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Mt. Sinai Doctor Has Simple Explanation For How Semen Wound Up On Patient's Face
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 25, 2016
Modified Mar 25, 2016
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 25, 2016
Modified Mar 25, 2016
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The former emergency room director at Mount Sinai Hospital was indicted yesterday for allegedly sexually abusing four female patients. Dr. David Newman, an esteemed physician, is pleading not guilty, and he insists there's a totally logical explanations for why his patients might wake up from a morphine-induced stupor with his semen on them.
According to the NY Post, Newman told police officers who questioned him, "I treated that woman in the ER for shoulder pain... I am embarrassed because I wacked off in the lounge, and it was possible that the ejaculate may have gone from my hands to the woman’s blanket... Semen may have also transferred from my hand to her face during the time I treated her."
That patient, who was seen on January 12th, says that Newman gave her a dose of morphine—even though she told him a nurse had already given her some—and she was pretty much knocked out, but could hear noises and felt something on her face and mouth. When she woke up, she says she discovered semen on her face and blanket.
Doctor Newman's DNA matched the DNA found in semen from the woman's face, prosecutors told the NY Times.
In the patient's subsequent lawsuit against Newman, Mt. Sinai and other hospital staff, when she woke up from the additional dose of drugs, nurses appeared "alarmed" by her condition, but nurses told her that she was only given the dose before the X-ray. Later, after telling physician assistant Andrew Lapsley that she was assaulted and drugged, Lapsley allegedly said, "Do you want me to call the police or something?" before recommending that she "think about it" and go home and "sleep on it," suggesting "you could always come back tomorrow." The patient also allegedly saw Newman pacing outside her room, appearing distraught.
The Manhattan DA's office says that the other three women who went to the ER for ailments like a cold, headache and rash were allegedly groped. A prosecutor said, "There was simply no medically legitimate reason to fondle these women’s breasts."
Newman's lawyer said, "He denies all of these allegations."
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david newman
dr. david newman
mount sinai
mt sinai hospital
sexual abuse
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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