Doctor loses license in sex allegations

The state medical board Thursday revoked the license of a Huntington Beach physician, seven weeks after an administrative law judge found he had sexually exploited two female patients.

Dr. John Edwin Bohm, who specialized in anesthesiology and pain medicine, pleaded no contest in December 2005 in Los Angeles County Superior Court to sexual misconduct with one of the patients.

The patient alleged that at a September 2004 appointment, Bohm locked the door of the treatment room, fondled her and had sex with her. The following month, she filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police secretly tape-recorded a call between Bohm and the patient in which he said they had sex.

Convicted of one count of violating the Business and Professions Code by sexually exploiting a patient, Bohm was sentenced to three years’ probation and 240 hours of community service.

A second patient said Bohm had treated her for pain for nearly three years at his offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, Upland and Riverside. During appointments in 2002, she said, he made flirtatious remarks and touched her breasts inappropriately, and in July 2003 he tried to undo her pants while they were kissing in the waiting room.

An administrative law judge found those two accusers to be credible witnesses, but dismissed the claims of a third as unreliable. Bohm had held his license since 1993.

A 2005 court order prohibited Bohm from treating female patients but allowed him to treat men while the medical board was reviewing his case. During that time, said his lawyer, Shepard Kopp, Bohm received no complaints.

Records show Bohm graduated in 1989 from medical school at the American University of the Caribbean.

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christopher.goffard@ latimes.com