Doctor Files Suits Alleging Defamation

Dr. Steven Hoefflin, the plastic surgeon to the stars whose patients include Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, has filed defamation lawsuits against two former colleagues.

Late Monday, Hoefflin sued Drs. James S. Hurvitz and Wallace A. Goodstein, accusing them of working “in concert” to launch “a defamatory campaign” to ruin him with false allegations that Hoefflin exposed, fondled and mocked sedated celebrity patients.

He said the allegations are false and have caused “extensive damage to his career and severe emotional distress.”

In the suits, Hoefflin accuses the other surgeons, who once shared office space with him in Santa Monica, of disseminating “bogus” court documents containing false allegations from other disgruntled former employees. The recipients included the state Medical Board and the Washington Post, the suits say.

The sensational allegations involving celebrity clients were made against the backdrop of the surgeons’ ongoing and bitter feud. The charges and countercharges are being investigated by the Medical Board.

According to Hoefflin’s suit, the charges included tales of drug abuse and misconduct in the operating room. Among them were stories that Hoefflin posed a famous female patient in a lewd position while she was unconscious after surgery, and that he pulled up a male celebrity patient’s surgical gown, exposed the patient’s genitals and said, “You know, he never used it.”

Hoefflin has vigorously denied the allegations, and claims in his lawsuits that Hurvitz and Goodstein are or have been addicted to prescription drugs.

“I’m both very hurt and very upset,” he said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “Anybody can bring false allegations and ruin somebody’s reputation. Cheap talk and lies are not 1st Amendment freedoms. They’re just cheap talk and lies.”

The suit naming Hurvitz was filed in Superior Court in Santa Monica. It alleges that Hurvitz and Goodstein were the “chief disseminators of these complete falsities.” The suit, filed by attorney Patricia L. Glaser, seeks damages of at least $20 million, plus unspecified punitive damages.

Hurvitz denied through a spokesman that he has abused drugs. The spokesman had no comment on the suit, except to deny that Hurvitz participated with Goodstein in any smear campaign against Hoefflin.

Goodstein was sued in Los Angeles Superior Court for damages of at least $10 million. He has denied the allegations and said in a telephone interview that he welcomes the lawsuit because he was planning to file one of his own against Hoefflin.

“Things have reached a critical mass,” Goodstein said. “The truth will come out soon. I’m prepared in the appropriate legal forum to name names and back it up with medical records.”

Hoefflin said he tried to act as a mentor to Hurvitz and Goodstein, who turned on him.

“I am a very nice guy, I think. I am a very perfectionistic plastic surgeon, though,” he said. “These individuals who have been disgruntled were and continue to be people that I had tried to help.”