Hartford-based psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Zelisko, whose medical license was recently revoked by the Medical Examiners Board following allegations he and his romantic partner defrauded patients, was fined $150,000 for violating state statute at least once in the treatment of six patients identified in a list of charges by the Department of Public Health (DPH).
Zelisko’s medical license was revoked during a September 24 meeting of the Medical Examiners Board, but the hearing was continued because the board was unclear about the maximum civil penalty they could impose. State statute allows the board to impose a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each violation, but there was uncertainty as to whether they could impose a total penalty greater than $25,000.
Zelisko and his romantic partner, Aleixander Peurta, face a long list of charges for misconduct allegedly carried out on patients between 2023 and 2025. Among the charges, Zelisko is accused of financially defrauding patients by billing them for treatment that never happened, prescribing controlled substances like ketamine for patients but shipping them to his home for Puerta’s use, hiring Puerta as a life coach and referring patients to him even though he did not have a license, and meeting with patients at bars and restaurants where he supplied them with drugs and alcohol.
Zelisko and Puerta are also accused of sexually abusing at least one patient.
DPH’s allegations also referenced a patient dealing with addiction and psychosis issues whom they state Zelisko and Puerta took to a bar, did illegal substances with, and had stay at their home.
In total, Zelisko is accused of writing approximately 1,260 prescriptions for controlled substances for approximately 152 patients and failing to access prescription monitoring for 132 of them. DPH’s list of charges references multiple charges involving six patients.
Zelisko’s medical license was suspended during an August 18 Medical Examiners Board meeting and revoked during a September 24 meeting, where board members also voted to impose a civil penalty against Zelensky.
Assistant attorney general Susan Castonguay stated during an October 7 meeting of the board that they could impose a maximum penalty of $25,000 for each violation of the statute. However, board members were uncertain about the exact number of charges Zelisko was facing. One paragraph alone in the statement of charges DPH prepared against Zelisko contains 1,230 charges.
The board ultimately decided to base the penalty on the number of patients identified in DPH’s charges because they had found at least one violation for each patient. They also agreed that the maximum penalty of $25,000 should be assessed for each patient.
“I really believe the board should send a statement to the physician and to the citizens that we are doing our job.” board member Dr. Robert Green said.
A three-person panel of the board voted to assess the $150,000 fine.
DPH has faced scrutiny for the roughly 10-month period between when department officials first received complaints about Zelisko’s alleged behavior and when action was taken to suspend his license. During the August 18 meeting, DPH attorney Joelle Newton stated that there were over 1,000 documents in the case and it took the department’s investigative unit a long time to proceed. She also said it had been referred to that unit less than a week previously, and they had “obviously” taken action.
