Pimps' Dentist Wants His License Back
By Chris Bentley in News on Dec 19, 2011 8:00PM
Call it the return of the pimp dentist.
Gary Kimmel went to jail in 2009 for money laundering in connection with a prostitution ring that embroiled downtown condo complex Marina City. The dentist was sentenced to the 37 months, but was released early on good behavior. Now the man who aided pimps in a human trafficking ring wants to work on teeth again.
A condo board member, Kimmel provided space in Marina Towers for violent pimps like Robert Lewis Young. “Blue Diamond,” as Young is known, is now serving a 25-year sentence on charges of human trafficking.
In July, Illinois passed a law that permanently revokes the licenses of health care professionals convicted of sex crimes or forcible felonies. The new law doesn’t affect Kimmel, who admitted to knowingly doing business with three pimps.
“The only real allegation having to do with his work as a dentist, is involving one prostitute,” Kimmel’s lawyer Joseph Lopez told the Sun-Times. “Her teeth got knocked out, he was trying to help her. They need dentists just like everyone else needs dentists.”
“Doc,” as most who knew Kimmel called him, will have to retest for his license, pay a $50,000 suspension fine and ultimately win the approval of the state board to restore his ability to practice. If he is successful, he would be placed on three years’ probation and would have to report regularly to the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation.
Bryan Smith wrote about the bizarre saga of Kimmel’s rise and fall for Chicago Magazine in 2006. It’s worth a read now that the onetime dentist, who can be overheard on an FBI wiretap bartering dental services with a pimp in return for sexual favors for a friend, is brushing up on his root canal technique. Also worth checking out are Mike Doyle's posts on the Kimmel scandal at Chicago Carless (Ed Note: Doyle was a resident at Marina City at the time the Kimmel Scandal broke. — CS)