David H. Newman, MD, a former physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, was arraigned Thursday on charges of sexually abusing four female patients in the emergency room, including touching their breasts and, in one case, sedating, groping, masturbating and ejaculating on a patient, according to The New York Times.
Dr. Newman, 45, pleaded not guilty in the New York State Supreme Court to one count of first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He is free on bail, according to the report. Dr. Newman's layer, Susan R. Necheles, said he denies the charges and intends to prove they are false during the trial.
Here are six things to know about Dr. Newman's case.
1. He was arrested Jan. 19 after two women told police about the abuse. Since then, two more women have delivered similar complaints to authorities. Dr. Newman was suspended from Mount Sinai after the allegations were first made against him, but he has since been fired.
2. Prior to his arrest, Dr. Newman was a well-known physician, speaker and author who had written about improving relationships between physicians and their patients.
3. In one case, Dr. Newman is accused of sexually abusing a 29-year-old woman who arrived in the emergency room for shoulder pain. He allegedly touched her breast for no medical reason and administered medication to sedate her. Once the patient was too sedated to open her eyes or speak, Dr. Newman masturbated beside her bed and ejaculated on her face, according to the report. DNA from the woman's eye and cheek matched his DNA profile.
4. Dr. Newman told a detective his semen may have been transferred to the face of the patient with shoulder pain because he masturbated in a lounge before treating her. He attributed a second dose of morphine to "some confusion amongst the nurses," according to the report.
5. The other three women accusing Dr. Newman of sexual assault are between 18 and 21 years old and received treatment by the physician in the pediatric area of the emergency room. He allegedly touched each of their breasts while treating them. One woman had come to the emergency room for a cold, another for a rash on her eyebrows and the third for a headache after taking a pregnancy test, according to The New York Times.
6. If Dr. Newman agreed to plead guilty to the top count and register as a sex offender, the district attorney's office would be willing to accept a four-year prison sentence, a prosecutor told the court, according to the report.