Sentenced For Sex Offense, Greenwich M.D. Gets Back To Work

In a controversial move, state officials are allowing a Greenwich physician who is registered as a sex offender to resume his medical practice in Connecticut.

In a recent decision, the Connecticut Medical Examining Board, an arm of the Department of Public Health, voted to allow Clifford Berken of Stamford to resume practicing medicine in the state, under certain conditions. Berken is a registered sex offender in Connecticut and New York, following his arrest and sentencing in New York State on a first-degree charge of attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor.

The medical board, in allowing Berken to resume practicing, placed his license on probation for five years, required him to be overseen by a psychiatrist or psychologist, and barred him from treating patients under the age of 18. The board’s order also requires that Berken have another employee present during “any examination or treatment of a patient,” the records say.

Berken, 58, a doctor of internal medicine and gastroenterology, had surrendered his medical privileges at Greenwich Hospital and left his private practice in Greenwich, following his arrest in New York in 2008. In April 2009, the Connecticut board had issued an interim consent order in which Berken agreed to refrain from practicing medicine, pending further investigation.

His license status in New York remains inactive, meaning he cannot practice medicine there indefinitely, under the terms of a January 2009 order by that state’s Board for Professional Medical Conduct.

“I’m just stunned,” said Jean Rexford, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety. “To think that someone can walk into [Berken’s] office and never know he’s a registered sex offender – I am so offended by this.”

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