Plastic surgeon found dead in home with the girlfriend he had been convicted of kidnapping and tying up with medical tape
- Joseph Berg, 47, and Lucy Schwartz, 49, found dead in Salt Lake City home just before noon on Monday
- Man was sentenced in April to six months jail for kidnapping Schwartz and 'dragging her down hall by her hair'
- Police say no signs of trauma on bodies but are treating deaths as suspicious
- Berg was being sued in June for operating on a patient with a 'pickle fork'
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Suspicious: Police are treating the deaths of Lucy Schwartz, pictured, and Joseph Berg as suspicious
A plastic surgeon and the girlfriend he was convicted of kidnapping and tying up with medical tape last year have been found dead, in a suspected murder suicide.
A family member discovered the bodies of Joseph Berg, 47, and Lucy Schwartz, 49, just before noon on Monday in the man's Salt Lake City home after he failed to answer his telephone, according to Utah County Deputy Attorney Craig Johnson.
Police said there were no signs of trauma on the couple's bodies but are treating the deaths as suspicious.
'It’s still so early on in the investigation, we can’t even say what the cause of death is,' Orem police Sgt. Craig Martinez told the Salt Lake City Tribune.
He added that this won't be known until autopsy and toxicology reports are released.
Detectives cordoned off the quiet cul-de-sac where the couple were living and forensics were moving in and out of the property on Monday evening, searching for evidence.
In April, the 47-year-old had been ordered to spend six months in jail for assaulting Schwartz, his longtime girlfriend.
Berg was arrested in November following a 911 call where dispatchers heard a woman in the background crying and pleading for help. Police discovered Berg at the home with a woman bound in medical tape.
The woman was tied to a dresser, had a rag stuffed in her mouth and the man had dragged her down the hall by her hair.
Martinez told the Herald Extra that Berg got out of jail on August 23. He was behind bars for just less than four months but was released early on good behaviour.
In November of 2011, Dr. Joseph Berg was arrested for tying his girlfriend Lucelia Schwartz to a dresser with medical tape
Dead: Lucy Schwartz, pictured, was found dead alongside Berg at the surgeon's Salt Lake City home this afternoon
Kidnapped: Schwartz, pictured here with an unknown child, was kidnapped by Berg last year but the couple remained together
Police believe the deaths occurred sometime between Sunday night and late Monday morning as the couple had been out to dinner with family members over the weekend.
'It's a tragedy not only that he is dead but that someone is dead with him,' Johnson told reporters yesterday. 'Obviously, something went horribly wrong.'
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ShareAccording to the Herald Extra, a realtor said the house where the two were found no longer belongs to Berg.
Jeane Tanner with Summit Realty said the home at 479 E. 1450 North was sold on July 12.
Martinez said a family member of Berg’s was renting the property and that he had not broken into the home.
In addition to jail time, Berg was sentenced to three years of probation, anger management and substance abuse treatment.
At his sentencing earlier this year, Berg’s attorney admitted his client was addicted to pain killers.
Schwartz defended her boyfriend in court.
'I know in my heart he will be back and regain the success he had before the addiction took hold,' she said at the hearing.
Orem home: The couple were found dead at Berg's north Orem home, pictured, by a family member
Tied up: Schwartz, pictured, defended her boyfriend at his April sentencing
Berg was stripped of his physician, surgeon and his controlled substance prescribing licenses last November, after an emergency hearing.
In the suspension order, the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing said Berg’s staff had quit en masse because he was acting peculiarly.
The workers reported the man had been falling asleep standing up, swallowing handfuls of pills and buying drugs not used in his practice, according to the newspaper.
The Utah plastic surgeon's troubles had persisted since his sentencing in April.
In June, a former patient filed a lawsuit against him claiming that he tried to operate on her using a 'pickle fork' after her anesthetic wore off.
Grieving: An acquaintance of the parties involved, right, reacts to the news outside the home where the couple were found dead
Jennifer Swalberg scheduled an abdominoplasty and liposuction procedure with the clinic that Berg ran in Orem in May 2011.
The lawsuit states that Swalberg's work was not professional and during one follow-up appointment he administered steroids and a local anesthetic, left the room for an hour and then returned where he 'repeatedly stabbed (Swalberg's) insides with a 'pickle fork'.
The horrific recount of the patient's visit to Berg is part of the lawsuit filed in court, which alleges he committed health care malpractice, battery, lack of informed consent and negligence.
According to Springer, the medical ordeal began when Swalberg visited Dr. Berg for cosmetic surgery after losing weight.
During the first procedure, Dr. Berg removed 8.8 litres of fat, which the court documents describe as a 'large amount that significantly increased the risk of post-operative complications such as tissue necrosis and fluid accumulation.'
Dean Zabriskie, (left), appears with his client, Joseph Berg at the 4th District Court, in Provo, Utah
Instead of making a straightforward recovery, Swalberg alleges that she was told to wear compression garments, but was not informed 'regarding post-op drainage' said the Herald Extra.
Dr. Berg is alleged to have performed surgery on Jennifer Swalberg using a pickle fork
Filed in June, the lawsuit claimed that Swalberg returned to Dr. Berg with pustulent wounds, 'draining blood and purulent fluid.'
Attending to Swalberg's complaint, Dr. Berg is accused of shoving gauze into her post-surgery wounds with his fingers and failing to take and record proper notes.
Paying Dr. Berg's Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Institute and Day Spa two more visits in June where she received similar treatment, Swalberg alleges that in August, she had been waiting for Swalberg for three hours when she heard a loud crash in the hallway.
'Jennifer opened the door to see what had happened,' the documents state, 'and she saw Dr. Berg splayed out across the floor, his eyes open and glazed.'
It was during another August visit that Dr. Berg is alleged to have used a non-surgical instrument to perform surgery on Swalberg.
Administering steroids and local anesthetic to the wounds which had not healed after three months, Dr.Berg is supposed to have left Swalberg along for an hour.
When he returned he cut open the Utah woman's scarring, even though the anesthetic had worn off.
Taking to the open flesh with a 'pickle fork', Dr. Berg told Swalberg that the repeated stabbing would loosen the scar tissue, the lawsuit states.
'It was excruciatingly painful, and (Swalberg) began bleeding profusely...Dr. Berg instructed (Swalberg) to hold a paper wrapper against the site to control the bleeding.'
Dr. Berg bows his head at the 4th District Court, in Provo, Utah
These new wounds refused to heal and became odorous and filled with blood and pus alleges Swalberg through her lawyer Springer.
Phoning Dr.Berg for another appointment, his staff refused to schedule one and then eventually stopped answering the phone states Swalberg.
'The scarring is permanent both on the inside and outside,' said Springer. 'We just don't want this to happen to somebody else. We want to send a message that this is improper.'
With no previous criminal history, prosecutors pressed for the most lenient sentence for Dr. Berg after he tied his girlfriend to a dresser at his home and phoned 911 in distress.
Dr. Berg's girlfriend Lucelia Schwartz speaks at the sentencing for her boyfriend in April
After he was arrested by police for the November 2011 attack, investigators discovered that he was abusing prescription drugs and his medical license was revoked.
An emergency order from the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing in December of 2011 heard that Berg had 29 prescriptions for himself, one for a controlled substance, and 21 for his live-in girlfriend, the order said.
Of those, 20 were for a controlled substance. Drugs illegally in his possession included hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl patches.
Defending his actions to the judge during his April sentencing he said that he suffered from A.D.D and depression and would now be battling prescription pill addiction for the rest of his life.
The lawsuit from Swalberg seeks special, general and punitive damages and will be asking for at least $300,000.
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