Pasadena, CA Psychiatrist Laurance F. Johnson Surrenders License After Medical Board Disciplinary Action for Sexual Harassment of Patient

October 15, 2019

On October 15, 2019, Pasadena psychiatrist Laurance Johnson surrendered his California medical license. The surrender order issued by the Medical Board of California states that the surrender was for “health reasons, retirement, or inability to satisfy the terms and conditions of probation.”

The Board had previously placed Johnson’s license on five years’ probation, based on an Accusation issued to Johnson by the Board on March 9, 2018, which contained multiple causes for discipline:     

• Sexual harassment of a female patient

• Offering the patient the anti-anxiety drug Xanax without examination and though the patient had not asked

• Findings that Johnson might have been unfit to practice medicine due to dementia.

The terms of the probation included remedial coursework, a psychiatric evaluation, ongoing psychotherapy, and obtaining the services of another physician to monitor his practice, among other things.

The issue of Johnson’s fitness to practice arose from his having been ordered by the Board to submit to a psychological evaluation because he made inconsistent statements to the Board’s investigator about the female patient—saying he’d treated her for 20 years and then later saying that he could not remember her—despite having spoken about her to others, etc.

Source: Agreement for Surrender of License in the Matter of the Accusation against Laurance Folkey Johnson, M.D., Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate No. G17122, Case No. 800-2016-022456, California Medical Board, October 15, 2019; Stipulated Settlement and Disciplinary Order in the Matter of the Accusation against Laurance Folkey Johnson, M.D., Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate No. G17122, Case No. 800-2016-022456, California Medical Board, January 23, 2019; and Accusation in the Matter of the Accusation against Laurance Folkey Johnson, M.D., Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate No. G17122, Case No. 800-2016-022456, California Medical Board, March 9, 2018.