Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding Idaho, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: The Board of Medicine cannot mandate permanent revocation of a doctor’s license, the board's executive director said.
“State medical boards are seeing a growing number of complaints regarding sexual boundary issues. …Given that it is the Board of Medicine’s primary responsibility to protect the welfare of the public, sexual misconduct will not be tolerated in any form. It doesn’t matter whether the misconduct is viewed as emanating from an underlying form of impairment, mental disorder, sexual disorder, addictive disorder or life crisis.”
—Dr. Robert Ward, vice chairman of the Idaho board, writing on sexual boundaries in 2013 for the board’s newsletter.
Pines, a child psychiatrist who worked at a children’s home, was accused of sexually abusing four boys at his home under the guise of giving them massages and other exams because he needed the practice as a physician.
Three of the boys were foster children in his care and a fourth was a close friend of Pines' adopted son. One of the four boys was a long-term psychiatric patient.
The Idaho Board of Medicine revoked Pines' license in 2013, but two years later the board was ordered by the state Supreme Court to re-evaluate the action, even though the court found that Pines had had improper sexual contact with two of the youths.
The court scolded the board for using "heated rhetoric and denunciations" in its original complaint, such as its statement that Pines’ conduct was "'So corrupt and degenerate as to shock the conscience.'"
“While it is true that Pines conducted himself in a reprehensible manner, taking advantage of young men with troubled pasts, a tribunal does not give the impression of impartiality" with such language, the court said.
Pines' license is still shown as revoked. He has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Click here to find your state!