Doctor, Crummel Said to Have Visited Youths

A psychiatrist faces disciplinary action by the state Medical Board, which accuses him of taking his roommate, a violent pedophile, with him to visit children’s group homes in Orange County.

The 20-page accusation against Burnell Gordon Forgey, a 79-year-old doctor with a small Newport Beach practice, focuses on his association with James Crummel, a convicted sex offender made notorious locally by neighbors’ efforts to drive him from Newport Beach.

Forgey’s actions, the board’s accusation says, placed children at risk of “great bodily harm or death at the hands of Crummel, an aggressive pedophile.”

In addition, Forgey is accused of illegally prescribing drugs to Crummel and himself.

Crummel was arrested in June on 15 new molestation charges in San Bernardino. He also is charged in the slaying of James “Jamie” Trotter, 13, a Costa Mesa youth who disappeared in 1979.

He was the third convicted child molester in Orange County whose address was publicized under Megan’s law, which allows police to notify residents of registered sex offenders in their neighborhood. Forgey can surrender his medical license or demand a hearing and defend himself, said board spokeswoman Candis Cohen.

Forgey could not be reached for comment. But Alla Temple, his secretary, said the doctor might choose to surrender his medical license because of his age and the fact that he does not have enough money to hire an attorney.

“At the moment, we don’t have that kind of money,” Temple said. “Just getting the retainer is way beyond our means.”

She defended Forgey, who she said practiced psychiatry with “dignity and courtesy,” even with homeless or poor patients who could not otherwise receive mental care.

“As far as Crummel and Dr. Forgey are concerned,” she added, Crummel “was a faithful servant, chauffeur, right-hand and maintenance man. And as far as the doctor knows, no misbehavior happened during the time he has known him.”

According to the board, Forgey made weekly to monthly visits to youth group homes in Orange County to offer psychiatric services from 1990 to 1994. At the facilities named in the accusation, New Alternatives Inc. in Costa Mesa and Orange, residents included “abused and vulnerable” youngsters aged 13 to 17 who had been victims of molestation, the board said.

Crummel was described to group home staff as Forgey’s assistant, the board said, but Forgey did not tell them Crummel “was a registered sex offender and pedophile.”

Crummel had unrestricted access to the children, their medical records and their files, the accusation says.

“On at least two occasions during this period,” the accusation notes, “Crummel entered the private rooms of boys and talked with them.”

On one occasion, according to the accusation, Crummel gave a group home client a telescope and a camera; another client received a fish tank. Crummel also took male clients in his car to a local convenience store and to school. In addition, Crummel and Forgey invited group home residents to a Christmas party aboard the doctor’s yacht, the accusation says.