By Kailan Manandic / Bothell-Kenmore Reporter
BOTHELL — A psychiatrist whose license was suspended three years ago for threatening to shoot up a Bothell health insurance agency is now suspected of calling in false bomb threats to state agencies.
Said Farzad is accused in 18 cases of telephone harassment threats to offices in Olympia, Tumwater and some Idaho offices. Farzad was convicted of telephone harassment in 2015 after he made a series of disturbing phone calls to Molina Healthcare of Washington’s Bothell office when the company rejected some of his patient’s claims.
Farzad was last known to be in the United States in June and is out of the country, which makes the investigation challenging, according to the Associated Press. The calls reportedly came from various countries.
Police have found no evidence of bombs and don’t believe Farzad can cause actual harm, but the state offices are treating the threats seriously by increasing police presence and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Farzad lost his medical license in 2014 after a failed appeal and accusations of telephone harassment, which is a felony.
Many of Farzad’s patients were on government-funded health care plans and Molina had to authorize their prescriptions. Farzad would call and become increasingly aggressive when his patients’ prescriptions were delayed or denied coverage.
This culminated in May 2014 when Farzad called five times in one day, threatening to go to the Molina office with a gun. An employee reported Farzad said he was “homicidal” and told her to get the FBI on the line because he felt like murdering people at Molina and wanted to go to their office with machine guns, according to court documents.
Bothell detectives arrested Farzad at his clinic the next day and the Washington State Department of Health suspended his license shortly afterward. Farzad attempted, but failed to appeal the suspension.
Farzad was also under investigation for encouraging relationships with two of his patients, reportedly buying them gifts and socializing outside of the clinic.
He was sentenced to a 364-day suspended jail term and anger management classes in 2015, essentially sparing him jail time if he complied with the conditions.
He remains free while appeals are ongoing.
This story originally appeared in the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.
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