I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Jan. 6, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
A Bemidji man was disciplined by a state agency this June for inappropriate actions he committed while a peer counselor at a Bemidji counseling center in 1992.
The Office of Mental Health Practice, a division of the state Department of Health, released Tuesday a disciplinary notice which permanently bars Lawrence W. Coen, of Bemidji, from providing unlicensed mental health counseling services, including alcohol and drug counseling services.
The 7-year-old case stems from incidents that took place at the Upper Mississippi Mental Health Center in 1992, according to current UMMHC Director Robert Cole.
Coen, who had graduated from UMMHC's sexual offenders program, volunteered to stay at the center and offer peer counseling services to new offenders entering the program. As a peer counselor, he wasn't required to be licensed.
Cole said after Coen had been instituted as a peer counselor, other UMMHC clients accused him of inappropriate sexual misconduct. Cole, who was not employed at UMMHC at that time, said when UMMHC staff heard the complaints, they involuntarily suspended Coen from his duties.
After investigating the complaints, the center terminated Coen. Part of UMMHC's investigation involved notifying the state Office of Mental Health Practice, which oversees all unlicensed mental health practitioners, Cole said.
Cole said that the case probably should have been completed by the OMHP in 1992, but for some reason was forgotten. About 18 months ago, Cole was contacted again by the OMHP because they wanted follow-up information on the case because the state agency was again reviewing it.
He said some of the UMMHC clients who had filed complaints about Coen in 1992 had filed a civil lawsuit against him, and therefore that triggered the OMHP's involvement again.
Cole said the recent OMHP disciplinary action was probably an attempt to complete an old investigation. "Obviously, (Coen) was no longer working in the field at this time," he said.
Cole said Coen's responsibilities had been limited to working with people enrolled in UMMHC's sexual offenders program, and the cent has not used a peer counselor since Coen.
"Peer counseling was more accepted as part of treatment at that time," he said. "It isn't now -- treatment programs evolve."
According to the OMHP action, Coen's right to provide unlicensed mental health services was revoked when the agreement was signed in June.
He also was ordered to reimburse the state $455 to pay for its investigation and to report to the OMHP the addresses and telephone numbers of his residence and work. According to the order, if he moves, he must also contact the OMHP with his new addresses and telephone numbers within seven days.
Attempts to contact Coen Wednesday were unsuccessful but his lawyer who represented him said she didn't understand why the OMHP released this information eight years after the incident happened.
"What's the point? If it's humiliation, he's already been humiliated enough," said Mary Kay Klein of Klein Law Firm of Bemidji. "He didn't oppose the (OMHP) action. It's something he wants to put behind him, and he certainly has been trying to put it behind him."
Mary Wermuth of the OMHP said it isn't unusual for a disciplinary matter such as this to take eight years to complete because of the office's shortage of staff and budget.
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