CURRAN

A federal court this week rejected the appeal of an Exeter man who masqueraded as a medical doctor, performing bogus tests and ordering pricey treatments after telling people they had ailments ranging from “red crystals” in their blood to “fungus on the liver.”

John E. Curran, 43, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison after being convicted in 2006 on wire fraud and money-laundering charges.

While he did not challenge his conviction, Curran claimed the sentence was excessive, saying the court had incorrectly calculated the dollar value of the loss caused by his fraud. But in a decision issued Monday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentence.

In determining Curran’s sentence, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi had calculated losses totaling $1.4 million. Curran’s lawyer contended that the calculation was based on insufficient evidence, saying only a few clients testified and some clients were satisfied and received legitimate alternative therapies. But the Boston-based 1st Circuit found “little merit” in those arguments.

“There was ample evidence from which to conclude that Curran falsely held himself out to his clients to be a medical doctor, and that the clients … were improperly given blood tests and received medically frivolous remedies designed for Curran’s financial benefit rather than his clients’ well-being,” Senior Circuit Judge Levin H. Campbell wrote. “That a few clients later relayed their satisfaction with this fraudulent treatment through defense counsel is immaterial in light of the clear evidence of professional impropriety and fraud, affecting all his clients, that permeated Curran’s practice.”

The court said trial evidence indicated Curran had examined nearly 500 clients between 2000 and 2004.

“In almost every case, Curran conducted a live blood exam which he found to reveal a frightening condition like ‘parasites’ or ‘red crystals,’ ” Campbell wrote. “More than two-thirds of the clients were found to have parasites in their blood, a diagnosis the court found to be incredible given the unrebutted expert testimony that parasites in the blood are an extremely rare condition.”

U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente welcomed the 1st Circuit ruling. “As Judge Lisi said at sentencing, and as the court noted in its opinion, this defendant was a ‘menace’ who took advantage of his patients’ worst fears and ‘preyed’ upon them in a ‘scam of the worst kind,’ ” Corrente said. “He is where he belongs — where he can’t prey on any more vulnerable victims with his quackery.”

Curran is in the Loretto Federal Correctional Institution in southwest Pennsylvania, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Tamara A. Barney, a Barrington lawyer who represented Curran on appeal, said, “Mr. Curran is very disappointed. He never meant to harm anybody and he continues to believe his sentence was disproportionate to his actions.”

Barney said, “A lot of people were lined up to say they weren’t misled by him in any way and they did not want the money they spent included in the loss calculation, and the loss calculation drives the sentence.”

Curran had testified that he believed in all of the methods and products. He said he told clients he was a naturopath who had later earned “honorary” and “academic only” medical doctor degrees. And his lawyer submitted letters from 56 former clients saying “they were happy with Curran’s work and/or had not been victims of fraud,” the court said.

The 1st Circuit described Curran as “a high school graduate who had previously run a carpet cleaning business.” In 1998, he became a “practitioner of naturopathy after completing a two-week program at a college of naturopathic medicine in Arkansas.

Rhode Island law prohibited him from holding himself out as a licensed physician and from diagnosing and treating disease. But Curran wore a lab coat with a name tag reading “John Curran, N.D., M.D., Ph.D.” The sign on his office door read “Dr. Curran’s office.” And diplomas and certificates bearing his name hung on the walls, including one from an unaccredited medical school Curran had never attended, according to the decision.

Curran claimed he had cured people of paralysis, infertility and cancer. When people came to his office, Curran charged $950 for a “full body assessment,” which included measuring their body heat with a thermal imaging device, testing their blood using a microscope attached to a computer, and hooking them up to a “BioMeridian Stress Assessment Device.”

After conducting the tests, Curran told people they had blood abnormalities such as “double-headed parasites,” “green-tinted cells” and “red crystals.” He also told people they had deficient immune systems, “organs in distress,” and “fungus on the liver,” the decision said.

“On occasion he indicated the existence or possibility of the existence of a life-threatening illness like cancer,” and he told one young woman that “at the rate she was going, she wouldn’t live until 25,” the decision said. “Having scared the clients, Curran offered expensive treatments to them, telling them, ‘You can’t put a price on health.’ ”

The decision said Curran had described “the mission of his office” in a written statement that said: “GET THEM IN THE DOOR! (w/o looking like a huxster).”

efitzpat@projo.com