With various authorities consistently deeming Dr. First healthy enough to resume practicing, I had no desire to interfere, betray or report him for infractions they basically already knew about. However, PRN-type programs in Florida and nationwide, I learned, are typically administered by independent authorized consultants to support physician privacy and willingness to get help. The 22 medical boards of Florida aren’t engaged until patients are considered at much higher risk – or harmed and filing lawsuits. A side effect of these programs appears to be overprotecting some doctors and other medical practitioners when they are at their worst.

I felt a sense of obligation to do all I could for my friend – yet never realized he preyed on women, many 10 to 25 years younger, using his medical license as a proverbial calling card. His terrorizing side wasn’t fully apparent to me until it was far too late.

Dr. First’s lengthy criminal record included accepting a guilty plea in August 2015 to domestic violence with strangulation. Probation was set to conclude in 2017, but his lawyer got him off a year early due to “good behavior.” But his behavior wasn’t even close to good. Although I didn’t know he was continuing to hide his ugliest side from me, I did know about one woman at the time who saw and felt it.

That victim testified in court about barely surviving his terrorizing attack that began with being “thrown around” in the family room of her condo. When she escaped to her bedroom and locked the door, Ben threatened to “kill” her children asleep in their rooms if she didn’t open it. She complied, of course, and narrowly escaped as Dr. First forced her on the bed and proceeded to choke her. She managed to break his grip – and a window – to get away. A passerby assisted and called 911.

It happened when Ben was released on bond for battery with a deadly weapon against two burly men he described at trial as having “long beards and big knives in sheaths, open carry.”

One of them alleged seeing Ben aggressively shove that same cherished lover against a bank building wall in downtown St. Petersburg shortly after midnight in late November 2014.  Ben and the woman had just left a crowded local bar because they “didn’t like the band,” and got into an argument related to “weeks earlier,” according to Ben. He explained that some stranger had put his hand on this girlfriend’s knee at a different bar “and she didn’t do anything about it.”

Not caught in the act
Ben went on to say they left to walk back to his nearby high-rise condo when, according to the police report, the initial witness observed Dr. First “committing battery on a woman and reacted to protect her.” The man ran across the street and tackled Ben. A bank video camera recording revealed that he also threw some punches, before a friend of his intervened to separate them and figure out what was happening.

The video did not capture Ben’s alleged aggression toward the woman beforehand. He managed to remove a two-inch knife from his wallet during the altercation. Ben testified, “I jabbed one in the cheek and the other in the thigh – to get them off of me.”

It worked, but Ben was reported to have then screamed in his girlfriend’s face that what had occurred was all her fault. In addition, the witnesses testified that Dr. First shouted at them, “Do you pussies want more of this? We’re all gonna die here tonight.”

Ben was eventually acquitted of the assault charges on the two men he stabbed. What stuck related to an apparent effort to ensure that the woman he supposedly deeply loved had no intention of testifying against him. She admitted during trial that he came to her condo, against court orders, while Ben was on bond for the battery charges. The woman was forced to admit on the stand what transpired during that visit, but she testified on his behalf relative to the battery charges, saying he didn’t do the things the knife victims swore to under oath. The jury exonerated Ben on those charges, accepting his “stand your ground” defense.

Perfectly understandable considering his girlfriend’s testimony about their love for each other – and that she wasn’t battered that night. However, Ben’s attorney compelled him to accept a plea bargain on the domestic violence and witness-tampering felonies the state pursued from his brutal attack soon after making bail on the other charges. That resulted in his re-arrest and six months (without opportunity for bond) in jail awaiting trial

He was fighting for his freedom. Surely his ability to practice would be forever hindered. The prospect of Dr. First shucking teeth again seemed remote and implausible.

My friend Ben, however, soon returned to the sedation saddle.