Psychiatrist Leon Fajerman, Charged with Sexual Abuses of Seven Patients, Surrenders License

May 15, 2018

On May 18, 2018. the Medical Board of California announced that psychiatrist Leon Fajerman had surrendered his license, relative to Board charges of sexual misconduct with seven patients and a patient's mother. 

Fajerman, who practiced in El Cajon, has been under investigation since July 2017, when the Board issued an interim suspension order against him, based on a report it had received from patient "S.D.," a married female who had been Fajerman's patient for nearly 10 years. S.D. reported that at her last appointment, October 19, 2016, Fajerman groped her and had sexual contact with her. Uncomfortable with his conduct, the patient told him it was not right and that she needed to leave. Fajerman urged her to tell her husband a "cover story" so that they could meet again for sex. 

S.D. went to the police, who equpped her cell phone with an audio recording device to record her conversations with Fajerman. In coversations on December 22, 2016 and January 6, 2017, Fajerman admitted that he'd engaged in sexual misconduct with S.D. but when facing the suspension of his license, he denied that he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with S.D., but stated that he "played along with her sexual interest in him during their phone conversation."

However, in one of the phone recordings, S.D. reminded him that he'd placed the appointment card for their next appointment on her breasts. His response was "and you did not like it?" He did not explicitly deny that he engaged in the conduct she described (which included "touching her breasts, kissing her on the mouth, neck, touched her butt and touched her private parts") but said that the conduct lasted only 10 seconds and was "in the moment." 

On April 11, 2018, the Board issued a First Amended Accusation which included details on the seven cases, which were all similar in nature to the conduct that S.D. reported. In one case, Fajerman was reported as having lured one of the patients to have sexual intercourse with the promise of prescribing her pain medication in exchange.

Source: "El Cajon psychiatrist surrenders his license following sexual abuse charges involving seven patients," press release of the Medical Board of California, May 18, 2018 and First Amended Accusation, Leon Fajerman, M.D., Case No. 800-2016-027360.