A bogus psychiatrist who disappeared from Nelson more than four years ago has been working at a substance abuse hospital and an adolescent welfare agency in the United States.
Linda Astor, a transvestite, was arrested in New Hampshire three weeks ago on immigration matters and could be deported to her home
country of Poland this month.
Astor conned the New Zealand Medical Council, Hutt Valley Health and Nelson Marlborough Health Services to gain work as a psychiatrist before disappearing in 1997.
A New Hampshire newspaper, the Keene Sentinel, reported yesterday that Astor was working last year as admissions director at Beech Hill Hospital, a substance abuse centre in Dublin, New Hampshire. She began work there last January and left in May.
She later worked as a case manager at the Northeastern Family Institute, an adolescent welfare agency in Brattleboro, Vermont.
As admissions director at Beech Hill, she supervised the arrival of new patients and directed them to proper care. She called herself Linda Astor-O'Neil.
New Hampshire law requires that admissions directors be certified as registered nurses.
State inspectors noticed at Beech Hill that Astor was not a nurse at the time she left the staff, and the hospital was cited for employing uncertified personnel.
The Sentinel reported that state documents showed Astor signed medical files at Beech Hill as "MD", claiming to be a doctor.
The paper, quoting unidentified staff, said she then went to work for the Northeastern Family Institute, staying there for about six months before her arrest on immigration matters last month. The institute declined comment.
US immigration authorities said Astor was a transvestite, but she has also been described as a transsexual. She is now in the custody of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service, after it was alerted to a routine shoplifting arrest on October 20 at a grocery store in Keene.
In 1996, Astor was responsible for discharging Hutt Valley Health patient Leslie Raymond Parr from a court-ordered treatment regime.
The following year Parr killed and decapitated his girlfriend, Fiona Maulolo.
Astor moved to Nelson in April 1997 before her lack of psychiatric credentials was exposed. She is believed to have originally trained in Poland as a doctor.
Her movements immediately after leaving Nelson remain a mystery but before her recent arrest she was living in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, apparently after moving there from Connecticut.
Neighbours said they had never heard of or seen Astor, but her landlord, Walter Derjue, recalled a 1.85m tall woman with long, blonde hair, heavy make-up, a deep voice and thick European accent.
Accompanying her was a middle-aged man, who identified himself as her husband, Richard Bergman, a car salesman. A man of that name was with Astor during her time in Nelson and also disappeared in 1997.
She and Mr Bergman lived at Mr Derjue's house until last month, when Mr Bergman told the landlord they needed to move immediately because Astor had a medical emergency.
"It was urgent. She had to get to the hospital for cancer treatment. So I gave them a break on the lease," Mr Derjue said.
"Supposedly they owned a house in Connecticut and were moving back [so Astor could be near] a hospital in New York."
She and Mr Bergman paid their rent on time and kept to themselves, Mr Derjue said. He spoke to them only when they wanted something fixed in the house.
"Gosh, she'd complain about little things they wanted done," he said. "She was a fusspot, in my opinion. I don't mind that they left.
"Because of that deep voice, one of our neighbours once said, 'Is she a he?' I said, 'I don't know'."
After she was arrested on the shoplifting charge, Astor's fingerprints were entered into the Keene Police Department's fingerprint identification system and forwarded to a federal database for comparison.
Her removal from the United States is automatic because she has been deported from the country before, says Gary Cote, acting deputy district director at the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service office in Boston.
He declined to comment about when or why she was deported previously, or where she was now being held.
Astor remains on Nelson police files as "wanted for interview" over the supply of false information and documents to the Medical Council.
- NZPA
A bogus psychiatrist who disappeared from Nelson more than four years ago has been working at a substance abuse hospital and an adolescent welfare agency in the United States.
Linda Astor, a transvestite, was arrested in New Hampshire three weeks ago on immigration matters and could be deported to her home
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