Doctor who sexually assaulted patients gets more than 12 years in prison
Dr. Kevin Antario Brown
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A doctor who sexually assaulted eight female patients and an undercover detective while working at three medical facilities in Los Angeles and Glendale was sentenced today to 12 1/2 years in prison.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor rejected a defense motion for a new trial for Dr. Kevin Antario Brown, the son of former Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown.
The 40-year-old Brown was convicted Aug. 15 of nine counts of sexual exploitation by a physician, eight counts of sexual battery by fraud and one count each of forcible penetration by a foreign object, penetration by a foreign object by fraud, lewd act on a child and attempted sexual battery by fraud. The charges involved crimes between 2003 and 2008.
Jurors deadlocked on eight other charges against Brown, and Pastor dismissed those counts today.
Brown’s attorney, Edi M.O. Faal, told reporters after the verdict was reached that the defense was “extremely disappointed” with the jury’s findings.
Faal said the defense believed that each of the women “had a credibility issue,” but added that “the sheer numbers of alleged victims was a major hurdle to overcome.”
“... We just couldn’t overcome that,” the lawyer said.
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Ann Marie Wise told jurors the victims all described similar scenarios, including Brown flirting with patients, asking them out, making unnecessary comments and performing unnecessary breast and vaginal examinations.
Each one of them told someone what had happened before eventually going to police, including one who told police she was raped after Brown visited her at her apartment, Wise said.
Knowing that they had to come forward “once they knew they weren’t alone,” the majority of the victims contacted authorities after Brown was charged with sexually assaulting one female patient and an undercover officer who had been sent into his office, Wise said.
Brown’s attorney countered that there were inconsistencies in the women’s stories, noting that no one ever heard the patients screaming or telling the doctor to stop.
The defense lawyer accused an undercover police detective of lying that the doctor had held her breasts during an examination involving a problem with her ankle. He noted that it was “nowhere on (an audio) tape.”
Shortly after Brown was charged in July 2008, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner barred him from seeing female patients without a chaperone approved by the Medical Board of California.
By Terri Vermeulen Keith | City News Service
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A doctor was convicted today of 21 counts of sexually assaulting eight female patients and an undercover policewoman while working at the Crenshaw Expo Medical Center in Los Angeles, along with two other facilities in Los Angeles and Glendale.
Dr. Kevin Antario Brown, 40, the son of former Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown, was taken into custody after the jury’s verdicts were read. The eight-man, four-woman jury in his trial deadlocked on eight other counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges.
A man who runs a Pasadena/Altadena-based boot camp for youths was charged this week with sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2004.
Kelvin Bernard McFarland, 42, of Monrovia, was already awaiting trial on unrelated charges for allegedly handcuffing a teenage truant, transporting the girl to a relative’s house and demanding money.
He pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges of sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible rape, oral copulation of a person under 16, lewd act upon a child and unlawful sexual intercourse.
A female high school teacher was charged this week with sex crimes involving two teenage male students.
Gabriela Cortez, 42, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to six felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse. The alleged offenses occurred between September 2009 and November 2010, primarily in Cortez’s home, when the boys—now adults—were 16 and 17, according to Deputy District Attorney Hyunah Suh.
Cortez was a Spanish teacher at Roosevelt High School at the time.
Despite calls for leniency from a group of South Los Angeles clergy and activists, Michael Jackson’s personal physician was sentenced to four years behind bars for the singer’s June 2009 death from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol. During sentencing, the judge blasted the doctor for engaging in a “money-for-medicine” experiment that killed the entertainer.
Conrad Murray, 58, was convicted Nov. 7 of involuntary manslaughter.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Michael Jackson’s personal physician was sentenced today to four years behind bars for the singer’s June 2009 death from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol, with the judge blasting the doctor for engaging in a “money-for-medicine” experiment that killed the entertainer.
Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, was convicted Nov. 7 of involuntary manslaughter.
