John E. Curran, who has practiced in Cranston, Providence and East Greenwich, is on trial for wire fraud and money laundering.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 26, 2006

BY FELICE J. FREYER
Journal Medical Writer

PROVIDENCE -- John E. Curran, a "natural healer" accused of pretending to be a doctor, told healthy people they were deathly ill and gave false hope to the sick, according to the prosecution at a trial under way in U.S. District Court.

Faced with a 17-year-old girl dying of ovarian cancer, Curran said he could help -- and put her on a starvation diet of his "Green Drink," powdered vegetables dissolved in water, Assistant U.S. Attorney Luis M. Matos told the jury in closing arguments yesterday. Curran put bogus diplomas on his wall and advertised that he had cured a 47-year-old man of head and neck cancer, although his own notes showed the man's cancer had recurred, according to Matos.

Curran said he was a medical doctor, looked at people's blood under a microscope, frightened them with stories of cancerous cells, immune-system failure and parasites, and then sold them thousands of dollars in treatments, Matos said.

Not so, said Curran's lawyer, Scott A. Lutes. Curran is a well-meaning practitioner who "never intended to mislead anyone about what he was doing or who he was," Lutes said. He so believed in his treatments that he prescribed them to his own sister, and his diplomas, far from being bogus, were testimony to his continuing efforts to educate himself through correspondence courses, Lutes said.

The patients who testified against Curran, Lutes said, represent a handful of disgruntled customers who had "buyers' remorse" because they had not stayed with the treatment long enough to reap the benefits.

Curran was not a licensed physician, and never pretended to be, according to Lutes, but he could legally call himself "doctor" and use "M.D." on his nameplate and lab coat because he had studied naturopathy (a system of care that seeks to elicit the body's self-healing powers) and had taken courses and proficiency exams in medicine.

The jury mulled those assertions -- along with 369 exhibits and testimony from 45 witnesses -- for a little over two hours yesterday, the ninth day of the trial. The jury is scheduled to resume deliberations today.

Curran, who has practiced in Cranston, Providence and East Greenwich, had been under investigation by federal authorities since April 2004. In January 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's office of criminal investigations and several other federal agencies raided Curran's office, confiscating equipment and nutrition supplements. In June 2005, the Health Department shut Curran's practice, and in September, a federal grand jury indicted Curran on 19 counts of wire fraud and 4 counts of money laundering.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi threw out one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Matos explained to the jury that Curran faces wire fraud charges because he used interstate wires to process credit card charges, and also e-mailed and faxed information, as part of his "scheme to defraud his clients." The three money-laundering charges stem from his use of interstate banks to buy equipment "to further his scheme."

Curran, Matos said, broke the law in three ways: by "falsely portraying himself as a medical doctor," by performing a procedure known as "live blood analysis" after being told to stop by the Health Department, and by diagnosing disease and saying he could cure it.

Curran was on the witness stand for most of two days this week. Much of his testimony focused on how he obtained his diplomas. Curran said he trained with a naturopath and attended a two-week course in Arkansas. His other diplomas, he said, resulted from studying on his own and taking exams. He pointed to advertisements in which he made it clear that his medical degrees were "academic only" and "honorary."

But Matos pointed to other brochures, articles and advertisements in which that distinction was not made clear, and noted that the diplomas, prominently displayed in Curran's office, did not specify "honorary" or "academic."

Curran testified that in November 2001, he received a "box of books" that he studied and took exams on. A scant two months later, on Jan. 1, 2002, he received a medical degree from the Asian American Institute in Costa Rica. A month after that, the institute provided a transcript indicating that Curran had studied seven semesters and four summers, taking such courses as hematology, obstetrics and surgery. It even lists a dissertation topic for a doctoral degree.

Lutes, Curran's lawyer, presented evidence that patients signed a "bill of rights" that specified Curran could not diagnose or treat disease, and the document was displayed in the office. Another poster in the office spelled out that naturopaths do not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease, or prescribe drugs.

"There is no way any reasonably intelligent person would be under the impression that John Curran is anything but a naturopathic doctor," Lutes said. His office was clearly distinguishable from a doctor's office, Lutes said, because it featured dim lighting, calming music and soothing scents, because insurance didn't cover his services, and because Curran gave an hour-long free consultation.

ffreyer@projo.com / (401) 277-7397