The following letter was sent by Dr. Wm. D. Kelley, DDS, MS to patients who had been referred to him by other Doctors, and whose records were subsequently appropriated by agents of the FBI. Kelley subsequently submitted this to the Oklahoma Health Seeker for its Premier Monthly newsletter Issue, Volume 1, No. 1, April 1975.

The publisher stated that, “We feel the letter is self-explanatory and additional commentary by us would add nothing but our own indignation.”

At 1:35 P.M. on December 19, 1974, federal agents from the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control, entered my office without waning or advanced notice and made copies of my records and removed papers. They refused to let me know what papers or records they copied or removed. Nutritional supplements were also taken. They had a search warrant to inspect equipment and labeling, but the warrant did not mention their authority to copy or inspect patients’ records.

They chose a time when I was in court with one of my lawyers, opposing the attempt by the State of Texas to suspend my license to practice dentistry for writing a book on nutrition!

My wife, Suzi, called our lawyers who told them that they had no authority to inspect or copy patients’ records, but they continued their search. I have instructed my attorney to file the appropriate legal action against this brazen violation of the Constitution and the sacred doctor-patient relationship.

I will be asking the federal court for an injunction or mandamus order (1) to compel the federal officers to advise me immediately of the names of the patients, either known to governments agents or whose records are in the possession of government agents, (2) to compel them to provide copies of all such records and (3) to insure the confidentiality  of patient records. I am also asking for substantial money damages under the Federal Civil Rights Act.

Government officers have invaded the sacred doctor-patient relationship and the personal privacy of doctors, their patients and me – when they ransacked and pillaged my premises.

Is this the FDA’s version of the Daniel Ellsberg case?

We don’t know all the reasons behind the Government’s reprehensible actions and the bureaucrats responsible for these wrongs will not tell us, however our lawyer suspects that they are investigating what they consider to be violations of the Federal Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act, which empowers the Center for Disease Control, a part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare Public Health Service, to be another FDA, harassing those who attempt to determine nutritional and related problems by laboratory testing.

Apparently, it is difficult or not advisable fir political and other reasons for the Food a Drug Administration to harass doctors and so this is being done by the Center for Disease Control. Because nutrition-minded doctors are increasing in number at an impressive rate and because the Government-Medical Conspiracy can “get” them through their use of laboratories, this CDC becomes another bureaucratic police force we must battle.

I suggest that you write to both the FDA and CDC and demand to know if they have any of your records. Please do this now; then write a letter of complaint to your congressmen, senators and to Honorable David Satterfield, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. Rep. Satterfield is a high-ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment and has sponsored pro-nutrition legislation in the last Congress.

The address for the FDA is:

Alexander McK. Schmidt, MD, Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
200 C. Street N.W.
Washington, DC

Also…

Center for Disease Control,
Atlanta, Georgia

If you can, phone them as well. Then please send a copy of their reply to me immediately.

If you are interested in fighting beside me against these latest attacks in a government campaign against nutrition and health freedom, then let me know. With patients and doctors as allies, whose Civil Rights have been violated, then the case against the Federal Gestapo is that much stronger.

If you have any questions about my case or the legalities involved, please call the lawyer we have just retained for this matter: John Joseph Matonis, Esq., 2601 P Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007 or have your lawyer call him.

The day after they raided my office, the Federal Keystone Cops pulled an illegal search on Computer Laboratory Service, Inc, a Dallas company that stores computerized patient records, including psychiatric records for doctors all over the country.

The FDA has been spotted patrolling our residence now and also our other office, so it appears they are already planning another “bust” at either or both places. Not even our homes are sacred now.

If we let them get away with actions like this – the most personal and most private aspects of our lives – our personal health and feelings as related to a doctor – are open to the prying eyes of government punks – to be discussed and bandied about amidst their ridicule, at their coffee breaks and their parties.

In the past, we have not been fighting hard enough for our liberties. In the past, we have been too easily satisfied by “victories” that were somehow more victorious at conventions and in appeals for money than in the courtroom or legislative halls.

This battle is too important to just fight.

We must WIN!

Written by William D. Kelley, DDS, MS and published by the Oklahoma HEALTH SEEKER, Volume 1, N. 1 ~ April 1975