CANFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – A Canfield doctor who is currently on house arrest has had his medical license suspended.
In records from the Ohio Medical Board, Ali Kooshkabadi had his license suspended in April.
In the formal action report, medical board authorities wrote that Kooshkabadi presents a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.
As his client awaits his next appearance in court, the attorney for Kooshkabadi insists the defendant is not a terrorist.
“If it wasn’t for America, he and his family would have had nothing in this world. This is a guy who bleeds red, white and blue,” said Atty. Dave Engler.
Kooshkabadi faces several charges including having weapons under disability. He was charged under a provision in the Ohio Revised Code that prohibits people who have mental health concerns from having access to a firearm.
Earlier this month, the former neurosurgeon was arrested after incidents in both Boardman and Canfield. He’s facing charges of making terroristic threats, aggravated menacing and violating a protection order for those incidents.
Kooshkabadi’s estranged wife is also seeking an emergency court order to sell the couple’s house in Canfield.
Engler argues the situation actually began in late December when the wife obtained a protection order against him, one the lawyer claims his client wasn’t aware of.
“Based upon that protection order is one of the criminal charges against him that he has a weapon in his possession,” Engler said.
The medical board cited several accusations against Kooshkabadi’s conduct including emotional outbursts in the operating room in 2021, making threats at a Boardman restaurant in March 2022, an April incident at a local cellphone store where he is accused of creating a disturbance, threatening staff and making a slashing gesture across his throat.
One of those instances happened at a local gun shop where Kooshkabadi is accused of threatening employees when he tried to buy a gun and was denied. He claims that the employees called him racial names, according to a police report.
When sheriff’s deputies took him into custody so he could be sent for a mental health evaluation, he reportedly described it as “17 paratroopers” storming his house.
In the Ohio Medical Board memorandum, it said that Kooshkabadi’s alleged threats and admission to a behavioral healthcare center for psychiatric examination constitute an “inability to practice according to acceptable and prevailing standards of care by reason of mental illness…”
Engler claims the suspension is another outgrowth of that original protection order, which he says should be thrown out.
“It’s more of like piling on, that type of rhetoric, because I really, truly believe it’s so unfair to him,” Engler said.
Kooshkabadi can request a hearing on his suspension with the Ohio Medical Board.
Kooshkabadi has another hearing this Friday. Engler says he’s trying to get at least some of the charges resolved.
“He might be different but he’s not a danger to anybody, never has been,” Engler said.