An attorney representing former USC medical school dean Carmen Puliafito acknowledged at a state medical board hearing this week that the physician used hard drugs while employed by the university, but he argued that the doctor has been in recovery for months and should be allowed to practice medicine, it was reported Thursday.
The hearing marked the first time Puliafito’s version of events has been aired publicly since the Los Angeles Times detailed his double life of using drugs and partying with criminals, causing upheaval at USC and prompting the medical board to investigate the Harvard-trained ophthalmologist, The Times reported.
Attorney Peter Osinoff also argued that the 67-year-old physician suffers from a mental illness that makes him brilliant and leaves him with “immense energy” but instills an ”ugly side” in Puliafito that drove him to be infatuated with a young prostitute. That woman, Sarah Warren, introduced the doctor to “street drugs” and ultimately caused his downfall, Osinoff said, according to The Times
Osinoff insisted at the hearing that Puliafito was “addicted” to his former companion “and to a lesser degree the drugs,” but that the former dean has since been able to manage his diagnosed bipolar disorder.
The medical board alleged that Puliafito “would return to his medical office to see patients within hours of using methamphetamine” and supplied drugs to Warren and her then-minor brother Charles Warren, among others. Puliafito provided Charles Warren with methamphetamine and pipes for smoking the drug when he was only 17, the filing said, according to The Times.
Osinoff said Wednesday the doctor never illegally supplied drugs, was never high while seeing patients and has never been the subject of a patient complaint, The Times reported. He stopped using methamphetamine last July, Osinoff said.
The lawyer described Puliafito as a man spellbound by his own manic state and a “fantasy” in which he would rescue Sarah Warren from “a life of drugs and prostitution,” according to The Times.
Deputy Attorney General Rebecca Smith argued that Puliafito is unfit to practice medicine because of a substance abuse disorder, is a “danger to the public” and engaged in “egregious conduct at the expense of his female companion and her minor brother.”