Plastic Surgeon to Stars Faces Probe

The plastic surgeon who sculpted Michael Jackson’s face and rejuvenated Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller is under investigation for allegedly fondling, ridiculing and disrobing patients who were under anesthesia, a state official said Monday.

The state Medical Board is also looking into allegations of drug abuse against Dr. Steven Hoefflin, said spokeswoman Candis Cohen.

Hoefflin, 51, denied the accusations, saying they stemmed from infighting between himself and two former surgical partners, Drs. James S. Hurvitz, 50, and Wallace A. Goodstein, 51.

The three have engaged in a round robin of allegations and counter allegations.

“I am appalled by these totally false and outrageous statements,” Hoefflin said Monday in a statement. He said the allegations represent “disgruntled individuals who in the past created false charges to hurt me.”

Hurvitz declined to comment Monday.

Goodstein said Hoefflin, who has been licensed since 1973, set out to destroy his reputation by calling him mentally unstable and a drug user and by attacking the lipo-sculpture technique he developed.

“You’ve got a guy whose success corrupted him. . . . He’s projecting his sickness onto his associates,” Goodstein said.

Diller said she could hardly believe the allegations against the doctor who helped her eliminate “those John D. Rockefeller lines that women get around their mouth. It takes off 20 years.”

“I am aghast,” the cosmetic surgery veteran said in a telephone interview. “He’s one of my dearest friends. I’ve always admired him and his expertise with the knife.”

The allegations of unprofessional conduct are contained in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in 1996 against Hoefflin in Los Angeles County Superior Court by four former female employees.

One of the plaintiffs, Kim Moore-Mestas, testified that she observed Hoefflin’s “touching of patients in a sexual manner.”

The women failed to appear earlier this year when they were subpoenaed to testify about Hoefflin at a Medical Board hearing.

Deputy Atty. Gen. E.A. Jones III filed a motion Oct. 2 and will ask a judge at a Nov. 6 hearing to order the four women to cooperate.

Board investigator Joanna Rykoff said a telephone complaint was lodged July 1, 1996, alleging that Hoefflin used drugs and “had fondled and photographed patients (many of whom were in the entertainment industry) while they were under the effects of anesthesia. The complainant alleged that the patients’ private parts were exposed while they were being operated on for a face lift.”

In 1995, Hoefflin was cited for heroism when he dove into chilly water to save a suicidal man who had jumped off the Santa Monica Pier. Hoefflin’s friend, Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, made a 911 emergency call to summon help.