See the update at the end of this post on the judge ruling David Hung Do will not be retried a third time on changes of sexually assaulting a female patient.
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 5, 6:31 A.M.: The state revoked David Hung Do medical license in 2011 after multiple allegations of touching lady patients sexually during his exams as a Kaiser Permanente physician. Trying the 43-year-old criminally has been more difficult, however, as a 2012 trial ended in a mistrial and on Thursday he was acquitted in Orange County Superior Court for the alleged sexual assaults of two of three patients.
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Mistrial Declared in Sexual Battery Case Against David Hung Do, Alleged Predator Physician
Now prosecutors and defense attorneys must come back to Judge James Stotler's courtroom on May 16 to figure out how to proceed with the third count of sexual battery against Do, a Riverside resident.
Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nichols had portrayed Do as a sexual predator who had victimized three women whose cases produced criminal charges against the former doctor. The alleged attacks were said to have happened at Kaiser offices in Anaheim between 2008-2012.
A fourth lady whose alleged incident at a Kaiser office in La Palma in 2007 did not lead to criminal counts did testify for the prosecution. Judge Stotler barred testimony from a fifth alleged victim before the trial began.
Defense attorney John Barnett had accused Anaheim Police detectives of manufacturing evidence and also claiming an investigator who has since died coached a witness.
After deliberating for about 2 1/2 days, jurors found Do not guilty of sexually assaulting two of the women and deadlocked 11-1 on a third charge of sexual battery involving a third woman. Jurors were not surveyed on whether the majority leaned toward guilt or innocence.
Two of the women have filed civil lawsuits, Barnett told City News Service.
UPDATE, MAY 19, 6 A.M.: Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler ruled Friday that David Hung Do will not be retried a third time on charges he sexually assaulted a lady patient.
Jurors earlier this month found the former Anaheim Kaiser doctor not guilty of molesting two female patients, but a lone juror held out for guilty on a count of sexually assaulting a third lady patient.
Stotler, according to Paul Anderson's City News Service report, announced, ““I feel there's no reasonable possibility of a jury reaching a verdict on that count. This is not a finding of insufficient evidence … and my ruling isn't intended to be a judgment of acquittal.”
That knocked out the request of Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nichols, who sought on third trial on grounds Do poses a risk to society. But defense attorney John Barnett noted a judge declined at a preliminary hearing to hold Do to answer on felony charges, instead knocking them down to misdemeanors, prompting prosecutors to refile the case.
“This was an extremely difficult ordeal” for Do, said Barnett, who expects his client to seek reinstatement of his California medical license.
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