Bad Medicine

The New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department confirmed a determination to revoke a medical license

Petitioner, a physician board-certified in family practice, was licensed to practice medicine in New York in 2009. She subsequently became involved in a personal development organization known as NXIVM and was invited to join a secret society operating under the umbrella of NXIVM known as Dominus Obsequious Soroium (hereinafter DOS). Membership in DOS involved a lifetime commitment to a “master/slave relationship” between a “mentor” and a new member, wherein an enrollee would give a “vow of obedience” – backed by damaging collateral1 – and undergo an initiation ceremony that involved receiving a specific branding in the pelvic region that included the NVIXM founder’s initials. Over the course of petitioner’s involvement with DOS, she performed the video-recorded ceremonial branding of 17 women with an electrocautery device, most of whom were nude and had to be held down by other members or enrollees.

In 2020, following the investigation into a complaint filed by a former DOS member (hereinafter the complainant) who had been branded by petitioner, the Bureau of Professional Medical Conduct charged petitioner with committing 47 specifications of professional misconduct. The charges related primarily to petitioner’s actions of branding women during the DOS initiation ceremonies, but certain charges were also related to petitioner’s attendance at a NXIVM corporate retreat and her failure to report the outbreak of an illness thereat. Petitioner narrowly challenged the charges on the ground that respondent did not have jurisdiction to bring such charges against her because she was not engaged in the practice of medicine while performing the branding and that her duty to report an outbreak did not extend to her attendance at a corporate retreat.

Following an extensive hearing, a Hearing Committee of respondent (hereinafter the Committee) found that petitioner was engaged in the practice of medicine, sustained all 47 charges and revoked petitioner’s license to practice medicine. Petitioner then commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding seeking to annul the Committee’s determination.

Petitioner did not seek review by respondent’s Administrative Review Board; therefore, our scope of review is limited to whether the Committee’s decision is supported by substantial evidence.

The court

Here, we find that substantial evidence supports the Committee’s determination to sustain the specifications of professional misconduct related to the ritual branding of members of DOS. The record established that petitioner acknowledged that she relied on her medical background for “life” and that she could not “separate [herself] from [her] medical experience” or from her “education as a physician.” Her status as a physician was well-known within the NXIVM community. Resultantly, she was approached by higherranking DOS members to perform the ceremonial brandings and, although several nonphysician members were considered to perform the branding, petitioner was ultimately chosen. Several of the DOS members who were branded, including the complainant, provided testimony to the effect that they were relieved or comforted knowing that a physician would be performing the branding.

And

Similarly, we also find that substantial evidence supports the Committee’s determination to sustain the specifications of professional misconduct related to petitioner’s failure to report the outbreak at a week-long NXIVM corporate retreat.

(Mike Frisch)