Fraud Charged in Phobia Counseling for Victim of Crash

A Chatsworth chiropractor has been charged with fraud and grand theft for allegedly filing more than $15,000 in false insurance claims for treatment of a bizarre phobia after a minor automobile accident.

Symptoms of the phobia described by chiropractor James Francis Dorobiala, 47, included stomach pains, diarrhea and lack of control over urination when getting into cars, according to an affidavit signed by Beverly Hills psychotherapist Donald Dossey, who treated Dorobiala.

Farmer’s Insurance Group, which paid $30,000 overall for the treatment, alleges that more than half of that amount represented false billings for sessions that never occurred.

Dorobiala said he sent bills to the insurance company for weekly counseling sessions conducted over the telephone with Dossey, and also for time spent driving on the freeway and “confronting his fears.”

Fraud Charge

Dossey, 54, whose phobia clinic has gone out of business, faces a charge of conspiracy to defraud the insurance company. Dorobiala has been charged with insurance fraud, grand theft and conspiracy to defraud the company.

The problems started in July, 1984, after a hit-and-run accident involving Dorobiala and his wife, who were vacationing in Hawaii and were driving a rental car. Dorobiala said he feared that his wife, who was pregnant at the time, would lose her baby. After the accident, in which his wife bumped her head against the windshield, Dorobiala developed a fear of driving on the freeway, he said.

But prosecutors described the accident, which caused less than $1,000 in damage to the car’s front end and windshield, as “very minimal.”

“It was not a severe accident,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi. “He didn’t sustain severe injuries, nor did anyone else.”

‘Hard to Imagine’

Maurizi said, “It’s so bizarre, it’s just kind of hard to imagine it has a real true psychological explanation.”

“It could be legitimate, or it could be a very elaborate hoax, or anything in between in terms of physical and mental problems,” she said.

In a telephone interview, Dorobiala said: “I just wasn’t functional. I had acute anxiety and became very phobic about freeway driving.”

Dorobiala began weekly sessions at the Beverly Hills phobia clinic in August, 1984, Maurizi said. He continued the weekly treatments through November, 1987, Dorobiala said.

In a sworn affidavit, Dossey said his client experienced “symptoms of stomach pains and diarrhea anytime he would get into vehicles or fearful situations, particularly relative to automobiles. Driving on the freeway he was very, very nervous, but he had no control over urination or defecations when he was put into an automobile or oftentimes even social situations.”

Dorobiala later said he did not actually lose control over bodily functions, but felt as if he might.

Claims Defended

Attorney Alan May, who is representing Dorobiala, said his client’s claim of phobias arising from the accident is genuine. “There’s no question as to the need for treatment,” May said.

Treatment consisted of counseling and instructing Dorobiala to “face his fears” by driving alone on the freeway, Dorobiala said.

For the first year, he received weekly treatments, and after that he was treated twice a month and later just once a month, Maurizi said. But the billings continued as if treatments continued on a weekly basis, the prosecutor said.

Farmer’s Insurance investigators told prosecutors they became suspicious after the billing address was changed from Dossey’s office to a post office box number.

The investigators asked Dorobiala for treatment records, and, prosecutors say, Dorobiala instructed Dossey to sign 200 blank billing forms that he later sent to the insurance company.

Dorobiala called that allegation “absolute nonsense,” saying: “He would give them out to me periodically, certainly not 200 in a bunch. He instructed me to keep the records, so I did.”

Maurizi said Dossey told insurance company investigators that he conspired with his client because he was intimidated by him.

“The irony here is that the head of a phobia institute handling fears and anxieties is claiming that he is going along with this because of fear and anxiety he had about the patient,” May said.

Aug. 23 Hearing

Dossey has offered to cooperate with investigators and may testify against his client, Maurizi said. A preliminary hearing for Dorobiala, who was arrested June 28 and is free on $25,000 bail, is scheduled for Aug. 23 in San Fernando Municipal Court.

If they are convicted of the charges, Dorobiala could be sentenced to five years in state prison and his psychotherapist could receive three years.