A Greenwich doctor who is a registered sex offender will be able to practice medicine again, at least in Connecticut.
Clifford Berken, 58, of Stamford, was convicted in New York in February 2010 for disseminating indecent materials to minors, according to the state sex offender registry.
The Connecticut Medical Examining Board has decided to allow the gastroenterologist and internal medicine doctor to resume practicing medicine in Connecticut, Health I-Team reports.
“It bothered me and it bothered other people on the board” Anne Doremus, chair of the state’s medical examining board, said of the decision. “For God’s sakes, here’s a physician who was arrested for immoral conduct… But we have to rely on what we feel is the best evidence we can get” from the DPH, which investigates charges against physicians and presents cases to the medical board.”
Berken will not be able to treat patients under the age of 18, according to an agenda posted on the Medical Examining Board Web site on Tuesday. Berken had a private practice in Greenwich and had privileges at Greenwich Hospital. His license is inactive in New York, the I-team reports.
The board placed his license on probation for five years, other employees must be present when he treats patients and he has to be treated by a psychologist or psychiatrist, according to the I-Team report.
“I’m just stunned,” Jean Rexford, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety told Health I-Team. “To think that someone can walk into [Berken’s] office and never know he’s a registered sex offender – I am so offended by this.”
Statutes do not give the DPH power to revoke the licenses of convicted sex offenders, the I-Team reported.
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Berken was charged with having sexually explicit online conversations with who he thought was a 15-year-old boy. It was an undercover officer.
Berken pleaded guilty last year to charges the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office filed.
