RALEIGH, N.C. – A well-known North Carolina pediatrician accused of conducting improper genital exams on five patients reached an agreement Friday with North Carolina regulators that will keep him from practicing medicine in the U.S.
Dr. Melvin D. Levine of Chapel Hill signed the agreement with the North Carolina Medical Board, which permanently ends any opportunity to practice medicine in North Carolina or any other state, said board spokeswoman Jean Brinkley.
Technically speaking, his medical license was inactivated. That's different from a license revocation, which is a separate legal action that can be appealed and allows a person to apply for reinstatement.
Levine, who voluntarily surrendered his license last year, "continues to adamantly deny the allegations and maintains that all examinations were medically necessary" and performed properly, said his lawyer, Alan Schneider.
Schneider said Levine hasn't practiced medicine for some time. He said the consent agreement allows Levine to focus on writing, international lecturing and other work.
The doctor once ran a clinic at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-founded a research institute.
The medical board proceeding would have been "a major distraction from Dr. Levine's primary mission to help individuals with serious learning difficulties and developmental problems."
Levine still faces lawsuits filed in Massachusetts by five other former male patients, who were treated at Children's Hospital Boston from 1971 to 1985. The lawsuits are pending in Suffolk Superior Court.
Attorney Carmen Durso said his clients "are pleased that the goal they sought, which was to stop him from treating any more children, has been achieved."
Durso said he has been contacted by 50 people from Massachusetts and North Carolina alleging abuse.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox