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Md. Doctor's Life Unravels Amid Drug, Assault Charges
Reports of Erratic Behavior Set Stage for 2 Trials
By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
There was a time when Bethesda doctor Eric Greenberg had a loyal following of more than 100 patients. "The best diagnostician I ever saw," said one. "Brilliant," recalled another.
On Tuesday, though, Greenberg faces trial on drug possession charges linked to an April raid of his home office, where police said they found cocaine, powdered Ritalin, a meth pipe and the doctor in a dazed state with needle marks on his arms so fresh they were still bleeding. All the while, police said, patients were trickling in for their appointments.
Greenberg faces a second trial next month related to dust-ups just outside the office.
A next-door neighbor alleges that the internist barreled over a set of potted plants in his Mercedes-Benz and, when confronted, knocked the neighbor's tooth out. Police who showed up to ask questions said Greenberg took a swing at one of them, had to be shocked with a stun gun, and was charged with two counts of assaulting an officer.
"This is a tragedy," said Dianne Ferris, wife of Michael Hazlett, the man who said he lost a tooth.
Ferris, a veterinarian whose office is next to Greenberg's, said longtime patients of Greenberg's still show up, even though he has halted his practice and faces criminal charges.
"He's got some very normal people looking for him," Ferris said.
James Papirmeister, Greenberg's defense attorney, said his client denies assaulting the officers or his neighbor. He said Greenberg also intends to plead not guilty to the drug possession charges. "We intend to establish that he didn't possess or use any illegal drugs," Papirmeister said.
"We feel he is being treated much more harshly because he is a medical doctor," Papirmeister said.
On April 16, after the raid, the Maryland Board of Physicians suspended Greenberg's medical license. James Charles, a lawyer who represented Greenberg in two previous matters before the Board of Physicians, declined to comment.
Greenberg, who was born in Baltimore, received a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1993, according to the school and court records. For a time, he practiced near White Flint Mall, said a patient from those days, Edwin Mills, 50.
"He's smarter than regular people. It's not even a race," Mills said.
By 2004, Greenberg was practicing at his home office on Old Georgetown Road when a patient complained to the Board of Physicians that during an appointment, Greenberg wobbled, seem to be falling asleep and had dried blood under his nose.
Regulators found that in 2004, he had sped through a parking lot at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, nearly hitting two police officers standing outside their cruisers, on his way to see a patient at 11:20 p.m. Another time, he appeared at the hospital's emergency room desk, looking dazed and holding on to a desk as if he was unsteady, according to Board of Physicians records.
The regulators paid an announced call to Greenberg's office, finding him dazed and with sores on his hands and ankles, records indicate. Greenberg told them that he was working seven days a week, 20 hours a day.
The regulators asked Greenberg to see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed deficits in attention, organization and speech, board records say. "These conditions are consistent with and provide an explanation for the complainant's observations," the psychiatrist reported to the board.
The Board of Physicians placed Greenberg on probation. The probation was lifted quickly after he took a drug test, according to the Board of Physicians records.
Ferris said she rarely interacted with Greenberg. Several years ago, at about 6:30 a.m., she looked out a window and saw Greenberg, wearing a T-shirt, making snow angels on the hood of his car, she said.
State medical regulators received another complaint in 2006. They subpoenaed records of six patients from Greenberg, according to a Board of Physicians summary of the investigation. He was prescribing excessive amounts of Ritalin for a relative and "more than usual amounts" of oxycodone to another patient, according to the Board of Physicians.
The board ordered Greenberg to take classes on writing prescriptions for pain management and on keeping records, told him to see a psychiatrist and placed him on three years' probation.
In fall 2008, pharmacists told authorities about suspicions that Greenberg was writing prescriptions for drug addicts, according to the state board. Montgomery County and federal narcotics agents closed in, arriving at his office April 1. At the time, Greenberg, his wife and his brother-in-law were upstairs, in the residence above the office.
Agents reported that Greenberg had needle marks on his arms and feet and that he tested positive for cocaine, state medical records show.
Papirmeister said his client denies injecting drugs. "Those are not track marks," he said of the assertions made in the physician board's report on the drug raid. "He has a number of skin conditions," including neurodermatitis, that cause him to itch and scratch constantly.
Greenberg's wife, Jaquenette I. Fischman, told agents that she had grown concerned about her husband's track marks and had been trying to hide injectable drugs from him, according to Board of Physicians records filed in court. She admitted inhaling Ritalin and said she had seen her husband doing so, according to the records.
Police charged Fischman with drug possession. Her trial was scheduled for Thursday, but her attorney, John Kudel, wants it advanced to Tuesday. He expects her to plead not guilty.
Her husband also faces the August trial on charges of assaulting the officers. During the altercation, police said, he called one officer a "murdering Nazi" and called another officer "giggle google man." Greenberg allegedly also told the second officer that he was lucky that Greenberg had left his meat cleaver in the house and spared the officer's life.
Reports of Erratic Behavior Set Stage for 2 Trials
By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
There was a time when Bethesda doctor Eric Greenberg had a loyal following of more than 100 patients. "The best diagnostician I ever saw," said one. "Brilliant," recalled another.
On Tuesday, though, Greenberg faces trial on drug possession charges linked to an April raid of his home office, where police said they found cocaine, powdered Ritalin, a meth pipe and the doctor in a dazed state with needle marks on his arms so fresh they were still bleeding. All the while, police said, patients were trickling in for their appointments.
Greenberg faces a second trial next month related to dust-ups just outside the office.
A next-door neighbor alleges that the internist barreled over a set of potted plants in his Mercedes-Benz and, when confronted, knocked the neighbor's tooth out. Police who showed up to ask questions said Greenberg took a swing at one of them, had to be shocked with a stun gun, and was charged with two counts of assaulting an officer.
"This is a tragedy," said Dianne Ferris, wife of Michael Hazlett, the man who said he lost a tooth.
Ferris, a veterinarian whose office is next to Greenberg's, said longtime patients of Greenberg's still show up, even though he has halted his practice and faces criminal charges.
"He's got some very normal people looking for him," Ferris said.
James Papirmeister, Greenberg's defense attorney, said his client denies assaulting the officers or his neighbor. He said Greenberg also intends to plead not guilty to the drug possession charges. "We intend to establish that he didn't possess or use any illegal drugs," Papirmeister said.
"We feel he is being treated much more harshly because he is a medical doctor," Papirmeister said.
On April 16, after the raid, the Maryland Board of Physicians suspended Greenberg's medical license. James Charles, a lawyer who represented Greenberg in two previous matters before the Board of Physicians, declined to comment.
Greenberg, who was born in Baltimore, received a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1993, according to the school and court records. For a time, he practiced near White Flint Mall, said a patient from those days, Edwin Mills, 50.
"He's smarter than regular people. It's not even a race," Mills said.
By 2004, Greenberg was practicing at his home office on Old Georgetown Road when a patient complained to the Board of Physicians that during an appointment, Greenberg wobbled, seem to be falling asleep and had dried blood under his nose.
Regulators found that in 2004, he had sped through a parking lot at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, nearly hitting two police officers standing outside their cruisers, on his way to see a patient at 11:20 p.m. Another time, he appeared at the hospital's emergency room desk, looking dazed and holding on to a desk as if he was unsteady, according to Board of Physicians records.
The regulators paid an announced call to Greenberg's office, finding him dazed and with sores on his hands and ankles, records indicate. Greenberg told them that he was working seven days a week, 20 hours a day.
The regulators asked Greenberg to see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed deficits in attention, organization and speech, board records say. "These conditions are consistent with and provide an explanation for the complainant's observations," the psychiatrist reported to the board.
The Board of Physicians placed Greenberg on probation. The probation was lifted quickly after he took a drug test, according to the Board of Physicians records.
Ferris said she rarely interacted with Greenberg. Several years ago, at about 6:30 a.m., she looked out a window and saw Greenberg, wearing a T-shirt, making snow angels on the hood of his car, she said.
State medical regulators received another complaint in 2006. They subpoenaed records of six patients from Greenberg, according to a Board of Physicians summary of the investigation. He was prescribing excessive amounts of Ritalin for a relative and "more than usual amounts" of oxycodone to another patient, according to the Board of Physicians.
The board ordered Greenberg to take classes on writing prescriptions for pain management and on keeping records, told him to see a psychiatrist and placed him on three years' probation.
In fall 2008, pharmacists told authorities about suspicions that Greenberg was writing prescriptions for drug addicts, according to the state board. Montgomery County and federal narcotics agents closed in, arriving at his office April 1. At the time, Greenberg, his wife and his brother-in-law were upstairs, in the residence above the office.
Agents reported that Greenberg had needle marks on his arms and feet and that he tested positive for cocaine, state medical records show.
Papirmeister said his client denies injecting drugs. "Those are not track marks," he said of the assertions made in the physician board's report on the drug raid. "He has a number of skin conditions," including neurodermatitis, that cause him to itch and scratch constantly.
Greenberg's wife, Jaquenette I. Fischman, told agents that she had grown concerned about her husband's track marks and had been trying to hide injectable drugs from him, according to Board of Physicians records filed in court. She admitted inhaling Ritalin and said she had seen her husband doing so, according to the records.
Police charged Fischman with drug possession. Her trial was scheduled for Thursday, but her attorney, John Kudel, wants it advanced to Tuesday. He expects her to plead not guilty.
Her husband also faces the August trial on charges of assaulting the officers. During the altercation, police said, he called one officer a "murdering Nazi" and called another officer "giggle google man." Greenberg allegedly also told the second officer that he was lucky that Greenberg had left his meat cleaver in the house and spared the officer's life.
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