Jury deliberating in South Florida doctor’s rape, voyeurism trial

Jurors are deciding whether a South Florida doctor raped and secretly took nude photos of a woman in his home hours after socializing with her at a restaurant and a club.

The Palm Beach County jury of four women and two men heard closing arguments Friday in the trial of Dr. Scott Strolla, a podiatrist charged in an April 3, 2016, encounter.

“This case is upsetting because … doctors who swear an oath to do no harm can hurt people when they’re at their most vulnerable,” Assistant State Attorney Kristen Grimes said.

The 28-year-old accuser testified she was unconscious and never agreed to have sex with Strolla or allow him to take photos of her undressed. She initially told police she thought she had been drugged, but no drugs were found in her blood that night after two lab tests.

The 53-year-old foot surgeon took the stand to insist it was all consensual and “a good time,” but that he wished he had made a video of their time together that would help refute the accusations that led to felony charges.

There are two counts of sexual battery, including a penetration count on a “helpless person,” plus one count of video voyeurism charge that concerns

the smartphone photos. The charges are punishable by up to 60 years in prison.

The jury deliberated for about two hours Friday. Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss said the panel’s deliberations will resume 9 a.m. Monday.

Strolla’s testimony Thursday stood in contrast with his statements to a detective the morning after the incident, when he repeatedly denied having intercourse or using his Samsung Galaxy S6 phone to take the photos.

Strolla told the jury he didn’t know why he had “said some of those things.”

The defense said the doctor had taken a sleeping pill hours after the encounter, and wasn’t thinking clearly during his interview with the cops at daybreak the next morning.

Grimes said Strolla was entirely lucid during more than 90 minutes with the detective inside a patrol car parked outside his Palm Beach Gardens-area home.

In his statement, Strolla also repeatedly denied slipping something in her drinks at Lynora’s restaurant and Sketch club in downtown West Palm Beach.

“The only thing I gave her was breakfast pizza,” he said, adding that he does not keep medications in his medical practice. He has been a licensed doctor since 1994, with no complaints on file, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the allegations. She was not one of his patients; they had mutual Facebook friends before the incident, according to court testimony.

Cory Strolla, the doctor’s younger brother and defense counsel, argued the accuser made up the rape claim because “she got caught cheating on her boyfriend.” He said she was trying to cover up for her infidelity, a pattern in the couple’s relationship.

“She chose Dr. Strolla” that afternoon, the lawyer said of her flirting at the restaurant. “It was her idea to go home with Dr. Strolla.”

The jury previously watched a surveillance video showing Strolla and the woman walking together along Clematis Street. The defense highlighted testimony from experts, including a doctor specializing in pharmacology, that the accuser was not impaired by alcohol to a point where she was unable to make clear decisions that day.

“Science doesn’t lie and science doesn’t have a bias,” Cory Strolla said. “This is Dr. Strolla on trial for charges he did not commit.”

Prosecutors Grimes and Brianna Coakley presented evidence that detectives retrieved the photos that had been deleted from Strolla’s phone before it was seized.

Coakley added the evidence proves the woman was sleeping off the effects of several alcohol drinks and “was treated like a prop for his own sexual gratification and use.”

The jury also heard a recording of the woman’s panicked 911 call, hiding in bushes along Strolla’s street.

“I just got raped,” she told the operator, adding that she thought she had been drugged.

Drawing attention to the woman’s cries on the tape, Grimes said, “That is not the voice of somebody who had consensual sex.”

After Strolla told detectives that no sex took place, investigators uncovered Strolla’s DNA in semen swabbed from a hospital exam of the woman.

But Cory Strolla countered that his brother never held the woman captive, and he actually handed over her phone while it was ringing and alerting text messages in his bedroom.

“Rapists,” the lawyer said, “don’t bring you your phone so you can call 911.”

Strolla