Dentist settles with state over complaints

State authorities have reached tentative settlements with Dr. John D. Stover to resolve 11 of the 12 complaints filed against him for his medical and dental work.

A board-certified oral surgeon and dentist, Stover closed his Cosmetic Centers of Hawaii offices in Hilo, Kona and Wai­mea on April 11 as complaints about his conduct escalated.

The Hawaii Medical Board and the Board of Dental Examiners can levy fines and suspend or revoke licenses, or a doctor may surrender a license voluntarily. No details of the proposed agreements were available, but a source said that Stover had agreed to give up his licenses.

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Regulated Industries Complaints Office website was updated late Monday to show that a "pre-petition settlement agreement" was filed April 15 for 11 of the complaints listed. Six of the complaints were filed this year, three last year and two in 2012.

The outcomes remain "pending" because such settlements are subject to approval or disapproval by the medical and dental boards. The medical board next meets May 8 and the dental board on May 19. Their decisions will be public.

The complaints allege that Stover, 51, failed to comply with laws relating to work performance, laws governing professional conduct, or licensing laws or rules. One complaint accused him of aiding and abetting an unlicensed person.

Stover and his attorney, Arthur Roeca, did not respond Tuesday to calls and emails seeking comment.

A single medical complaint filed this year, MED-2014-0090L, remains pending on the website, with no tentative settlement. The nature of the allegation is confidential.

Stover’s medical and dental licenses remain listed on the website as "current, valid and in good standing."

"Patients of Dr. Stover who are interested in their medical or dental rec­ords can contact the Regulated Industries Complaints Office about how to gain access to rec­ords," RICO Chief Enforcement Officer Daria Loy-Goto said Tuesday. "We encourage any consumer who has questions about whether they should file a complaint about any of the 48 professional or vocational licenses that RICO has jurisdiction over to contact our office."

Friends and relatives of Kristen Tavares had picketed Stover’s office in Hilo, asking the state to revoke his licenses, after Tavares fell into a coma while having her wisdom teeth extracted March 17.

Tavares, 24, was a certified nurse assistant who had given birth to her second son a few months earlier. She has been unresponsive at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

After the Tavares case became public, more complaints were filed with the state, but the details were confidential.

Meanwhile, other patients stepped forward to support the doctor, who has been practicing medicine in Hawaii since 2001. David Tarnas of Kamu­ela wrote to the Regulated Industries Complaints Office as well as to the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser to praise Stover’s work on his two children.

"My perspective is that Dr. John Stover is a highly skilled surgeon, medical doctor and dentist who has all the proper and legally required credentials necessary for his practice," Tarnas wrote.

"From his years in local practice, Dr. Stover has treated thousands and thousands of patients who have had positive outcomes, including my two children — one had dermatological surgery and (the) other had oral surgery. … I believe that Dr. Stover has been unfairly treated by media reports of critics’ complaints that leap to conclusions and condemnations without all the facts and without due process."

Stover was licensed as a doctor in Hawaii in 2001 and as a dentist in 2005. Previously, he had been licensed in Louisiana as a dentist in 1994 and an oral and facial surgeon in 1996. He has no disciplinary history in Louisiana, and those licenses remain active.

The first complaint lodged against him in Hawaii came in 2010 and was closed the following year for insufficient evidence, state rec­ords show.

Stover is certified by the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, according to its database. His own website, which has been taken down, said he also was certified by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology, and that he has a doctorate in anatomy.