El Cajon shrink gives up practice

On May 15, El Cajon psychiatrist Leon Fajerman surrendered his license to practice medicine in California. A month earlier, on April 11, the state medical board had accused him of sexual misconduct with seven patients and the mother of one of them. In a 24-page document, the board said that the doctor inappropriately kissed, fondled and made sexual remarks to his patients, including luring one woman to have sexual intercourse in exchange for a promise of a prescription for pain medication.

Fajerman, in an administrative hearing, did not contest that the medical board could establish a prima facie case against him. The psychiatrist, a graduate of the medical school of the University of Buenos Aires, was granted a license to practice in California in 1978.

He maintained offices in San Diego, Chula Vista, San Ysidro and El Cajon.

The board detailed the interactions of doctor and patient, including the experience of one woman, identified only as Patient A who had seen him for some 40 sessions when untoward advances were made. According to the accusations leveled by the medical board, the doctor placed an appointment card inside the top of the patient's dress. She reached under the dress to retrieve the card and found the doctor's hand on her breast, rubbing it, and telling her it felt good.

When the patient tried to pull away, the doctor kissed her on the lips, throwing in some tongue. He later moved onto her neck.

"Patient A pulled her head down toward her shoulders in an effort to prevent him from kissing her," according to official documents issued to the doctor. "Respondent then pulled up the bottom of Patient A's dress and placed one of his hands on one of her buttocks. He told her that he would like to undress her."

Then, the board alleged, the psychiatrist put his hand inside the patient's underwear and touched her vagina. Patient A told him she objected to his behavior, yet he urged her to return on a day when there would be time and privacy for sexual intercourse, and to tell her husband she had actually gone off to a casino.

In December 2016, at the direction of law enforcement officers, the patient engaged in a series of conversations by phone with the doctor about the incident two months earlier in October. The calls were recorded on Patient A's cell phone.

UPDATE

On Thursday (May 24), Fajerman was arrested for alleged sexual battery and sexual relations with a patient, City News Service reported. The doctor's arraignment was scheduled for Friday afternoon (May 25). He had been held on $200,000 bail.