SAN JOSE
– A woman who testified that Gilroy Kaiser Permanente doctor
Raul Ixtlahuac sexually penetrated her during a pelvic exam was
disoriented at the time and is mistaken about what happened,
according to Wednesday’s testimony of a Kaiser nurse who said she
witnessed the September 2000 exam.
SAN JOSE – A woman who testified that Gilroy Kaiser Permanente doctor Raul Ixtlahuac sexually penetrated her during a pelvic exam was disoriented at the time and is mistaken about what happened, according to Wednesday’s testimony of a Kaiser nurse who said she witnessed the September 2000 exam.
“Did Dr. Ixtlahuac ever do anything unordinary during the procedure?” Ixtlahuac’s defense attorney Doron Weinberg asked Kaiser nurse Mary Fierro during the fifth day of the jury trial at Santa Clara County Superior Court, charging Ixtlahuac with six counts of felony sexual assault on six separate women. Wednesday was the opening day for defense arguments.
“No,” said Fierro, who has been a certified nurse since 1965.
“Did he ever insert his penis?” Weinberg asked.
“Absolutely not,” Fierro said, adding that she never left the room during the exam in question and that the patient was disoriented from the preceding allergic reaction that she was being treated for by Ixtlahuac.
Last week, the alleged victim, a 31-year-old from Hollister known to the court only as Stacee to protect her anonymity, testified that she had felt the doctor sexually penetrate her during her September 2000 visit and that no nurse was present at the time of the alleged assault.
During her emotional testimony Stacee explained that she waited almost three days to contact the police after the exam because she wanted to be sure about what happened.
Stacee was separated from the doctor by a blue drape hanging over her abdomen during the exam, and although she could not see him, she said she felt his clothes rubbing on her thighs and realized he was sexually penetrating her.
Weinberg said that reports Stacee made to police about the alleged assault quote her as saying she had “blacked out” for a short period prior to the exam due to an allergic reaction to latex.
“I didn’t say anything to the nurse when she came back into the room because I didn’t know what to say,” Stacee said last week with tears flowing down her face. “I just wanted to go home.”
Ixtlahuac, 41, is facing up to 14 years in jail for four counts of alleged felony penetration with a foreign object and two counts of alleged felony sexual battery. Ixtlahuac, who had worked as a family practitioner at Kaiser at 7520 Arroyo Circle for 12 years prior to the alleged incidents, has plead not guilty to the charges.
On Wednesday Deputy District Attorney Charles Gillingham asked Fierro how she could be sure what Ixtlahuac was doing during the exam since she was stationed near Stacee’s head and also separated from Ixtlahuac by the drape.
Fierro said that she has been a gynocological assistant for more than 20 years and can tell by a doctor’s movements if anything is unusual. She also said that she has witnessed nearly a hundred pelvic examinations of Ixtlahuac’s and never saw anything improper.
“I can’t see (what’s going on beneath the drape during the exam),” Fierro said. “But I use my senses to be able to tell what’s going on.”
Other defense witnesses to take the stand Wednesday included members of the Kaiser administration who defended their decision to let Ixtlahuac keep practicing at the Gilroy facility for eight months between the first assault report and his May 2001 arrest.
Following the assault reports Kaiser implemented a policy requiring that a nurse chaperone all female patients scheduled for pelvic exams with male doctors, said Kaiser Physician in Charge Dr. Gregory Crawford.
“We felt this policy would be effective,” Crawford said. “To my knowledge it has worked.”
Also taking the stand was Dr. Harley Alen Goldberg – a supposed “measurement expert” who is expected to be a key witness to the defense.
Goldberg, who is a physician with Kaiser in San Jose, testified to measuring Ixtlahuac’s erection size, the width of his hips and the distance from his pelvic bone to the ground per Ixtlahuac’s request following the initial assault charges in September 2000.
The defense will use the measurements to argue that it wasn’t possible for Ixtlahuac to do what the women are alleging, Weinberg said.
Ixtlahuac is expected to take the stand this afternoon.
Throughout the trial, four alleged victims of Ixtlahuac’s testified the doctor penetrated them with his penis during pelvic examinations between August 2000 and May 2001, and two woman claimed he rubbed them in a sexual manner with his fingers. Each of the victims – ages 25 to 42 – have filed a civil suit against Ixtlahuac and most have done the same against Kaiser.
Ixtlahuac has since been free on a $250,000 bond and placed on unpaid administrative leave from Kaiser. His medical license also has been suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
On Wednesday, Ixtlahuac arrived at the Hall of Justice in San Jose with his wife and mother, dressed in a dark suit and tie. Ixtlahuac’s family sat behind him during the trial with his wife continually rubbing his shoulders and holding his hand during breaks.
Ixtlahuac lives in Salinas and received his medical degree from the University of Washington; his residency was completed at Stanford University. He is a native of Southern California.
The trial is expected to conclude Tuesday.
