DENVER (CN) - A dentist's history of "getting high before performing surgeries" and reusing needles ruined his partner's dental practice, the partner claims in court.
Neil G. Dobro, D.M.D., sued Stephen M. Stein, D.D.S., in Denver County Court.
Dobro claims Stein concealed his troubled history to persuade Dobra to form the New Image Dental Implant Center with him.
Eventually, Dobro says, he uncovered disturbing allegations about his partner, including that the Colorado Dental Board had recently "voted to summarily suspend Dr. Stein's license to practice dentistry."
"Among other things, Mr. Stein had been stealing medications from patients and Dr. Dobro realized that Mr. Stein would eventually face criminal charges," the complaint states. "With this inevitable and damaging public disclosure on the horizon, Dr. Dobro proposed a means by which Mr. Stein could smoothly exit the practice of dentistry-Dr. Dobro would buy all of Mr. Stein's dental practice assets (equipment, supplies, etc.), together with Mr. Stein's putative membership interest in New Image."
Dobro says he prepared an asset purchase agreement for this, in November 2011.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Stein is a drug addict and his conduct did not follow a rational course," the complaint states. "Like many other addicts, Mr. Stein has developed a keen ability to detach himself from reality. Although he may have done so earlier, Dr. Dobro later learned that Mr. Stein was getting high before performing surgeries in his office at the First Avenue Property. Yet he was somehow able to ignore the fact that doing so placed people's lives in jeopardy. He was also able to deny the fact that he was stealing drugs from the very patients that he took an oath to protect and whom he was supposed to serve. Most important, he lived in denial of the inevitable fact that he would eventually be caught.
"Mr. Stein's negotiations with Dr. Dobro were, likewise, detached from reality. From the moment he entered into the Cessation Agreement in June of 2011 [sic], Mr. Stein believed that his reinstatement was imminent."
Dobro claims: "Despite Dr. Dobro's November 2011 offer to purchase Mr. Stein's dental assets and his putative membership interest in New Image, Mr. Stein refused to proceed with the transaction and made varying excuses for stalling. Mr. Stein argued, for instance, that his pending divorce barred him from selling the assets of his former practice. Likewise, he insisted that the sale was unnecessary because the Colorado Board of Dentistry could reinstate his license at any moment.
"Sometime in late-November or early-December of 2011, Dr. Dobro learned that the lies coming from Mr. Stein were much worse than he originally realized. Among other things, Dr. Dobro discovered that, when Mr. Stein's first employer learned about his substance abuse, they fired him. But they agreed not to report Mr. Stein to the Colorado Board of Dentistry, provided that Mr. Stein seek help from the Peer Assistance Committee and leave the State of Colorado. Mr. Stein went through rehabilitation after he was fired but ignored his obligation to leave Colorado. Most important, he failed to disclose this situation to Dr. Dobro when Dr. Dobro asked him to disclose all events implicating his license.