SAN JOSE
– Four of Raul Ixtlahuac’s former gynecological patients
testified in county superior court Wednesday, accusing him of
sexual misbehavior – just as they did nearly eight months ago.
SAN JOSE – Four of Raul Ixtlahuac’s former gynecological patients testified in county superior court Wednesday, accusing him of sexual misbehavior – just as they did nearly eight months ago.
That February/March trial resulted in a hung jury on five of the Gilroy doctor’s six criminal charges; jurors did agree to dismiss one count of sexual battery. The District Attorney’s Office pushed for a retrial, and now a new jury is hearing the case. Like the last jury, this one is mostly women.
The trial, which could last two more weeks, recommenced this morning with testimony from police officers. So far, both lawyers said, it’s been quite similar to the last time around. No new witnesses are planned, although Deputy District Attorney Chuck Gillingham said he may yet call one or more before the end. This may or may not have something to do with a new Ixtlahuac accuser Gillingham mentioned in July, a woman who Gillingham said called him during the spring trial. He hasn’t yet added a charge on her behalf.
Ixtlahuac (ISHT-la-wok) faces four counts of unlawful sexual penetration and one count of sexual battery. Four women say they felt Ixtlahuac have sexual intercourse with them during pelvic exams, as they lay with their feet up in stirrups and their view of him obscured by a drape. One woman claims Ixtlahuac touched her sexually during such an exam.
If convicted, Ixtlahuac could face more then a decade in prison and lose his medical license. If acquitted, he could return to family practice.
Ixtlahuac’s medical license, which was previously suspended pending the case’s outcome, has been restored with the restriction that he cannot see patients unsupervised. Nevertheless, he is not currently practicing. At last report, he was on paid administrative leave from the Kaiser Permanente clinic at 7520 Arroyo Circle, Gilroy.
“We believe that the accusers are simply mistaken,” Ixtlahuac’s defense attorney, Doron Weinberg, said. Due in part to “systematic encourage(ment)” by prosecution, Weinberg said, “Each has added details and become more positive that crimes have been committed.” They were far less sure of “what they saw, felt and understood at the time” than they seem to be now, he said.
Gillingham is arguing that the five female accusers are simply telling the truth.
A 41-year-old Morgan Hill woman said she felt what she thought was a penis enter her vagina as Ixtlahuac gave her a routine pelvic examination in November 2000.
“It was like having sex with my husband,” said the woman, who identified herself as Georgette (last names were withheld in court to protect the alleged victims’ identities).
Ixtlahuac had been Georgette’s family doctor for about nine years, and she had been seeing him about once a month for various ailments. This was the only time she noticed anything unusual.
The penetration lasted “maybe less than a minute,” and the object, which didn’t move, didn’t feel like fingers or a speculum, Georgette said. She said she was too scared to do or say anything. It stopped suddenly when an alarm, like a fire alarm, began ringing loudly.
“I got up on my elbows and said, ‘What’s that?’ ” Georgette said. Ixtlahuac then pulled back, turned around and, with his back to her, did something with his hands that made the sides of his lab coat flap, she said. He then left, saying she could dress herself. This was not his normal mode of leaving an exam room, she said.
Georgette dressed and went outside with others evacuated due to the alarm. Although she said she talked to Ixtlahuac and a nurse there, she didn’t bring up what happened in the exam room.
“I didn’t think anyone would believe me,” she said.
For the same reason, she decided not to have herself checked at nearby Saint Louise Regional Hospital. The closest she came to telling anyone was when her husband asked her that night how the exam was. She said simply, “It was weird.” Her husband, Ricky, echoed this in his own testimony Wednesday. Georgette said she feared Ricky would “go after” Ixtlahuac if he knew what happened.
Georgette continued seeing Ixtlahuac after the alleged incident, once in each of the next four months, and never discussed it with him. Her husband and two children, including an 18-year-old daughter, saw him as well. It wasn’t until after the doctor was arrested in May 2001 – six months later – that she told Gilroy police.
“I was scared of what might happen,” Georgette said when asked why she didn’t tell anyone earlier. “I’d never been involved with the police before.
“People end up in divorces over this stuff,” she said.
Georgette appeared to be near tears at times during her testimony and, in a tense moment under cross-examination by Weinberg, requested and received a short recess.
Like Ixtlahuac’s other accusers, Georgette has sued both him and Kaiser Permanente in civil court. She is seeking $150,000 from Kaiser, she confirmed Wednesday.
Ixtlahuac did not speak in court Wednesday but chatted amiably during recesses – although not about the case. His wife, mother and sister were present with him in court Wednesday; he and his wife sometimes held hands and spoke quietly during breaks.
Also in court Wednesday, a former Ixtlahuac patient named Miquela said she felt Ixtlahuac penetrate her with his penis in a September 2000 exam. He then threw something away before leaving the room. When Miquela checked the garbage can, she found a condom. She showed the condom to a nurse across the hall, she said. The nurse, Diane Martinez, verified this on the witness stand Wednesday morning.
Weinberg said the “condom” might have been a glove or else was used earlier in a safe-sex demonstration. Several Kaiser staff members, who were called as witnesses Wednesday, said there were no known condom-use demonstrations that day.
