charges leveled by DPH<\/a>, victim family documentation, and letters from an incarcerated man who claims he used drugs with Zelisko, Puerta, and a patient they were \u201ctreating.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m sort of wondering why it took so long to come to us,\u201d said Board of Medical Examiners member Dr. Robert A. Green during the August 18, 2026, hearing to suspend Zelisko\u2019s license. \u201cIt\u2019s just surprising because this has been going on since [20]23, and if some other entity, DPH or whatever, knew about it, it seems to me we should have been apprised of it earlier. This individual appears to be real detrimental to the public and the people with whom he\u2019s interacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time getting to us,\u201d said Board Chairman Kathryn Emmett. \u201cThis is a very serious situation for Connecticut consumers and patients. It certainly appears that way to me and it\u2019s extremely concerning to me that we haven\u2019t had this matter brought to us earlier. Wherever this went into a black hole on its way to us, I would very much like someone to communicate with that area to say this is really worrisome, and we need to deal with an emergency on an emergent basis, not a year later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, there\u2019s over a thousand documents, so it took a long time for the investigative unit to proceed,\u201d said DPH Attorney Joelle Newton. \u201cIt was just referred to our unit less than a week ago, so our unit obviously took action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very important, so we worked feverishly to make sure that it got on this agenda,\u201d Newton continued, adding that she would pass the board\u2019s concerns on to DPH officials.<\/p>\n
Zelisko\u2019s state license to practice medicine was suspended during the August 18 Medical Examiners Board meeting, and he voluntarily surrendered his controlled substances license on August 21, according to the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP).<\/p>\n
Although DPH investigators moved quickly to bring the issue to the board and suspend Zelisko\u2019s license once it made it to them, complaints from multiple psychiatrists were made to other DPH officials roughly ten months earlier.<\/p>\n
A practicing psychiatrist in the Hartford region, who asked to remain anonymous to protect patient privacy, was among the physicians who contacted the Connecticut Department of Public Health in late 2025 to raise concerns about Dr. Douglas Zelisko after learning about the experiences of several former patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI filed a complaint immediately,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n
The doctor\u2019s initial complaint raised a spectrum of concerns, including for patient safety. The doctor was also aware that several other physicians had independently raised concerns with DPH during the same period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department received concerns from three other doctors beginning as early as August 2025,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cWhy did it take a year before any restriction was placed on his ability to practice?\u201d<\/p>\n
DPH\u2019s statement of charges cites three doctors: one who was contacted by a patient after Zelisko abandoned them; another who began caring for one of Zelisko\u2019s patients and could not reach Zelisko to obtain the patient\u2019s medical records; and lastly, another doctor who worked in the same office as Zelisko whose patient information was allegedly illegally accessed by Puerta and Zelisko, who then ordered supplies through her Quest account.<\/p>\n
The charges also indicate that Puerta was banned from the premises of an inpatient psychiatric facility when he brought illicit drugs to a patient while the patient was hospitalized, although the document does not indicate whether the hospital made a formal complaint.<\/p>\n
Even after the suspension of his license to practice, Zelisko remained listed on third-party websites, including Psychology Today, as well as on his own website as a practicing psychiatrist accepting patients. According to the doctor,\u00a0the listings remained online until the website hosts were alerted to the suspension, after which the listings were removed.<\/p>\n
Susan (pseudonym), the mother of one of Zelisko and Puerta\u2019s victims whom they allegedly supplied with crack and alcohol and subjected to sexual abuse, says that she reached out to DPH, the Department of Consumer Protection and the Drug Enforcement Agency in January 2026 after she received a detailed letter from an inmate in a Massachusetts correctional facility warning her about Puerta and Zelisko.<\/p>\n
The poignant and troubling letters from J.W. (whose identity we\u2019re protecting) to Susan detail numerous instances in which he used crack with Puerta and her son while her son was supposedly under Zelisko and Puerta\u2019s therapeutic care. J.W. claimed he was certain that Aleix was using his life coach position to sexually abuse her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did witness Aleix giving your son crack and meth more than once. I\u2019m not sure if you are aware, but Aleix has no formal education either. He is also unlicensed. I was with him when he spoke to you on speaker phone,\u201d J.W. wrote, describing the phone conversation. \u201cHe had you on speaker phone because we were\u2026 being intimate and he was also smoking crack the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.W. lists another incident in which Puerta requested money from Susan to take her son bowling: \u201cNeedless to say, they did not go bowling. He used that money to buy more crack. I met your son the night Aleix took him out to dinner for his birthday. I met them in the parking lot of the restaurant. When I pulled up, they were in the car already smoking crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the allegations and documentation supplied by Susan, Zelisko offered many fake credentials for Puerta, including claiming that he was educated through Yale\u2019s master\u2019s program and had \u201c6,000 hours of patient experience.\u201d The two created a website for Puerta\u2019s life coaching business called Unleash Your Hue, and they registered a business called Integrated Psychiatry LLC in April 2025.<\/p>\n
In a prior interview with Inside Investigator and in written complaints to DPH, Susan indicated they were bewildered when their son began to mentally deteriorate, required multiple inpatient hospitalizations, and tested positive for cocaine and methamphetamine when he had never used such drugs before, all while under Zelisko and Puerta\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
J.W. wrote that he told state and federal law enforcement agencies of what was occurring, starting with the DEA and \u201ctwo FBI agents that came to the county jail to speak with me\u201d in September 2025, but feared they were not doing anything. He also states that he informed the Massachusetts State Police.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave them Douglas and Aleix\u2019s names and told the agents that he\/they give clients drugs to coerce them into sexual acts. They provided me with a phone number to call to discuss it more, but they never answered,\u201d J.W. wrote, detailing the lengths he went to find Susan\u2019s contact information. \u201cI was about to start contacting news stations, reaching out to government officials and utilizing social media if I had to. A doctor (especially a high profile doctor making nearly a million a year) doing this is exactly the type of thing news stations are made to report. I\u2019m sure it would lead to other victims coming forward. But that will be your decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan says part of the delay was because DPH needed her son, who is an adult, to come forward with his claims, but he was hospitalized in Maryland and \u201cwasn\u2019t in any mental state to do so.\u201d When they were finally able to obtain a statement from her son in May 2026, she and her husband began to apply \u201ca lot of pressure to DCP, DEA, and DPH.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt the investigation was unusually slow,\u201d Susan said, although she praised DPH Attorney Newton, whom she called \u201cabsolutely fabulous,\u201d and said Newton \u201cexpedited the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
DPH officials did not respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n
Although the allegations involve six patients from Zelisko\u2019s private practice, he was also employed by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) as a psychiatrist for the state\u2019s psychiatric hospital in Middletown, earning over $400,000 per year.<\/p>\n
Zelisko claimed during a September 3 Board of Medical Examiners meeting that he is currently with his parents in Massachusetts and that this was all the result of \u201cdomestic violence.\u201d Zelisko did not cooperate with DPH\u2019s investigation or subpoenas for records, did not show up to the hearing with an attorney \u2013 or even on camera \u2013 has had his Glastonbury house foreclosed on, and faces numerous court actions to collect debts, including to a bail bond company for getting Puerta out of jail in January 2026.<\/p>\n
Puerta, who has a history of domestic violence, is reportedly still in jail following an arrest in August. While Zelisko has had his license suspended and will face another hearing to determine whether his license should be revoked, it is unclear at this point whether Zelisko will face criminal charges.<\/p>\n
DPH\u2019s investigation alleges that Zelisko ordered massive quantities of controlled substances, including Ketamine, in patients\u2019 names but had them delivered to his personal home and failed to keep proper records of those substances. Regardless, it appears the red flags were not caught by federal or state officials until doctors and victims started coming forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that a number of people recognized serious warning signs and tried to bring them to the State\u2019s attention,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cWhat concerns me is the length of time before protective action was taken. There should be a faster process for the State to respond to what was ultimately called \u2018a clear and immediate danger.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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