See the update at the end of this post on the charges and possible stiff penalty the chiropractor faces.
ORIGINAL POST, SEPT. 5, 3:03 P.M.: An Irvine chiropractor was arrested Tuesday at his Sky Park Chiropractic office Tuesday after the 65-year-old allegedly touched a female patient in a sexual rather than therapeutic way.
Dennis Scott Durbin, who shares the office with an unrelated chiropractic practice on alternating days, now faces felony charges of sexual battery and penetration with a foreign object, according to Irvine Police.
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The 28-year-old patient first started seeing Durbin more than a year ago for relief from neck pain, explained Lt. Julia Engen, the Irvine Police spokeswoman, adding that the chiropractor suggested mixing massage into the treatment program during a visit last July.
It was during a follow-up appointment that “Durbin inappropriately touched and assaulted the victim,” according to Engen.
He was booked into Orange County Jail and held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Irvine Police fear Durbin may have pulled the Austin Powers-esque sensual massage routine on other unsuspecting ladies. If that's you or someone you know, contact Detective Victoria Hurtado at vh******@ci**********.org or 949.724.7194.
UPDATE, SEPT. 6, 10:05 A.M.:
During an Aug. 4 massage at Sky Park Chiropractic, Durbin “inappropriately touched” the 28-year-old patient “on intimate parts of her body,” according to an Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) statement sent this morning that announced this charge he'll face at arraignment today:
One felony count of sexual battery by fraud.
With a conviction, Durbin faces up to four years in state prison and mandatory lifetime
sex offender registration, which would bar him from Orange County parks covered by Child Safety Zones. So no more rub downs next to the soccer field.
The OCDA statement notes the woman reported the case to the National Sexual Assault hotline, which then contacted the Irvine Police Department, leading to the investigation that resulted in Durbin's arrest in his Irvine office Tuesday.
In addition to the police detective mentioned in the previous post, OCDA Senior Investigator Lou Gutierrez is also collecting evidence from other patients at 714.347.8794.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.