Stress Cases Often Boil Down to Doctors’ Battle

The city has what we call their city whores, and defense attorneys have theirs. And it’s up to the pension board to decide which whore is right. --Ron Clem,a director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League

Police officers seeking stress pensions undergo a battery of psychiatric examinations by doctors who often arrive at different--even opposite--conclusions.

The city spent about $700,000 during the last fiscal year for psychological evaluations of police officers. Based on these medical reports, millions of dollars in workers compensation and pension benefits were awarded.

In stress cases, disputes often boil down to a battle of the doctors--pitting those representing officers against those hired by the city.

Los Angeles police officials contend that applicants for stress pensions frequently seek out gullible doctors to buttress their claims, while pension attorneys counter that the city hires its own psychiatrists to shoot down an officer’s case.

‘Hook, Line and Sinker’

Lt. Ed Gagnon, the Police Department’s medical liaison officer, complained that some psychiatrists have swallowed officers’ claims “hook, line and sinker.”

He pointed to one case in which a sergeant investigated an officer’s pension application and found that a psychiatrist reported the officer had seen “lots of shootings.” But the sergeant checked internal police records and found this was not true.

In 1981, a psychiatrist provoked skepticism among police officials when he put two Foothill Division patrol partners on sick leave the same day by writing identical letters in support of their disability claims.

Complained of Depression

The officers, Douglas Pruett, 33, and Lawrence Shaver, 36, who ran a patio construction business in their spare time, were facing the latest in a series of disciplinary actions--this one for an off-duty drunken spree that led to a fight and damage to two mailboxes and a block wall.

Before the complaint could be adjudicated, Pruett and Shaver complained of depression, headaches, intermittent loss of hearing and stomach pains.

Their captain, David Dolson, reported: “They brought letters to the Foothill Station from Dr. David Friedman indicating that the officers were suffering from work-related stress and were unable to work as police officers in any capacity.”

Dolson told the Board of Pension Commissioners: “I recall there was a matching, identical letter. You couldn’t have told one from the other except the names were different.”

Friedman acknowledged writing brief, identical letters but said: “It was hardly a rubber stamp.”

The officers “were two people . . . with the same illness and the same level of disability,” Friedman said. “They were partners, so much of what they experienced was identical as far as working for the Police Department.”

Both Pensions Denied

The board denied pensions for both officers. But Superior Court Judge Vernon Foster later ordered a pension for Pruett, who complained he started feeling stress after he openly complained that the Police Department “picked on people.” Foster said recently he could not remember the details of the case.

Shaver, who claimed he too suffered from continual harassment by supervisors and peers, was denied his pension bid by Judge Norman Epstein.

Recently, the department investigated a stress pension application filed by an officer who, it turned out, was involved in real estate dealings with his psychologist.

Venice Division Sgt. John Petrosky and his wife own a Thousand Oaks real estate company that acted as a broker for Lester Summerfield of Westlake Village.

At the same time that Summerfield was treating Petrosky for stress and filing reports on his condition with the city, Summerfield used Petrosky’s company as his broker when he bought a new $200,000 house and sold his old one. Coincidentally, the psychologist sold it to a Los Angeles police officer who has a stress claim pending.

Credibility Questioned

Petrosky did the final “walk through” check of Summerfield’s new house during the same week in 1983 that the psychologist sent a report to Los Angeles city officials saying Petrosky was continuing to suffer from “sleep disorders, gastrointestinal difficulties and compulsive eating.”

Petrosky was denied his stress pension after commissioners questioned his credibility, citing “incomplete disclosure” of his real estate activities. The company had about $6 million in property listings at the time.

Under threat of a lawsuit, however, the board has decided to give Petrosky a rehearing.

Petrosky’s attorney, Mary Ann Healy, contends that her client’s real estate dealings with his psychologist are “not really relevant.”

Summerfield said his real estate transactions were handled by Petrosky’s wife, but added: “The propriety of it is questionable, I suppose. It’s conceivable I would be open for criticism.”

Doctor Often Criticized

A psychiatrist who has come in for more criticism than most is Dr. William Kroes of Los Angeles.

Although he has written extensively on stress and law enforcement, and is considered to be an expert in the field, Kroes said, “I’ve been accused of being the biggest whore in town.”

He denied the charge and said he has been unfairly lambasted by city officials who resent his public declarations that the Police Department management is a primary cause of stress among police officers.

Kroes said he has been sought out by hundreds of officers seeking stress pensions, at one time seeing as many as 50 a week.

Held Sessions on Boat

Kroes once held therapy sessions two days a week on his 34-foot powerboat, Peach Girl, docked at Marina del Rey.

“I thought it would be a good therapy aid,” Kroes said of the marina setting. “When they could relax, see the boats and see the water, it seemed to calm them down.”

City records show Kroes was paid $381,000 during an 18-month period ending in mid-1984 to counsel police officers. Kroes said the money represented late payments for bills as much as five years old, but a Personnel Department official said that it is unlikely that any payment was more than a year behind.

The psychiatrist said he now sees just 10 Los Angeles police officers a week and claims the city still owes him about $250,000.

City’s Doctors Criticized

Kroes said that the real villains in the “pension mess” are the doctors who the city hires to evaluate officers applying for stress pensions and workers compensation benefits.

“The city is paying doctors $1 million a year to lie and say there’s nothing wrong” with officers who are actually disabled, Kroes said.

Some “unethical doctors” hired by the city, he charged, have spent only five minutes with an officer--or no time at all--before writing up their evaluations.

Los Angeles pension attorney Edward Faunce said there are certain city-hired doctors who are so deceitful that he advises his clients to tape their interviews for protection in case the doctor lies in his written report to the pension board.

Computerized Records

Faunce said he has recently computerized his records to help him chart the work of several of those doctors to help buttress his claim that they are biased against police officers.

One officer, so suspicious of the psychiatrist he was sent to see by the pension board, arrived at the interview carrying a large attache case equipped with an anti-bugging device.

“He went about my room checking the lamp, the telephone, the pictures hung on the wall and went beneath the desk,” the psychiatrist later wrote to the pension board. “He reported that he did not find any evidence of bugging devices but wasn’t sure that there weren’t any there.”

According to the report, the officer said he was suspicious because the psychiatrist was “like the others--like a prostitute. You get paid for writing a report.”