As expected, the Arizona Medical Board has tossed out the latest series of allegations against a Valley psychiatrist whose misdeeds have been well-chronicled in our paper for years.
The so-called "watchdog" agency dismissed the allegations against Dr. Joseph Franzetti, a duplicitous operator (in the photo) who collected about $250,000 from the county courts in fiscal 2009 alone.
We have published two cover stories on the not-so-good doctor. Here's one (in which Franzetti falsified jailhouse medical records concerning an inmate who killed himself), and here's the other (in which Franzetti ripped off both taxpayers and the county judicial system), and allegedly had an odd dalliance with a female inmate in the process).
A fellow psychiatrist once said of Franzetti during a deposition in a civil case brought by survivors of the suicide victim, "I wouldn't even expect to see a first-year medical student do that kind of evaluation. That's how poor it was . . . It's an embarrassingly low effort that he put into trying to treat and understand this man. It's just bad work. Very bad."
The board's executive director, Lisa S. Wynn, had recommended that the full board dismiss the most recent complaint against Franzetti, which concerned allegations raised in the latter story, "Dr. Deception," which was published last year.
The board went along with the recommendation at its most recent meeting.
Lame.
Though the brass at the Maricopa County Superior Court has barred Franzetti from conducting further mental-health "Rule 11" competency evaluations, he still is working in the Phoenix area, according to several sources.
