Devices & Diagnostics

Top FDA official at Center for Devices and Radiological Health faces charges of soliciting prostitution

A top official  at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has been caught in a prostitution sting undertaken by female police officers with the Howard County Police Department in Maryland. Dr. William Maisel, 46, deputy center director for science and chief scientist at the FDA’s Center for Devices and […]

A top official  at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has been caught in a prostitution sting undertaken by female police officers with the Howard County Police Department in Maryland.

Dr. William Maisel, 46, deputy center director for science and chief scientist at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, was arrested in mid-July along with nine others. Maisel has been charged with four counts of soliciting prostitution and one count of disorderly conduct. The charges were first reported by FDA Webview.

Maisel is scheduled to appear in court in Howard County to face the criminal charges on Sept. 20. A call to Maisel at the FDA was not returned.

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But an FDA spokeswoman responded.

“This is a personal matter and unrelated to the work of FDA,” said Erica Jefferson via email. “Dr. Maisel is still employed by the agency and is working.”

Maisel joined the agency as its first deputy director for science in 2010, but his interactions with the agency date back to 2003 when he advised the Center for Devices and Radiological Health as a consultant. Prior to his formal hiring at CDRH in 2010, Maisel was the founder and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Maisel is also a cardiologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.