Robert Morris Levy, a former Veterans Affairs pathologist was fired after being intoxicated on the job. He has been charged for three counts of involuntary manslaughter. The charges are serious and charges him for incorrect and misleading diagnoses.
Federal grand jury accused Robert Morris Levy for various other additional charges of fraud. It is claimed that he has made false statements. According to the prosecutors, Robert was in custody.
A federal investigation was led against Robert that claims that he was not only an alcoholic and manipulated the alcohol and drug tests, however, he was involved in falsifying patient records. This was the ultimate reason for the death of veterans.
Michael Missal, VA inspector general deemed in his statement, “These charges send a clear signal that anyone entrusted with the care of veterans will be held accountable for placing them at risk by working while impaired or through other misconduct.”
There were three patients whose records were incorrectly diagnosed. Among those, in two cases, he even claimed that the reports were confirmed by a second pathologist. Robert was appointed as the chief of pathology at a VA hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He joined in 2005 and was ultimately fired in 2018.
Robert has pleaded not guilty during the hearing happened on Tuesday. He has not opted for the counsel to represent him.
According to the Prosecutors, the administrative review began in 2015 itself after he was accused of being drunk on the job. However, Robert denied that charge. In 2016, he was gone through a drug test which did found alcohol in Robert’s system. This was acknowledged by Robert too.
After which, Levy was put in a rehab program. Robert completed the program and promised to abstain from alcohol. He also agreed for vising for periodic drug screenings.
Again, during the investigation in June 2017, it was found that Robert started using 2-methyl-2-butanol (2M-2B) instead of alcohol. Consuming this can lead a person to intoxication and is even not detectable through the routine drug and alcohol testing methodology
This chemical was used by him 12 times and he did everything to hide that from the VA hospital.