Doc Jailed For Political Corruption Fighting For Med License
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Hollywood ophthalmologist Alan Mendelsohn continues his fight to practice medicine again after his prison sentence for political corruption.
Alan Mendelsohn
An appeals court rejected an emergency stay sought by the Florida Department of Health to prevent reinstatement of Mendelsohn’s license, the News Service of Florida reported today.
In a decision last week, a three-judge panel agreed to hear the Department of Health’s appeal of a Board of Medicine action earlier this year reinstating Mendelsohn’s license.
But the court refused a request for a stay blocking the issuance of the license.
Mendelsohn won his license back from the Board after his lawyer argued that his conviction did not involve his practice of medicine.
According to court documents, Mendelsohn is in a halfway house house in Dania Beach under the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Once a major fund raiser for physicians in Florida, Mendelsohn was convicted in 2011 of diverting roughly $700,000 from political committees to himself, his family and his mistress. In addition to giving money to his girlfriend, Mendelsohn used the political contributions for his children’s private high school tuition, tutoring for the SAT, a luxury car and home renovations, states a report in the Miami Herald
Mendelsohn also admitted he paid Democratic state Senator Mandy Dawson $82,000 for her to look favorably on the Florida Medical Association’s legislative goals. Dawson later pleaded guilty to tax evasion and served six months.
He was sentenced to four years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to a single conspiracy count.
December 1st, 2014 at 9:21 pm
This guy wants his medical license back so
he can practice medicine again as well as support himself and his family. Some folk on
Broward beat are shortsighted. Prison should Redeem an individual not take all means to earn a living away. Would anyone rather he reoffend and the tax payers have
to pay for him again or have him become
a productive member of society.
December 1st, 2014 at 9:43 pm
Didn’t Eleanor Sobel take campaign cash from Mendelsohn that helped her beat Gottlieb and Ryan for her Senate seat? Yet nobody says a word about it? She being so closely aligned with the medical association and all? Just asking.
December 2nd, 2014 at 10:10 pm
Equal punishment for wrongdoings? 4 years in federal prison for over $700,00 and others get 3 years in prison for less than $15,000. Equal? Fair?