Doctor accused of sexually assaulting six patients acquitted on all charges
Dr. Bassam El-Tatari — a Windsor family physician who was accused of sexual misconduct by six former patients — has been acquitted on all charges.
The ruling was made by Superior Court Justice Scott Campbell on Monday.
“(My client) was obviously happy, and his family was really happy with the outcome,” Robert DiPietro, ElTatari’s lawyer, said in a phone interview with The Star on Tuesday. “This is a classic #MeToo movement situation,” DiPietro added. “As one person comes forward, a number of other persons come forward ... no matter what the allegations are. The movement has a very powerful sway to it right now. People need to be mindful.” El-Tatari was originally charged with sexual assault in February 2015 after a woman he treated went to police, alleging he had touched her breast inappropriately. After the charge was made public, five other former patients — all women — came forward alleging various sexual incidents dating back to 2009. In total, El-Tatari faced six charges of sexual assault. DiPietro said Crown prosecutors made a “similar fact” application, arguing that the credibility of one witness bolstered the credibility of the others due to similarity in their allegations.
“That application was dismissed,” DiPietro said. “The judge found the fact that (El-Tatari) is a doctor and the fact that (the witnesses) were patients was too generic of a similarity to allow for ‘similar fact’ evidence.”
After examining witness testimony, Campbell decided that the allegations of each complainant were too different in nature and the time frame of the alleged incidents wasn’t narrow enough for the Crown’s application to succeed.
DiPietro said Campbell outright dismissed the charges associated with two of the complainants because their descriptions of their interactions with El-Tatari were consistent with “following medical procedures.”
Campbell then described the evidence of the original complainant — whose allegation led to the first charge in 2015 — as unreliable, DiPietro said.
“She had too many inconsistencies with her initial statement,” DiPietro said.
“And (Campbell) found the inconsistency to be on major points — not just minor points.”
He said the evidence of two other complainants was also deemed unreliable by Campbell. DiPietro said Campbell described the evidence of the remaining complainant as “straight forward,” in comparison with the other witnesses — but when the Supreme Court of Canada’s test for credibility was applied, Campbell was left with “reasonable doubt.”
“This is a situation that all doctors should take note of,” DiPietro said on Tuesday.
“When it comes to doing any type of examination of any patient, whether male or female, it should be necessary to have a chaperone in the examination room, so that in the event of allegations against you, there was a witness present.”
“That should be mandatory practice.”
El-Tatari remains a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, but his practice has been restricted since June 2017, requiring all his patient interactions to be in the presence of a monitor.
DiPietro said El-Tatari will face CPSO discipline hearings next year, and has retained counsel to represent him there. El-Tatari, 45, was educated in Prague and pursued postgraduate medical studies at the University of Western Ontario. He began practising family medicine in 2010.
He has an office at the South Walkerville Medical Centre. DiPietro said El-Tatari continues to practise under the CPSO’s restrictions.
Asked if he considers the #MeToo movement problematic, DiPietro replied: “It’s problematic in the sense that, over time, people’s recollection and reliability on evidence (diminishes) .... As time passes, people forget things. “It makes it difficult for complainants to have good evidence. It also makes it difficult for the accused person to defend himself. It’s problematic for all parties.”