Threatening emails were last straw for doctor

It's rare that the Nevada Board of Osteopathic Medicine revokes a doctor's license, and in 2012, only one man received such a harsh discipline, Dr. Michael Jenkins.

Surprisingly, his revocation wasn't for malpractice, and it wasn't for having sex with prostitutes he was treating at a Pahrump brothel.

Essentially, Jenkins lost his license because of his personality disorder. He has been diagnosed as being unable to control his impulses and thus posed a threat to patients.

The final order revoking his license said he is "presumed to be incompetent to practice osteopathic medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients."

It all began because he wrote a series of increasingly threatening emails because a medical supplier in Texas wouldn't refund him $29.

The woman complained to the board in February because she believed he might be a threat to her personally and to her business.

While it sounds minor, the 300-page transcript of the Aug. 21 hearing, along with the emails and another 300 pages of exhibits, vividly portray a man who believes he is right and everyone else is wrong. Jenkins represented himself at the hearing.

Quoting the less profane parts of one email from Jenkins: "Just an FYI asshole. I will be getting a $1,350,000 commission soon. When that happens I'm going to find you, crush your business like a bug and personally make your life a living hell. I will hire a PI to watch you day and night and destroy any and every opportunity you may have until you are living on the street. Think it can't happen. We'll just have to wait and see won't we."

All this fury over a $29 online order for a chemical face peel product Jenkins didn't think was strong enough.

His psychiatric examiner, Dr. Melissa Piasecki, concluded he had "significant limitations on his ability to safely practice medicine. This opinion is based on his history of unprofessional conduct in the form of aggressions and boundary violations."

Jenkins, 45, over the previous eight or nine years had a series of problems with medical boards in Nevada, Montana and Michigan. He cannot now practice medicine in any of the three states.

While Nevada revoked his license, Jenkins has surrendered his license in Montana and a complaint in Michigan is pending, but he agreed to the suspension of his license there as well.

Jenkins told the board that the email to the Texas nurse was "an absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical and petty exchange regarding a personal matter that was not professionally based or intended in any way, shape or form to be considered a professional interaction."

The testimony and the exhibits show a man who "makes his own troubles," as the board's counsel Louis Ling said. "There's something unbalanced about somebody who writes that kind of email."

Since disciplinary actions and revocations are reported to national health databases, Jenkins' ability to find a job as a doctor is drastically limited.

Jenkins returned my call Friday and said he is broke and living in his father's basement in Utah.

"I adamantly disagree with that diagnosis," he said politely, admitting that he has a "forceful personality.

He called the board's action "a modern day witch hunt fueled by misinformation."

Jenkins said he is working on oil projects in Utah and expects them to become lucrative and successful and doubted he would ever return to medicine. But no matter how lucrative they become, he vowed he wouldn't pay the Nevada osteopathic board "one penny."

The board revoked his license as of Nov. 13, ordered him to pay $26,739 to reimburse the board for the costs of investigation and prosecution, fined him $5,000 and said he cannot reapply until after he has completed a program designed to help him with anger, boundary and impulse control issues. Jenkins also must learn to treat other health professionals appropriately. And he must stop self-medicating.

In other words, it wasn't just the emails; it was a slew of problems related to his impulse control disorder.

He remains upset that the board wouldn't accept his offer to seek treatment but not revoke his license.

I first met him in 2003 when he was trying to get licensed by the Nevada board for the first time. He pleaded that the board was persecuting him unfairly and I should investigate the board, which denied him a license. With my keen sense of observation, I thought he was an odd duck.

Jenkins didn't get his license because the board found he didn't answer questions truthfully on his application and lacked training and competency to practice.

During his residency in Pahrump at Desert Trails Medical Center, he treated prostitutes and had sex with at least one of the women he was examining. In a classic, she said/he said, she said he was trading drugs for sex. He said he was trying to wean her off prescription narcotics. Only they know the truth. No charges were filed.

In Montana, where Jenkins was raised, his licensing troubles had included writing some prescriptions before he was licensed in Montana, but while he was licensed in Michigan.

Also in Montana, while he was examining a female staff member at a hospital, he offered to finance a business she was considering launching. She complained. The medical board settled the complaints by allowing him to surrender his medical license there.

Jenkins accused the Montana board of including gay activists who had targeted him because he was Mormon.

In September 2008, the Nevada board licensed him and he worked at various locations in Montana and Southern Nevada, including the El Dorado Medical Center in North Las Vegas.

Over the years in three states, he said he had perhaps "tens of thousands of patient contacts." And no malpractice suits.

He said "perhaps" he regrets pushing the send button on those emails. "But that had nothing to do with my ability to care for patients."

But that didn't stop him from losing his license in Nevada because board members feared he was becoming too great a risk for patients.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison.