A doctor who graduated from my residency program was recently charged with sexual assault on 3 of his patients.  Actually, I understand more women made allegations, but the trial here in town was brought by 3 women.  At one point it got pretty sensational, with a local news story about all the women he’d wronged – then the camera cut to a room of women all sitting around commiserating about how much of a punk the guy is.  I figured he was toast.

The trial began about 2 weeks ago, and was declared by the judge to be a mistrial today.  I guess this means the jury couldn’t agree on his guilt.  So, does a tie go to the runner, like in baseball?  If he hasn’t been proven guilty, then that makes him not-guilty, right?

I can’t decide what to think about this.  On one hand, people make allegations about doctors all the time, but charges aren’t often brought unless there is more evidence than just an allegation.  In this case, I remember the state licensing board saying that they were alerted because 3 women who have no connection to each other all complained within 1 week.  As much as I want to empathize with the doctor and say his actions were probably just misinterpreted, it’s hard to explain 3 women at the same time.  That’s a lot of strange physical exams.

I also don’t know what this means for him.  The prosecutor’s office hasn’t decided whether or not they’ll re-charge him.  If they don’t, does that mean he’s free?  Off the hook?  Will he get his suspended license back?  Will there be nothing on his record?