US Dentists In News - For All The Wrong Reasons
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- Published: Tuesday, 29 August 2023 07:37
- Written by Peter Ingle
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With dental news in the UK press often about NHS access and workforce, the profession has, so far at least, been spared patients commenting on the latest dentists behaving (very) badly stories. Spare a thought then, for our North American colleagues.
Dentist Larry Rudolph who practiced in the Pittsburgh area was arrested nearly five years after his wife’s death following an FBI investigation that sent agents traveling around the world to collect evidence and interview witnesses. He has now been convicted of killing her at the end of an African safari.
Shortly before a judge sentenced Rudolph to life in prison for the 2016 death of his wife, Bianca, her brother predicted that Larry Rudolph would “die alone and unmourned” and that his future grandchildren will never know he existed.
District Judge William Martinez imposed an estimated $15 million in financial penalties against Rudolph, who was also convicted of mail fraud for cashing in nearly $5 million in insurance policies for his wife, as he began a new life with his longtime girlfriend.
Prosecutors allege Rudolph built his wealth on fraud. In a document laying out the facts of the case, which are disputed by the defence, they say he shot off his thumb during a previous visit to Zambia to collect millions in disability insurance money; they also allege he cheated his dental patients.
Rudolph has claimed throughout the case that his wife’s death in Zambia, was an accident. His lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said he and fellow defence lawyer, Margot Moss, were hopeful they would win an appeal.
Meanwhile an oral surgeon who practiced in Maryland, has been charged with murder. In the case which involves anaesthesia addiction, James Ryan, is accused of supplying his girlfriend with drug solutions and an IV stand.
When she died of an overdose at their Maryland home, Ryan was charged with what is known as “depraved heart” murder. In US law this refers to a type of murder where an individual acts with a "depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death. Ryan’s defence are expected to assert that she took her own life.
Jurors will hear about the abuse of medical-grade drugs that Ryan, 50, is accused of taking from his dental office, and helping administer to Sarah Harris, who was 25 when she died in early 2022. The substances in question include ketamine, propofol, and midazolam.
Much of the prosecutors’ case, will be presented through nearly a year’s worth of text messages between Ryan and Harris. “I think the ketamine works well for you,” Ryan wrote in September 2021 to Harris, who responded that she felt disoriented, according to court evidence submitted in the case.
“Is it hard to walk?” Ryan wrote.
“No,” she texted back, “just feel like I’m kinda floating.”
On the morning of January 26th 2022, Ryan called 911 about Harris. She was found unconscious on the floor, according to court records, surrounded by vials of drugs. Ryan told police that the night before, when he had gone to bed, Harris had stayed downstairs and seemed well. Ryan said he awoke to find her unresponsive on the sofa. He also told officers, that Harris was a suicidal drug addict and “she must have taken drugs from the office.”
“By all accounts,” prosecutors added, “the death of Sarah Harris was initially considered an unfortunate drug overdose.”
Later, one of Harris’s sisters accessed her iCloud account, retrieved text messages between her and Ryan, and gave them to investigators.
In a third case, authorities allege that a Colorado dentist poisoned his wife so he could pursue a relationship with a Texas orthodontist.
On March 15, 2023, Angela Craig, 43, was admitted to the hospital at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus near her home in Aurora, where she suffered a seizure and was placed on life support before being pronounced dead on March 18.
The following day, police arrested her husband, James Craig, 45, on charges of first-degree murder. A charge of tampering with physical evidence was later added. Authorities allege that James, a dentist, poisoned Angela’s smoothies.
The alleged motives include claiming $3 million in insurance, and an alleged affair with a Texas orthodontist he had met at a Las Vegas convention in 2023.
James was a popular dentist who handed out fresh-baked cookies to patients. He was also a church elder.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by police when James was arrested, Angela alleged to her sister that James had multiple affairs. She also alleged that James had tried to drug her years ago. When she had discovered it, he told her he was planning to die by suicide and had drugged her because he did not want her to attempt to stop him, Angela alleged.
James’s business life was allegedly also in a shambles. Angela told her sister that James had recently lost more than $2,000 gambling in Las Vegas and had “run the dental office into the ground” and that their finances were dire, according to the affidavit.
Investigators believe James began plotting Angela’s murder on or before Feb. 27, 2023, when they claim he ordered arsenic online and searched “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?”
Authorities allege James also ordered cyanide on March 9 and had it delivered to his dental office, where one of his co-workers saw it and reported it to a supervisor, who then tipped off the police.
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