Psychiatrist Peter Steiner Indicted and License Suspended for Pot, Evidence Tampering

May 31, 2018

On or about March 1, 2018, the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure issued an Emergency Order of Suspension on psychiatrist Peter M. Steiner.

The Board’s document specifically states that on or about June 8, 2017, agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration served a search warrant on Dr. Steiner at his private practice in Louisville, KY, where they observed Steiner holding a McDonald’s bag, which he dropped into the wastebasket next to his desk. He then removed two thick envelopes from a cabinet, which the agents immediately recovered from him. These were discovered to contain an undetermined amount of U.S. currency, a list of patient names, dollar amounts, and checks. The McDonald’s bag was also recovered and was found to contain a quantity of marijuana in doubled Zip-lok bags.

On or about February 28, 2018, Dr. Steiner was indicted on charges of tampering with physical evidence when, “believing that an official proceeding may be pending or instituted against him, he destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed, or altered the physical evidence which he believed was about to be produced or used in such official proceeding, with the intent to impair its verity or availability in the official proceeding….” 

On the same date, he was also indicted on possession of a controlled substance.

Approximately 15% of all criminal convictions of psychiatrists and psychologists are for drug-related crimes.