was asked by the practice director to respond to a nasty letter from this woman . . . complaining specifically about the way I had conducted her son's genital exam. She wasn't happy with my demeanor or technique.

WHAT??? HELLO??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? The woman was IN THE ROOM when I did the exam. NOTHING improper had happened. Moreover, she had not said a thing during the exam - or after.

Viscerally affected by the letter's evil/libelous implications, I wrote out a detailed response to the complaint (let's just say it ruined several days) . . . once again reiterating the prequel to the encounter (also making it clear that I had had pretty much enough of being verbally eviscerated by angry parents because of the stupid actions of practice administrators) . . . and stating unequivocally that in order to exam a boy's genitalia & check for a hernia (REQUIRED for the sports exam) you MUST actually TOUCH the genitals.

They weren't paying me enough to put up with this crap.

The whole thing made me very angry and quite sick at heart.

What has our society come to - in that this woman thought it was perfectly okay to write a letter like that - putting a doctor's job and reputaion at risk - just because she was mad at the practice (and her insurance company and whoever else may have contibuted to her faux-victimhood) for putting her beloved doctor's face on a milk carton?

The complaint was quickly and quietly closed. I steamed for quite a while over that one.

But while I was angry, it was also REALLY scary. Because I have seen lives and careers of good people (have you ever been the spectator on the sidelines in an ugly custody fight?) destroyed by garbage like this.
So Ms. Balfour, and "Deep" and anyone else out there who thinks it's terrible that I/others are going to afford Dr. Melvin Levine the benefit of the doubt . . . until he is PROVEN guilty via due process (and I'm sorry "Deep", it's a fundamental Constitutional right) . . . a little first hand experience with being on the wrong end of a burning broom is why I don't do witch hunts.

And it's also why, in order to put Mel Levine on that stake, I'm going to have to see something MORE than just a line of lawyers and men with "repressed" memories who seem to be eyeing Boston Children's and Chapel Hill as pockets nearly as deep as the Catholic Church.

In terms of being a victim of a crime (in my case it was a professional rape), I am not asking you to do anything I have not done myself - that is, present evidence . . . submit to the process . . . sign your name . . . be accountable. If you truly want to help other victims of CSA . . . if you want to have credibility, then these are the basics of what you have to do.
You don't get to point, click and run.

I AM AFRAID OF THE MOB. I AM AFRAID OF YOU.

Especially after that hatchet-job of a post on your blog.

But here's a sincere promise: If I am wrong, and Levine is proven guilty, and this blog still exists, I promise you, there will NOT be "deafening silence" from this voice on the other side of the White Wall.
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10/16 Author's note: Trying to aniticpate all the potential slams & distortions, I've tweaked this post yet again this morning - several times. Honestly, given my own experience in the justice system, this whole subject really rattles me on so many levels. But again, the thing that scares me the most is what an angry group of people can rationalize and do.

I'm done with this post and this subject - until the Levine case plays itself out.
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10/19 Author's note: I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why the tactics these people are using bother/scare me so much . . . and I realized that a lot of it is wrapped up in the problems with medical peer review as it is currently conducted. As I flesh these thoughts out, I may actually have another post up soon on bad faith peer review and how it equates to a witch hunt and how it could easily be fixed. But it's a subject for another day.