By EDWARD MARSHALL \ Journal Staff Writer
MARTINSBURG ? A part-owner of the Hedgesville-based West Virginia Society of Ghost Hunters faces criminal charges for allegedly posing as a licensed doctor and psychologist.
Susan R. Crites, 55, of Ruffed Grouse Lane in Hedgesville, was arrested last Friday and charged with one count of felony delivery of a controlled substance after allegedly posing as a doctor and distributing Percocet to people she saw as patients.
In one case, a woman who joined the society and who later became ill was allegedly told by Crites that there was nothing physically wrong with her and that all she needed was in-depth counseling sessions for two weeks.
After seeing a doctor in February, the woman, Lisa Schweiger, of Hedgesville, discovered that she had a cancerous tumor the size of a football in her left ovary, according to a civil complaint she filed in July in Berkeley County Circuit Court against Crites, the society of ghost hunters, as well as two other society owners identified in court filings as Deborah Ludwig and Dawn Oakes, both of Hedgesville. Schweiger is seeking $350,000 in damages.
Percocet is a pain killer and schedule II narcotic under West Virginia Law that can only be prescribed by a doctor.
The case against Crites was investigated by Lt. Gary Harmison of the Berkeley County Sheriff?s Department.
According to police reports, Schweiger told police the she had joined the Society of Ghost Hunters and during her association with the group she received psychological counseling from Crites.
According to a copy of Sweiger?s civil suit, she became ill in November 2005 after joining the society a year earlier, and began to be treated by Crites, who gave her Percocet for pain, police reports show.
In her suit, Schweiger claims that Crites told her she didn?t need to see a doctor, that she herself was a doctor, and that her problem was psychosomatic. Crites charged the woman $25 for daily therapy sessions that lasted two weeks and payments were made to the ghost hunters society or to Oakes or Ludwig, both of whom allegedly told Schweiger that Crites was a doctor, police reports show.
Crites allegedly treated another woman, who gave police a written statement that said Crites diagnosed her with high adrenaline level. According to the woman, Crites told her counseling could lower her adrenaline and cure sleep-related problems. The woman told police that other members of the society told her Crites was a medical doctor.
Harmison later received two statements from another woman, who said Crites advised her to tell her boss she needed time off work at the advice of her ?psychologist,? police say.
The woman said Crites mis-diagnosed her with strep throat and prescribed gargling with Alka-Seltzer and Vitamin B before a doctor informed her she did not have strep throat.
In a separate statement, the woman told police that she was present when Crites gave Percocet to Schweiger?s husband, who called Crites to seek help for pain his wife was experiencing.
Harmison obtained written statements from others who also said they were being counseled by Crites and that they also thought she was a medical doctor.
Crites was later arraigned and released after posting $20,000 bail. If convicted of the drug charge she faces one to 15 years in prison.
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