Psychiatrist Arrested In Hotel Incident

A prominent psychiatrist and former longtime professor at the University of Washington is being investigated by Bellevue police after officers reportedly found an arsenal of guns in the hotel room where he was treating a 15-year-old patient.

Dr. Donald Dudley of Yarrow Point was cited for obstructing justice when he failed to put his hands over his head when officers ordered him from his room at the Bellevue Hilton early Saturday morning, according to police Lt. Jack McDonald.

Dudley, 56, did not return phone calls.

According to a police report, this is what transpired:

Dudley and the youth checked into a single room at the Hilton Friday night. Finding an adjoining room unoccupied, they took that as well. Shortly after 1 a.m., the boy went downstairs and told the clerk he and the doctor would be going for target practice at a firing range the next day. Then he went upstairs and returned, waving a .44 Magnum semiautomatic pistol at the clerk.

The boy appeared to be intoxicated, a clerk told police, and said, "Get out of here or I'll drop you." The clerk fled to a back room.

The youth told police he was only carrying the gun to prove to the clerk he was on his way to target practice.

When police arrived, Dudley resisted arrest "slightly," McDonald said, and his hands were not in plain sight as ordered.

He allegedly threatened the officers, saying: "You guys are going to pay for this. I'm going to flatten you guys."

Police found opened beer and wine containers in one of the rooms, as well as a .22-caliber pistol, a .50-caliber pistol, a .44 Magnum pistol, a .45-caliber pistol with a laser sight and a .22-caliber rifle. There were ammunition and magazines for all the weapons.

The doctor told police the boy was suicidal and had threatened to kill his stepfather, and that he was treating the youngster at his mother's request.

The youth's mother confirmed that her son was at the hotel for treatment. The mother said there has been "a lot of confusion" over the incident and that she was still comfortable with the doctor treating her son.

The youth's lawyer, Kany Levine, denied that his client was drunk but said there are "significant mental health issues" involved. He did not elaborate.

The boy, booked into the King County Youth Services Center, was scheduled to be arraigned today on a charge of displaying a weapon, Levine said. Dudley was released after being cited.

A professor at the UW from the mid-1960s until he resigned in 1991, Dudley is a neuro-psychiatrist, treating those with mental problems from brain injuries.

The Washington State Medical Disciplinary Board is currently reviewing five complaints against him.