Investigation into podiatrist ongoing

Police said Tuesday there were no new developments in the case of Steven Loheide, the East Dundee podiatrist who is accused of videotaping a female employee undressing and dressing in an exam room and who police say made tapes of other women in compromising positions with a hidden camera.

"We have had telephone calls today, but they weren't relevant to the case," East Dundee Police Chief Terry Mee said.

When East Dundee police searched Loheide's office last week they found numerous videotapes and DVDs depicting Loheide and women in sex acts.

"We are reviewing the tapes and reaching out to jurisdictions where he has practiced before," Mee said Tuesday.

Mee said Monday it appeared the sex acts on the videotapes and DVDs were consensual and indicated East Dundee police would investigate whether the podiatrist was exchanging drugs for sex.

On Tuesday, Drug Enforcement Agency spokeswoman Joanna Zoltay said Loheide chose in March 2006 to sacrifice his DEA registration that allowed him to prescribe controlled substances.

"He had to keep a record of all controlled substances he was prescribing, and our investigators found he wasn't doing that for about two years," she said.

Instead of accepting a $10,000 fine for each time he prescribed a controlled drug and kept no record of it, Loheide chose instead to give up his ability to prescribe them to patients, Zoltay said.

Still, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations said Loheide has never been disciplined and still maintains his license to practice podiatry.

Kane County Judge Susan Clancy Boles, however, told Loheide that he cannot see female patients until the case is settled.

Fox Valley Podiatry is not the only place Loheide plied his trade.

A spokesperson for the Village Green retirement Center in East Dundee said he went to the facility once a month to cut the residents' nails and there was never a complaint against him.

Rickeesha Cannon of the Elgin Mental Health Center said Loheide is on suspension from the center due to the charges of videotaping and solicitation of sex he faces related to his employee at Fox Valley Podiatry who brought about the investigation.

However, she said the Elgin Mental Heath Center never had any problems with Loheide and he was always accompanied by a staff nurse when he treated patients there.

If you have any information pertaining to the tapes seized by police or Loheide's activities, call East Dundee Detective Mike Seyller at (847) 428-4034.