Doctor gave hints of suicide

      Dr. Richard Leopold told Danny Gluck of Woodmere, who went through a divorce and child custody case about a year ago, that he would commit suicide if forced to go through the same ordeal.
      Gluck said Leopold told him during a routine checkup, "If I were in your shoes, I'd kill myself... I couldn't go through what you went through."
      And eventually Leopold, 44, did find himself facing an ordeal like Gluck's. At the time of their deaths, Leopold and his wife, Rhonda, 41, formerly of Lawrence, had been talking with lawyers about a divorce resulting from what friends said was sometimes a stormy relationship.
      Still, Gluck said, "He was the nicest guy. I never thought in a million years that something like this would happen."      
      An extremely successful and popular doctor among his Five Towns clientele, Leopold carried through on his forecast. He was found dead of carbon-monoxide poisoning inside the garage of his palatial home at 4 Ivy Court in Old Brookville on Saturday, Jan. 6. He apparently intentionally left the engine of his 1999 Cadillac running in the garage of his $1.3 million home on Friday night and slowly suffocated himself with the lethal fumes as he sat in the driver's seat. His wife, who went to look for him the next morning, was felled by the gas when she opened a door to the garage. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
      Their daughter Allison was also overcome by the fumes and pronounced dead by doctors at North Shore University Hospital in Syosset. The garage is attached to the rest of the house, separated only by a few steps and two doors.
      Leopold's shocked patients and colleagues tried to come to terms with the death.
      "He was one of the best internists that I have ever known and a good friend," said Dr. Todd Bragin, an ophthalmologist who worked next door to Leopold in the medical building. "He had a lot to give his patients. He was the kind of guy who would spend all night by someone's bedside, if necessary. This is tearing me up inside.
      "He was just brilliant and I don't often toss that word around."
      Barry Kesten, who grew up in the Five Towns but continued to use Leopold as his doctor when he moved to Bellmore, said he was taking the news of the deaths very hard.
      "I'm just heartbroken," Kesten said. "This has to be one of the biggest tragedies to hit the Five Towns area in a long time. I'm devastated."
      Kesten said he was always struck by the number of photographs Leopold had of his children inside his office. "He was very down-to-earth and downplayed his house and his lifestyle."
      Holding back tears, Sheryl Ferrante, who is a patient and also worked for a doctor in the same building at 1800 Rockaway Avenue, said Leopold was genuine, caring and devoted as a doctor. "I always felt that he lived for his patients. It is so strange without him. This is a terrible, terrible tragedy. I just don't believe it. It's so shocking."
      According to police investigators, when the doctor failed to show up for a meeting at his office at 1800 Rockaway Ave., Hewlett, at 7 a.m. Saturday, his medical partner, Dr. Andrew Marshall, became concerned and called his house at 7:30. Leopold's wife then realized he had not come to bed the previous night and started to look for him downstairs, police said. When she opened the door to the garage, she was felled by the noxious fumes. She was found by police on the floor just inside the garage.
      "She had been taking in carbon monoxide throughout the night because it was filtering through the house and she was overcome by the fumes in the garage," said Det. Sgt. Robert Edwards of the Nassau County Homicide Squad.
      Marshall called back and Allison picked up the phone. He instructed the 5-year-old to tell her mother he was on the phone. Marshall then heard Allison cry out and called the police. Allison also was suffocated by the fumes on the other side of the garage door, police said.
      A housekeeper, Beverly Greene, 36, was found unconscious in the basement, along with the Leopold's 8-year-old daughter, Jaclyn. Their 2-year-old daughter, Kimberly, was found unconscious in her second-floor bedroom. The two girls, originally listed in critical condition at Nassau University Medical Center, were released from the hospital later in the weekend and into the custody of Rhonda Leopold's mother in Lynbrook. Greene was said to be in stable condition at NUMC on Monday.
      Old Brookville police officers Charles Clanton, Patrick McCormick and Sgt. John Hollwedel responded to the 911 call and found the family. They also were treated for carbon-monoxide poisoning.
      A suicide note written by Leopold and addressed to his wife was found in the den of the home, officials said. The doctor's wife, a periodontist and a Lawrence High School graduate, was the daughter of Dr. Alvin Katz, a former member of the Lawrence school board, and Sharon Katz.
      Although investigators would not reveal the contents of the note, they did say the doctor indicated that a pending divorce was behind his fatal act.
      "He was despondent over the fact that his wife was looking to get a divorce and I don't think he wanted a divorce," Sgt. Edwards said.      
      The doctor's close friends said he doted on his three daughters and possibly was afraid that he would not see them often enough if he lost a custody battle.
      "They had a very stormy relationship and they almost broke up before they had children," said a friend of the family and longtime patient of Leopold's who spoke on condition her name not be used. "He was most devoted to his three girls and for sure he thought he would lose the girls. He was afraid he would not see them every day. That is what probably threw him over the edge."
      The family friend described the doctor as a perfectionist, who was driven by his perfection in the field of medicine.
      "He lived for his three girls," said Ferrante. "He always said that they were the three most beautiful girls."
      Despite Leopold's marital problems, detectives continued to search for clues to find out why a doctor who seemingly had it all would take his own life.
      A $20 million sexual-harassment lawsuit was filed by two former employees of Dr. Leopold at the end of 1999 and was still pending against him, according to court records. The doctor filed a million-dollar counter-lawsuit against the women for defamation of character. But friends and authorities do not believe the lawsuit filed against him led to his suicide.
      Those closest to him did not see the suicide coming and said he showed no outward signs that he was about to commit suicide.
      Kenny Gluck, who was Leopold's financial advisor, said the doctor was conservative and pulled out of the stock market when it took a downturn.
      "He was very conservative, which is why this whole thing is a shocker," Gluck said.
      "People either loved him or didn't like him because he had an arrogance about him," he added. "But it wasn't a bad arrogance. It just showed he was devoted to his work. He was brilliant and people respected him for that."
      Gluck said Leopold started his medical practice in Cedarhurst about 15 years ago but had to close the office before long because he was losing money. He then worked with Greenstein, Scheer and Levine at Woodmere Medical Associates, before opening the office on Rockaway Avenue in the summer of 1989. There, friends said, Leopold was very successful and his office was filled with cabinets stuffed with patients' names and medical history.
      "We are very saddened by this tragedy. It's a great loss for the community," said a spokesperson for Woodmere Medical Associates.
      In addition, Leopold was on staff at North Shore University Hospital.
      Rhonda and Allison Leopold were buried together in private services on Tuesday, Jan. 9, friends said. A funeral service for Dr. Leopold was scheduled to be held at Boulevard-Riverside Chapels on Broadway in Hewlett at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Burial would follow at Knollwood Park Cemetery in Queens.