New York: Plastic Surgeon charged with killing his wife 15 years later
Patty
Bierenbaum accused of killing first wife in 1985, pleads not guilty
By Stephen J. Lee
Herald Staff Writer
A Grand Forks plastic surgeon was arraigned in a Manhattan, N.Y., court
Wednesday, charged with killing his wife in 1985 and dumping her body
out of an airplane into the Atlantic Ocean.
Dr. Robert Bierenbaum pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree
murder;
Bierenbaum, 44, has been on staff at Altru Hospital since early August,
said Dr. John Youngs, the medical director who supervised the plastic
surgeon.
Bierenbaum, a New Jersey native, also has worked at UniMed Hospital and
Trinity Hospital in Minot, where he is on staff. He has worked in Minot
since 1996, when he received a license to practice in North Dakota.
He and his wife, Janet Chollet-Bierenbaum, have lived in northwest
Grand Forks for about 18 months, neighbors say. She is licensed as a
physician in North Dakota and practiced OB/GYN, but is now a student at
UND's law school. The couple both worked in Las Vegas before coming to
North Dakota; they have a daughter who just turned 1 year old.
Acquaintances shocked
Neighbors and acquaintances expressed surprise and shock when hearing
of the murder charge.
"Are you serious," said a spokeswoman for UniMed Hospital in Minot,
where Bierenbaum had "courtesy" privileges to treat patients but was
not on staff. "I'm totally shocked."
"Holy buckets," said Dr. Donald R. Lamb, a plastic surgeon in Fargo
with whom Bierenbaum consulted from time to time.
"He came down here with his present wife in his airplane and I went up
with him for a short flight. He offered, and my son, who is 10,
said 'Let's do it.' It wasn't much more than a take-off and landing, in
his twin-engine plane. If I had known what you are telling me now, I
don't know if I would have done anything at all."
The hearing
Bierenbaum surrendered Wednesday morning in the Manhattan district
attorney's office, said Gloria Montealegre, a spokeswoman for the
office.
He was charged with "intentional murder," a second-degree murder count,
in the disappearance and presumed death of his wife, Gail Katz-
Bierenbaum, whose body has never been found. The charge carries a
possible sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison.
A bail of $500,000 was set and Bierenbaum posted the entire amount
using his father's brokerage account as collateral, Montealegre said.
His attorney, Scott Greenfield, also represented him during the mid-
1980s investigation of his first wife's disappearance.
"Dr. Bierenbaum has pled not guilty and that is the only comment that
we have," Greenfield said Wednesday evening from his Oyster Bay, N.Y.,
home.
Missing since 1985
In 1985 Bierenbaum reported his wife missing, saying she had walked out
of their apartment on East 85th Street after they quarreled on July 7,
1985, and he never saw her again. They were both 29 at the time and had
been married three years.
Bierenbaum told police his wife had a history of mental illness that
might have contributed to her leaving and vanishing without a trace.
But Gail Katz' family told police they suspected Bierenbaum of killing
her, the New York Post reported in 1986. Katz's family and friends said
Bierenbaum tried to kill her cat during a fight before they married.
They fought often during their marriage, Bierenbaum himself told
police. Family and friends of Katz said she told them Bierenbaum once
choked her nearly to death after catching her smoking, which he had
forbidden, the Post reported in 1988.
Attorney Greenfield dismissed the Katz family accounts as "ludicrous,"
the Post story reported.
Altru comments
Disbelief is the reaction of people who know him in Grand Forks.
Bierenbaum was on "provisional" status at Altru until his first six
months was up, said Youngs, who would not comment on the accused
doctor's current employment status with Altru.
Bierenbaum has not resigned, and deserves the presumption of innocence,
Youngs said. "It's shocking, and I'm certainly concerned," Youngs said.
In a brief written statement, titled "Statement," Altru officials said:
"We understand that the charges stem from events that occurred 15 years
ago in New York and did not involve patients."
Bierenbaum did cosmetic surgery, skin grafting and wound care, Youngs
said.
Owned a plane
People who work at the Grand Forks International Airport say they knew
Bierenbaum because of his commuting by plane to Minot each week.
He owned a twin-engine Comanche, they said.
Bierenbaum kept his four-seater, twin engine Comanche in a hangar at
the Minot airport.
"He just stopped in Monday to say hi," said Curt Hussey, of Peitsch
Flying Service in Minot.
According to information on his application for North Dakota license to
practice medicine, Bierenbaum attended Rensselaer Polytech, in Troy
N.Y., from 1972-78; Albany (N.Y.) Medical College from 1974-1978,
earning a M.D. degree at the age of 23.
He was working at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn at the time his wife,
Gail, disappeared in 1985. He moved to Las Vegas in about 1989 and
worked there at several hospitals until moving to Minot in 1996.
Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder ordered Bierenbaum not to fly any aircraft
and not to leave, without permission, the city of New York or the state
of New Jersey, where he is staying with family. He is scheduled to make
his next court appearance Jan. 26.
The district attorney's office will respond to defense motions by Feb.
14.
From the beginning of the investigation in 1985, police were hampered,
of course, by having no victim's body, which explains in part why it
took 15 years to bring charges. Alayne Katz, sister of the woman who
vanished, was in court for Bierenbaum's arraignment. She wept while
saying that her family had suspected her former brother-in-law of
murder from the start.
"I'm sorry that my parents are not here to see this," Katz said,
referring to Bierenbaum's indictment and arraignment. "I hold him
responsible for their early deaths."
Evidence
Katz, an attorney who specializes in domestic and family law, said
prosecutors told her two years ago they were reopening the case. She
said they did not tell her what new evidence they had, but "they've
assured me that they have a strong case."
Saracco stated to Snyder that the day Katz disappeared in 1985,
Bierenbaum went to the airport in New Jersey and took a two-hour
flight, the Associated Press reported. However, court papers indicate
that he never mentioned the airport to police.
During the two-hour flight, in which Bierenbaum piloted the plane, he
dropped his wife's body into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between
Montauk, Long Island and Cape May, N.J., prosecutors say.
The assistant district attorney handling the case said the
investigation was by the New York police department that expanded to
include the interviews of witnesses across the nation "to develop and
powerful and compelling case," Montealegre said. "She did not walk out
of their apartment, she was murdered in the apartment and the murderer
packaged her body, drove to New Jersey to Caldwell Airport, put the
body in a plane and flew about two hours over the ocean. The body lies
on the ocean floor somewhere."
Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bibb asked the judge to jail the
physician without bail, noting that he is a licensed pilot who lives "a
stone's throw from Canada" and "has connections in Mexico," the AP
reported.
Bierenbaum's lawyer, Scott Greenfield, told the judge his client
surrendered voluntarily and has no reason to run or hide.
Judge Snyder told Bierenbaum to surrender his passport and pilot's
license, and she told him to stay off "any kind of vehicle that flies,"
Montealegre said.
Agents of North Dakota's Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted in
the investigation and apprehension of Bierenbaum. But officials of the
BCI said they could not comment on the case.
The Bierenbaums' large, split-foyer house and double garage was dark
Wednesday night, while the other houses on the cul-de-sac were lighted
for Christmas.
"They seemed like nice people to me," said Rena DeSautel, who lives
next door to the Bierenbaums. They had a live-in nanny to care for
their young daughter.
Area nanny
Carrie Brandt, Grafton, N.D., was a nanny for the Bierenbaums from
January through May, caring for their daughter, who turned 1 on Nov. 5.
"Are you really serious?" she asked after being told Wednesday of
Bierenbaum being charged with murder. "I'm shocked. . .
Oh, my God. That doesn't sound at all like the guy I know."
But one aspect rang true with the earlier stories from Katz's family
that Bierenbaum hated smoking.
"They didn't want smoking," Brandt said. "When I first applied, they
asked me if I smoked. When I would spend the weekend with my parents,
he would say, 'I can smell smoke on you,' and I would say I had been at
my parents house. When my sister worked there, he said she had to wash
all her clothes, because of the smoke smell."
Bierenbaum was characterized by Katz' family as volatile, with a quick
temper. Brandt could think of only one time she saw such a flash of
temper. Flying in his plane with Bierenbaum and his daughter one
weekend from Minot, Brandt saw him lose his temper when she slammed the
plane door accidentally.
"He kind of yelled at me."
But in general, "they were really respectable people," she said. She
enjoyed working for them, living in their home for several months, and
quit only to go to school, she said.
DeSautel and other neighbors of Bierenbaum agreed that the couple kept
to themselves, and with his commuting each week to Minot and her school
schedule, often were not around.
"They've been here about a year and a half," DeSautel said. "I used to
see them out in the yard. He was friendly for a while, then distant. I
haven't seen Janet for a long time."
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Before you buy.
Patty
Excerpt from another article at the Grand Forks Herald:
Bierenbaum's work at Altru was solely breast reduction, enlargement and
reconstruction, Youngs said.
There were no problems in general with his work, Youngs said. The only
complaint made by a patient about Bierenbaum is when he refused to
perform surgery on the patient because she was a smoker, Young said.
But Bierenbaum's decision was a proper one, because of the nature of
the surgery, Youngs said.
Bierenbaum's antipathy to smoking, however, testified to by several
people who knew him, is interesting because his first wife accused him
of nearly strangling her over her smoking. Several people in Grand
Forks who knew Bierenbaum said that he was somewhat eccentric.
One Altru physician said a nurse reported that when Bierenbaum began
work in August at Altru, he asked the nurse to interview patients for
him because he didn't want to develop a "doctor/patient relationship"
with them. The nurse thought the request was strange and refused to do
it, the physician said. Bierenbaum got fewer patients because of his
behavior, the physician said.
"He was nice enough, but he was kind of strange," said next-door
neighbor Dan Sobolik. "It was hard to carry on a conversation with him.
He just, I don't know, if he was kind of a loner or not very social, or
what. He had weird eyes and he was just kind of weird.
"I know they had money because they hired all their yard work done. He
would have a snow removal outfit come and blow snow out of their
driveway. I offered to do it for him, but he said no."