Court Opinion

ID: 9625233
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:32:40.665011+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:18:06.166920
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J.,
Dissenting.-—The judgment is reversed on the ground that the crime of which the plaintiff was convicted (furnishing intoxicating liquor to a minor) does not necessarily involve moral turpitude and that in order to disclose the circumstances of sex perversion in connection with that crime it would be necessary independently to charge the plaintiff with, and prove, that particular crime.
I cannot agree with the circuitous course required by the court under the circumstances of this case. Dr. Lorenz was cited to answer to the charge of which he had been convicted. He appeared before the hearing officer to answer the charge. He was represented by counsel. The board was also represented. The judgment of conviction was conclusive evidence of that conviction. The board proceeded to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the conduct of the doctor in committing the crime of which he had been convicted. In my opinion the board had the power to do so. Those circumstances might disclose no moral turpitude. They might disclose conduct amounting to moral turpitude but not constituting a separate criminal offense or they might show an offense against the criminal laws of the state. If they tended to disclose any conduct involving moral turpitude the accused doctor should, in fairness, be given an adequate opportunity to meet the charge. Such an opportunity was accorded him in this case. When the board proceeded to inquire into the homosexual conduct of the accused doctor his counsel stated: “We know and we anticipated that we would have to meet this type of charge [homosexual conduct] here ... So we selected the two outstanding men in the field of neuro-psychiatry as involves homosexual behavior that we could find, and we had him [the accused doctor] examined. Those same two doctors . . . tell you out and out frankly across the board that Dr. Lorenz is not a homosexual and there is nothing that would militate against his continuing his practice.”
*689An objection was made to the introduction of evidence showing homosexual conduct but no objection was made on the ground that the accused doctor was taken by surprise or had no notice that the subject would be investigated. No request for a continuance was made to enable him to further combat the charge. In contesting it he introduced evidence of experts to prove that he was of good character and not homosexually inclined.
The record supports the conclusion of the board that the purpose of plying the boy with liquor was in furtherance of the accused doctor’s homosexual intentions and that they were carried into effect. I see no good reason to require the roundabout way of proving in an independent action what has already been disclosed. After the administrative hearing the accused doctor resorted to the court under established practice to have the order of the board set aside. After a court hearing the action of the board was upheld. There was no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court in refusing the aid of the court to relieve the accused of the consequences of his reprehensible conduct. I would affirm the judgment.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied July 18, 1956. Shenk, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.