Doctor who lost license won’t be tried
No criminal charges will be filed against a former Coeur d’Alene doctor whose Idaho medical license was revoked in May for behavior that state officials said abused and exploited patients, a city official said Thursday.
After a three-month police investigation into complaints against Tarek Haw, the Coeur d’Alene city attorney’s office declined to file charges, said Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Tilkey. She declined to discuss reasons for the decision.
“It would not be appropriate,” Tilkey said.
The state Board of Medicine first prohibited Haw from performing some medical procedures and then stripped him of his license over allegations that he misused prescription drugs, failed to properly diagnose or treat medical conditions, improperly billed insurance companies and conducted examinations that bordered on sexual misconduct. A statement issued by the board said that revoking Haw’s license was the only way to prevent him from “egregious abuse and exploitation of patients.”
The board also ordered Haw to pay more than $115,000 in legal fees related to the discipline, but the state Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the board abused its discretion.
A Coeur d’Alene lawyer, Rami Amaro, previously said that at least a dozen of Haw’s patients contacted her in hopes of pursuing criminal charges against the 61-year-old former doctor. She intended to seek charges of sexual exploitation by a medical care provider, a misdemeanor, according to Idaho statutes.
Amaro did not return calls Thursday. However, a former patient who said she filed a police complaint in March expressed dismay at the city’s decision.
“I think it’s deplorable that he was ever allowed to practice after the initial complaints turned up,” said the 55-year-old woman. She said that Haw defrauded her of $10,000, injected her improperly with drugs and conducted unnecessary pelvic and rectal exams.
Similar claims were echoed by more than 20 patients referred to by a hearings officer for the state medical board.
Amaro previously said that she expected more of Haw’s estimated 435 patients to come forward. Haw closed his Coeur d’Alene practice abruptly last fall. Joseph McCollum Jr., a Boise lawyer who previously represented Haw, said Thursday that he was not familiar with the issues in Coeur d’Alene and didn’t know how to contact him.