State Board Strips Elam of License

Levying its harshest punishment, the Medical Board of California has stripped away the license of a well-known Newport Beach cosmetic surgeon who gave a disgruntled former Mrs. California a nose job and cheek implants she never wanted.

The medical board declared 42-year-old Michael Elam of Corona del Mar--who rose to national attention in 1983 when he helped redo comedienne Phyllis Diller’s face--to be both “dishonest” and “a dangerous person to be licensed as a physician and a surgeon.”

If upheld, the decision would put out of practice a man who helped found several national cosmetic surgery and liposuction organizations, and who boasts of long list of star clients at his opulent Fashion Island offices, regular appearances on nationwide cable home-shopping shows for his skin-care products, and frequent mentions in the society columns.

In 1989 alone, Elam reported taxable income of more than $850,000.

Elam was fishing in the Arctic Circle as the decision was released from Sacramento on Wednesday, his girlfriend said. But his lawyer, Douglas Reynolds, of San Diego, promised to appeal to the board and to Superior Court if necessary.

Medical Board officials said they saw virtually no chance that the board would reconsider its revocation of Elam’s license, which is the most severe penalty open to the state panel.

Out of more than 2,300 investigations in fiscal year 1989-90, the board opted for outright revocation of a medical license in just 45 cases.

Banned physicians can apply to have their license reinstated after a year, but officials said the severity of the charges against Elam makes it unlikely that it would be reinstated.

The decision by Adminstrative Law Judge Rosalyn M. Chapman, adopted in full by the board, was unusually stinging in its critique of both Elam’s medical performance and his credibility during a three-week hearing before Chapman in Los Angeles that ended in May.

The hearing centered on charges that Elam drugged former Mrs. California Bonnie Luebke, of Trabuco Canyon, in 1985 and gave her a nose job and cheek implants that she never wanted, and that he botched a “tummy tuck” two years earlier on a second patient, Louise Byas of Dana Point, leaving her with a permanent and unsightly scar.

He and a former partner, Frederick Berkowitz, were also charged with altering their medical records to cheat insurance companies out of reimbursement for their treatment of both women.

Luebke, 55, runner-up in the 1984 Mrs. America pageant, said in tearful testimony four months ago she “absolutely never, ever” wanted the implants and nose job, but that Elam persisted in doing the job his way, telling her: “I’ll make you look 30.”

Judge Chapman found some truth in virtually all the charges.

While avoiding the question of whether Elam improperly drugged Luebke, Chapman found that he had gotten her to switch surgical procedures without her “full understanding” and knowing consent; that he was “grossly negligent” in trying to fix the scar on Byas’ abdomen; and that he and former partner Berkowitz had fraudulently falsified insurance claims on both patients for more than $6,000.

Chapman suspended for six months the license of the 67-year-old Berkowitz, now semi-retired in Anaheim, and put him on probation for six years. He also ordered him to take a medical ethics course and perform free medical service in the community, among other conditions.

But the judge reserved her harshest rebuke for Elam.

Chapman concluded: “Elam’s testimony throughout the hearing was not credible. Respondent Elam is dishonest and has no compunction about lying, even under oath. The collusive nature of the false testimony (of Elam and his assistant and girlfriend Shelly Orozco) was shocking.”

Also, she found: “Elam views himself and his abilities in grandiose terms. He has shown no sorrow, remorse or contrition for his conduct, and it is, thus, unlikely that he will voluntarily change that conduct. Rather, respondent Elam responds to criticism by making threats to those people he perceives as critics.”

The judge was apparently referring to allegations that Elam had threatened to create personal and professional problems for Berkowitz if he did not change his testimony at the hearing and that a star medical witness for the state had received a threatening phone call warning him not to testify against Elam.

Defense attorney Reynolds maintained that neither threat was ever proven, or even explored, in the hearing. As a result, he said Chapman’s reference to them “would certainly provide us strong grounds for an appeal, since she was influenced by things that weren’t even properly before the court.”

Orozco, Elam’s girlfriend, said Elam had seen an unofficial copy of Chapman’s proposed decision a few weeks ago but had not yet been notified of the final ruling Wednesday.

Of the draft ruling she said, “He thought the report was very biased and extremely weak. He didn’t show any remorse because he didn’t do anything wrong. And he’s confident he can reverse this decision.”

In an interview in April as his hearing was about to resume, Elam declared: “I will be totally vindicated.”

The cosmetic surgeon, who has had a running feud with Orange County plastic surgeons over proper credentials and procedures for elective surgeries, pointed to the expensive furnishings and artwork around his Fashion Island office and blamed the state’s attempt to sideline his practice on his success and prominence in the field, especially since his work in 1983 on Diller.

“If I was as bad as the state of California says I am, why would I have all these patients, all this success?” he asked.

“I’m on television all the time. I get a lot of publicity. I’m in Vogue, People, all sorts of magazines. And usually when something happens in cosmetic surgery, I get a call. But (the publicity) is a double-edged sword--you get persecuted because of it.”