Osteopath Charged With Concealed Weapon Count

An osteopathic physician who authorities said had two 6-inch throwing knives strapped to his legs and hand knives in his pockets was arrested Tuesday outside his medical office on a charge of illegal possession of concealed weapons.

Jeffrey D. Gerber, 46, of Whittier was taken into custody at 7:30 p.m. by investigators with the state Department of Consumer Affairs, a source close to the investigation said.

Sheriff’s officials said Gerber, a general practitioner, was booked into Orange County Jail on Tuesday night on the weapons charge. He was released Wednesday morning after posting $10,000 bail.

The arrest came amid a continuing investigation by the Consumer Affairs Department, conducted on behalf of the California Board of Osteopathic Medicine, said Linda Bergmann, the board’s executive director.

“When this is completed, we’ll probably refer it to the Department of Justice” for possible action against the doctor’s license, she said.

According to the source familiar with the probe, a woman who had dated Gerber told Los Angeles police that he had shown her a knife and offered to show her a gun he was carrying. In addition, he showed her a police badge and a coroner’s office identification, and told her he worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the source said.

Later, a second woman who dated Gerber sued him in February, alleging that he had forced drugs on her against her will while pursuing a sexual relationship with her for two years.

The woman answered a personal ad that Gerber had placed in a newspaper, according to the suit. As a condition of the relationship, the suit states, Gerber gave her drugs including stimulants and appetite depressants, Valium and birth control injections. The woman was not overweight, said her Huntington Beach attorney, Randall C. Bertz, but Gerber was obsessed with controlling her weight, she alleges in the suit.

The drugs were given to the woman, who was not Gerber’s patient, while the doctor’s license was under suspension by the osteopathy board for improper dispensation of drugs for weight control, according to the suit.

Bertz offered the woman “a salary,” rent money and gifts, including a car, which she accepted, she claims in the suit. On one occasion, he hit her during an argument in a restaurant, then begged her not to report him to authorities, the suit states; on another, it says, he threatened to kill her.

Bertz said the woman went to authorities when she learned he had relationships with two other women. Osteopaths are licensed physicians, entitled to perform the same procedures as medical doctors. However, they are regulated by a separate licensing board and have additional training in manipulation of muscular and skeletal systems.