ORLANDO, Fla. — A Port Orange doctor faces more than $440,000 in penalties for clearing people to fly airplanes without performing examinations that met FAA guidelines for first-class medical certificates, federal records allege.
- Port Orange doctor charged federally with making false statements
- Dr. Robert William Kurrle said 3 of 4 patients didn't meet FAA guidelines
- Doctor failed to properly exam 3 undercover agents, feds say
Dr. Robert William Kurrle was charged early last week with three counts of making false statements to the federal government.
Federal records allege that Kurrle examined patients in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community near Port Orange and acknowledged that 75 percent of the people he approved didn’t meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines but signed off on them anyway.
As a result, federal investigators allege, Kurrle improperly earned $392,805. He agreed to cut a check for that amount under a proposed plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
He also agreed to pay $48,818 to reimburse the FAA to retest pilots who improperly received medically approvals from Kurrle, the proposed agreement said.
State records say Kurrle earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on January 1, 1984. The ophthalmologist has no known disciplinary or public complaints, according to the Florida Department of Health.
A proposed plea agreement filed the same day alleges Kurrle issued medical certificates to people who didn’t pass important parts of the exam from January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2019.
During that period, the doctor performed 3,814 medical exams. Of those, 1,101 also had electrocardiograms.
He charged $120 per exam and $60 for each EKG.
After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI, undercover agents were dispatched to undergo examinations by Kurrle. Those exams were conducted on August 28, November 20, and November 27 of last year.
In all three exams, according to records, the doctor failed to:
- Measure applicants’ heights
- Examine their eyes
- Study their abdomens
- Examine their extremities or spines
- Ask applicants’ about body marks, scars or tattoos
- Perform neurologic, lymphatic or psychiatric screening
The proposed plea agreement calls for Kurrle to plead guilty to each of the three counts of making false statements to the government.
The maximum penalty for each charge is five years in prison. The proposed plea agreement includes a request to consider his cooperation when deciding whether to impose prison time. But it doesn’t offer a no-prison guarantee, and he has to accept whatever prison time is imposed.
A hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. June 12 before Magistrate Judge Leslie R. Hoffman in Courtroom 5D at George C. Young Federal Annex Courthouse, 401 W. Central Blvd., Orlando.