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'What I Did Was Awful And Disgusting': Ex-Mt. Sinai Doctor Sentenced To 2 Years For Sexually Abusing Patients
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2017
Modified Jan 24, 2017
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2017
Modified Jan 24, 2017
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A once prominent emergency room physician who admitted to drugging and sexually abusing female patients at Mount Sinai Hospital has been sentenced to two years in prison. One of the patients said in a victim impact statement: “I want to get away from the disgust I feel whenever I think about you assaulting me, the feeling of being worthless, the embarrassment."
Dr. David Newman took a plea deal last month—if he was convicted at trial, he would have faced up to seven years behind bars—and appeared in court for his sentencing yesterday, "What I did was awful and disgusting and I’m sorry."
In January 2016, a female patient visited the hospital's ER for shoulder pain. During her visit, she said that after a nurse had given her morphine for pain, Newman administered another dose even though she told him she was already given some. She heard noises and felt someone touch her breast, and felt something on her face and mouth before Newman allegedly ejaculated on her.
Still very medicated as Newman wiped her off, the patient kept the hospital blanket and gown, which later tested positive for semen. That patient subsequently sued Newman and Mount Sinai, noting that DNA testing of the semen swabbed from her face matched Newman's.
He also allegedly told cops there was a simple reason why semen might be on the patient, "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."
After this incident was publicized, a second patient came forward to say that Newman had molested her. By late March, he was indicted for sexually assaulting four patients, whose illnesses included headache, cold, rash and shoulder pain, prompting a prosecutor to say, "There was simply no medically legitimate reason to fondle these women’s breasts."
At sentencing, Newman said: "I’m sorry to everyone involved. I’m sorry to physicians everywhere and patients everywhere." The NY Times reports, "Justice Michael J. Obus called the doctor’s behavior 'a gross violation of your position of trust.' However, he added that 'I actually believe that you are sincere in your apology.'"
However, the first victim who sued him, Aja Newman (no relation), was unmoved by the apology. She recalled being in the hospital, 'I remember thinking I was going to die if I didn’t get out of here... I did know that the drug was extremely strong and that I had been violated by a doctor — Dr. David Newman." From the Times:
Whatever remorse Dr. Newman had shown, she said, did not strike her as genuine. “I believe you’re only sorry because you got caught,” Ms. Newman said.
She spoke of her young daughter. She remembered bathing her on a recent day, and her daughter sang a song in which she listed her body parts. It was a song Ms. Newman had taught her, and she said that her mother had taught it to her and her siblings. Her daughter then said, as Ms. Newman told the court, that there were places that only her mother and her doctor could touch.
Standing only a few feet from Dr. Newman, she continued, “What do I tell her now?”
Newman, a married father of two who was fired by Mount Sinai, will also have to spend three years under supervised release.
Tagged
david newman
dr. david newman
mount sinai
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
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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