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State suspends Hanapepe doctor’s license
by Amanda C. Gregg - THE GARDEN ISLAND
Following a complaint that Dr. Harold Spear had a sexual relationship with a patient — which resulted in a child — the Hanapepe doctor has been prohibited from practicing medicine for one year.
The suspension of Spear’s license has nothing to do with the pending criminal charges against him, Constance Cabral, the state medical board’s administrator, said.
The board of medical examiners suspended Spear’s license as a disciplinary action; however, it found that Spear’s sexual relationship with a patient who mothered one of his children didn’t affect his qualifications or duties as a physician, according to the final order filed with the professional and vocational licensing division within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Spear, whose KONG radio show, “Dial-a-Doc,” was recently canceled, is awaiting a January trial for allegations that he prescribed pain medications without a legitimate medical purpose, a law that his attorney, Michael Green, said is a “vague” definition at best.
“Before someone gets charged with a crime, that person should know from the language what makes it a crime,” he said.
Clarification in the statute could be as simple as an addendum that prohibits doctors from prescribing controlled substances unless they have physically examined the patient, Green said.
It is with that in mind that Green argued Spear isn’t criminally accountable for prescribing pain medication to an FBI agent who posed as a pain-ridden patient requesting pain medications over the phone.
“It’s not illegal to not examine someone,” Green said. “The crime is prescribing without a legitimate purpose. So you could have a doctor saying, ‘I thought I was helping the person.’ It might be unethical — but it’s not illegal.”
But a lack of ethics has been enough to revoke Spear’s ability to practice medicine in the short term. And if criminal charges against Spear yield a conviction, he could permanently lose his medical license, Cabral said.
“The board would take a look at everything that’s happened during the year, and that would be taken into consideration,” she said.
With roughly four months until his trial, attorneys are in the “discovery” process, as federal agents continue to seek patients willing to testify against him.
South Shore resident Damione Verdusco, a recovering drug addict and former Spear patient, said that when she would pick up pills for patients other than herself, Spear’s secretary would pull from a stack of pre-signed forms without specific medications.
Though Green maintains that the forms were always under lock and key and that painkillers were prescribed with discretion, Verdusco painted a different picture of a 2000 visit to Spear’s Hanapepe Clinic.
Verdusco said she had been buying methadone from one of Spear’s patients, who was selling the tablets for $10 each. According to the Food and Drug Administration Web site, methadone can be used for managing chronic pain and heroin withdrawal, and is less expensive than other pain medications.
Jobless, Verdusco said she was living at home with her mom and young daughter and couldn’t afford to continue her habit through one of Spear’s patients, so she opted to make an appointment.
“I went to get Vicodin, because I knew how addictive methadone was,” Verdusco said. “He shook a bottle of pills — which for an addict is like Pavlov’s dog — then he said, ‘No, you don’t want Vicodin — that makes you constipated.’”
Verdusco also said that to get the medication, she told Spear her back hurt, and he “touched my back with his finger.”
He then gave her a prescription for 70 tablets of methadone, she said.
Though investigators have alleged some of the prescriptions Spear wrote to individual patients were too much for one person, Green said patients in pain management clinics often have high tolerances.
“You have to understand people that go to pain management doctors are in chronic pain — some have been for 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Some are in wheelchairs, some can’t sit. You keep getting prescribed medication for pain, you build tolerance as years go by.”
The suspension of Spear’s license has nothing to do with the pending criminal charges against him, Constance Cabral, the state medical board’s administrator, said.
The board of medical examiners suspended Spear’s license as a disciplinary action; however, it found that Spear’s sexual relationship with a patient who mothered one of his children didn’t affect his qualifications or duties as a physician, according to the final order filed with the professional and vocational licensing division within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Spear, whose KONG radio show, “Dial-a-Doc,” was recently canceled, is awaiting a January trial for allegations that he prescribed pain medications without a legitimate medical purpose, a law that his attorney, Michael Green, said is a “vague” definition at best.
“Before someone gets charged with a crime, that person should know from the language what makes it a crime,” he said.
Clarification in the statute could be as simple as an addendum that prohibits doctors from prescribing controlled substances unless they have physically examined the patient, Green said.
It is with that in mind that Green argued Spear isn’t criminally accountable for prescribing pain medication to an FBI agent who posed as a pain-ridden patient requesting pain medications over the phone.
“It’s not illegal to not examine someone,” Green said. “The crime is prescribing without a legitimate purpose. So you could have a doctor saying, ‘I thought I was helping the person.’ It might be unethical — but it’s not illegal.”
But a lack of ethics has been enough to revoke Spear’s ability to practice medicine in the short term. And if criminal charges against Spear yield a conviction, he could permanently lose his medical license, Cabral said.
“The board would take a look at everything that’s happened during the year, and that would be taken into consideration,” she said.
With roughly four months until his trial, attorneys are in the “discovery” process, as federal agents continue to seek patients willing to testify against him.
South Shore resident Damione Verdusco, a recovering drug addict and former Spear patient, said that when she would pick up pills for patients other than herself, Spear’s secretary would pull from a stack of pre-signed forms without specific medications.
Though Green maintains that the forms were always under lock and key and that painkillers were prescribed with discretion, Verdusco painted a different picture of a 2000 visit to Spear’s Hanapepe Clinic.
Verdusco said she had been buying methadone from one of Spear’s patients, who was selling the tablets for $10 each. According to the Food and Drug Administration Web site, methadone can be used for managing chronic pain and heroin withdrawal, and is less expensive than other pain medications.
Jobless, Verdusco said she was living at home with her mom and young daughter and couldn’t afford to continue her habit through one of Spear’s patients, so she opted to make an appointment.
“I went to get Vicodin, because I knew how addictive methadone was,” Verdusco said. “He shook a bottle of pills — which for an addict is like Pavlov’s dog — then he said, ‘No, you don’t want Vicodin — that makes you constipated.’”
Verdusco also said that to get the medication, she told Spear her back hurt, and he “touched my back with his finger.”
He then gave her a prescription for 70 tablets of methadone, she said.
Though investigators have alleged some of the prescriptions Spear wrote to individual patients were too much for one person, Green said patients in pain management clinics often have high tolerances.
“You have to understand people that go to pain management doctors are in chronic pain — some have been for 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Some are in wheelchairs, some can’t sit. You keep getting prescribed medication for pain, you build tolerance as years go by.”
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