SAN JOSE
– The popular Gilroy family physician facing five charges of
sexual assault against female patients during pelvic exams will
have to wait at least another two months to learn his fate.
SAN JOSE – The popular Gilroy family physician facing five charges of sexual assault against female patients during pelvic exams will have to wait at least another two months to learn his fate.
Kaiser Permanente Dr. Raul Ixtlahuac, who faces up to 10 years in prison for the charges, was back at the Hall of Justice in San Jose Wednesday afternoon to set the date for his new trial.
Ixtlahuac, who practiced as a family physician for nearly 12 years at Kaiser Permanente’s Gilroy offices at 7120 Arroyo Circle until his 2001 arrest, was granted a mistrial March 11 after a 12-person jury could not reach a unanimous decision on five charges of felony sexual assault against the doctor.
The jury of eight men and four women – who sat through two weeks of testimony in the trial – acquitted Ixtlahuac, 41, on a sixth charge of sexual assault.
Ixtlahuac’s case will go back to trial June 23, and both the prosecution and defense say jury selection will be the key to the outcome of the case.
“The evidence is basically the same,” said Deputy District Attorney Chuck Gillingham, the prosecutor who made the decision to retry Ixtlahuac following the original mistrial. “But I certainly learned a lot about perspectives of the jurors and how they act compared to their life experiences.”
Throughout the doctor’s original trial, four alleged victims of Ixtlahuac’s testified that he penetrated them with his penis during pelvic examinations, and two women claimed he rubbed them in a sexual manner with his fingers. The doctor was found innocent of one of the latter counts. The jury reported voting 10-2 in favor of guilty on two counts of penetration and 9-3 in favor of guilty on the other three charges.
All of the alleged incidents took place between the fall of 2000 and spring of 2001 at the doctor’s Gilroy office.
“I think both parties learned something about their presentations last time,” said Doron Weinberg, Ixtlahuac’s San Francisco-based defense attorney. “For me, knowing that Dr. Ixtlahuac is completely innocent and several jurors were ready to convict him disturbs me. I thought we proved he was not guilty – but I learned the jury needs to be proved not only that he can’t be proved guilty, but that he’s innocent.”
The doctor has been on paid administrative leave from Kaiser since his May 2001 arrest – something that will not change until after the trial, according to Kaiser officials – but Weinberg said Wednesday the trial is taking a severe toll on his client’s finances.
Ixtlahuac was almost forced to drop Weinberg – who has been working on the case for more than a year – to be represented by a public defender, Weinberg said.
“He thought he couldn’t afford to pay me for another trial,” he said. “He’s in a tough situation that’s been going for a long time.”
Following the original trial, Gillingham had mentioned that a new woman claiming she also was a victim of Ixtlahuac’s came forward during the trial.
This morning Gillingham said he has not made a decision yet whether or not to include the woman’s charge in the case. If added, there would be six pending charges.
Weinberg said he is not concerned with any subsequent charge against his client.
“When a woman shows up after reading newspaper articles and says she is a victim, she does not get a lot of credibility,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon a red tie-clad Ixtlahuac sat quietly with his wife in court while awaiting his upcoming court date. Several of the doctor’s female patients testified on his behalf during the previous trial and several more attended portions of the trial to show their support for Ixtlahuac.
Members of the Kaiser staff and administration have spoken in support of the doctor since his arrest.
Ixtlahuac also took the stand himself during the trial and repeatedly denied all charges against him while giving detailed explanations to the jury about each pelvic exam in question.
Each of the five alleged victims in the upcoming trial – ages 25 to 42 – has filed a civil suit against Ixtlahuac, and most have done the same against Kaiser.
Since his arrest, Ixtlahuac has been free on a $250,000 bond; his medical license has been suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
Ixtlahuac lives in Salinas.
