Jury acquits dentist of sexually assaulting girl
A Pulaski County jury on Friday acquitted Little Rock dentist Jose Turcios, who had been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl during an appointment.
After two hours of deliberation, a 12-member jury found Turcios innocent of the felony second-degree sexual assault charges that were leveled against him when he was arrested in 2015 by Little Rock police detectives. An investigation into Turcios began March 4, 2015, after the teenage girl accused the dentist of sexually groping and molesting her while she was inhaling nitrous oxide.
A total of 13 witnesses took the stand during the threeday trial, including the girl, who gave emotional testimony Thursday. Many employees of Healthy Smiles — the practice Turcios and his wife own — also took the stand to defend Turcios’ integrity as a dentist and employer.
On Friday, the courtroom gallery was filled with tearyeyed supporters on both sides of the case. After the jury’s verdict was read by Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, the teenager and her family were aghast.
Turcios was met with wild applause as he was received by dozens of friends, family members and patients when he walked out of the courtroom. His wife and business partner, Dr. Patricia Zarruk, embraced him in a moment of intense relief.
The entire experience, Turcios said, has been a nightmare for him, Zarruk and their 10-year-old son.
“I felt the support of not just my family. A lot of the people here are personal friends and a lot of them are patients, too,” Turcios said. “And in all this time since this happened, the people who know me — the patients — from day one they stood beside me.”
But his relief did not come without lingering feelings of indignation toward police, who he said failed to conduct a thorough-enough investigation before arresting and
charging him.
“I’m glad justice is done, but I’m still very angry at what happened to me, because this shouldn’t have gone this far. I’ll say again — I think police did not do their job,” he told reporters during post-trial celebrations.
The verdict came after attorneys gave their closing arguments, which drew two separate narratives of how events transpired. State deputy prosecutors Jeanna Sherrill and Leigh Patterson portrayed the dentist as an opportunist taking advantage of a sedated teenage girl for his own sexual gratification.
Surveillance video obtained by police and used as evidence by prosecutors showed that the girl was left in an examination room alone with Turcios five times for periods of between 10 and 90 seconds — which is against his office’s policy. The video also captured the dentist patting the girl on the lower back or buttocks as she was leaving the office.
“Sexual assault is a crime of opportunity, it’s the kind of crime that is committed out of view, it’s the kind of crime that is committed when the opportunity arises, and that opportunity is usually created by the abuser,” Patterson said in her closing argument. “Dr. Turcios in this case created five to assault [the girl].”
Prosecutors also called a witness to the stand who accused Turcios in 2008 of sexual abuse while being treated.
According to her testimony Thursday, the woman was 20 years old when she worked as an administrative assistant in a dental office where Turcios also practiced. Turcios and dental assistant Susan Kerr agreed to do cosmetic work on her front six teeth for free, she said. And it was during this treatment, in the moments when Kerr was out of the room, that he made sexual advances upon her while she was under nitrous gas, the witness told the jury.
She testified that the only people she told about the incident were her boss, Kerr, and her sister. A police report was never made.
“What a coincidence that there is somebody else out there, completely unknown to [the accuser], that had markPyle
edly similar experiences with Dr. Turcios,” Patterson said. “He’s chosen what he thinks are the perfect victims during the perfect opportunities.”
But Turcios’ defense attorney, Bill James, quickly revealed apparent contradictions in the woman’s story when he brought Kerr to the stand Friday morning. Kerr said she had never heard any complaint from the woman, and had not heard anything about the allegations until she was contacted by James two months before the trial.
Throughout the trial, James characterized a series of events that led to March 4, 2015, as an escalation of excuses the teen was fabricating or exaggerating to avoid dental treatment after a long, painful and drawn-out braces process. The girl had been seeing Turcios for five years and only had a few more months before her braces were scheduled for removal.
A University of Missouri anesthesiologist, Dr. Steven Fogel, testified for the defense about the hallucinatory effect of nitrous gas on patients.
“My opinion in this case … is that [the accuser] was under a drug that is intended to cause amnesia, and it very well can provide misperception and misinterpretation of things such as brushing against a blouse,” he said.
“It’s more likely than not that [she] does not have an accurate interpretation of the events as they occurred on that day,” he added.
Pulaski County chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson spoke in a dejected tone after the trial.
“We knew it was a challenging case. It’s our job to advocate for the victims of the crime,” he said. “We believed our victim.”
Many of the jurors refused to comment.
Healthy Smiles employees gathered around Turcios chanting, cheering and weeping. All were adamant about returning to work Monday. Despite the impact the allegations have had on the image of his business, Healthy Smiles is still fully booked for the next two months, Turcios said.