POLICE: DOCTOR GOT SEX FOR PILLS

Lowell Psychiatrist Faces Fraud Charges

[A] Lowell psychiatrist traded prescription drugs for sexual favors, lived
with a patient who was a known heroin user, and may have prescribed
narcotics to feed the habits of dozens of drug addicts, authorities said
yesterday.

Dr. Michael Louis Mavroidis, 53, pleaded not guilty yesterday to a single
charge of prescribing drugs without a legitimate medical purpose. He was
arrested Wednesday and barred from practicing medicine after authorities
accused him of coercing a patient into performing sexual acts in return for
Xanax and other medications. Mavroidis denied any wrongdoing.

The allegations stem from a two-year investigation involving the state
medical board, Lowell police, and Attorney General Thomas Reilly's Medicaid
fraud control unit. The investigation is continuing, but police said it
acted this week ''to get him off the street.''

''It was pretty well known that you could get anything you wanted off this
guy,'' said Lowell Police Superintendent Edward F. Davis III.

Police say shutting down Mavroidis's private medical practice, on Merrimack
Street in downtown Lowell, will make a significant dent in prescription
drug abuse in the area. Local treatment facilities in Lowell are prepared
to deal with a spike in patients suffering from withdrawal symptoms, said
Davis.

Mavroidis, a board-certified psychiatrist and neurologist, was released on
his own recognizance. Through his lawyer, Robert M. Walsh of Manchester,
N.H., he issued a statement saying he expected to be vindicated.

''For many years I have provided medical services to psychiatric patients
in Lowell and the surrounding communities,'' he stated. ''Many of these
patients have long-term and severe psychiatric illnesses. The charges that
have been brought against me are based on a report by a patient with such a
long-term illness and a history of encounters with law enforcement.''

Though the current criminal charges are based on a single incident, medical
regulators alleged a broader pattern of abuse when they summarily suspended
Mavroidis's license Wednesday, based on the account of a young man addicted
to Xanax and heroin, whom they called Patient A.

The patient began seeing Mavroidis, the board's complaint says,
''specifically because he had heard on the street that [the doctor] freely
issued narcotics prescriptions.''

During their visits, the complaint states, the two would ''talk
informally,'' and Mavroidis would provide the patient with Xanax, Ambien,
Neurotin, Zyprexa, and other prescriptions, without discussing how they
might interact with each other or with heroin.

On one visit, according to the complaint, Mavroidis taunted the patient
with a bottle of Xanax, making gestures that showed he wanted oral sex. The
patient complied and Mavroidis gave him some loose Xanax pills, an exchange
that became routine until the visits ended in August, the complaint says.

In addition, the board accused Mavroidis of living with another patient,
itself an apparent violation of medical ethics, since psychiatrists are not
supposed to have close personal relationships with patients. ''Patient B''
received many prescriptions between Oct. 2, 1997 and Aug. 31. Last
December, police raided the house the two shared and charged Patient B with
possession of heroin and a hypodermic needle. The patient pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Nancy Achin Sullivan, executive director of the Board of Registration in
Medicine, said the case was of particular concern to the board because of
the allegation that Mavroidis preyed on addicts, who are vulnerable both
because of their dependency and because they fear authorities will not
believe them.

''Instead of being held hostage and having their addiction fed, people who
have substance abuse problems should be able to go to a doctor and get
help,'' she said.