Ex-doctor convicted of sexual misconduct is granted a new trial
A former Stow doctor convicted in 2014 of sexual misconduct involving a patient will have another day in court.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Joy Oldfield has granted James Bressi a new trial. She said new evidence in Bressi’s case — including questions about the motive of the alleged victim and more information about an effort by Bressi’s former partners to push him out of the practice — could change the outcome.
“The new evidence proffered by Bressi represents a substantial change in the underlying facts of the case,” Oldfield wrote in a ruling released Friday.
Oldfield said the evidence reveals “a criminal conspiracy against Bressi perpetrated by the owners of Summit Pain Specialists,” Bressi’s former practice in Stow, and the alleged victim.
Prosecutors are reviewing the decision and may appeal.
In a short hearing Tuesday, Oldfield set the new trial for March 4, with a final pretrial hearing Feb. 4. Attorneys said the trial is expected to take a week. The first trial lasted three weeks.
Bressi, 64, of Hudson, was indicted in 2013 on 27 counts of rape, gross sexual imposition and misdemeanor sexual imposition involving 10 patients and a clinic nurse. He was accused of inappropriate contact during medical examinations.
During his 2014 trial, Bressi denied engaging in offensive sexual contact with patients or employees and contended that his former partners were attempting to oust him. He also said his accusers must have mistaken two bottles he carried in his pocket — one filled with stevia, another with a dietary supplement — as his genitals rubbing against them.
Bressi was convicted in August 2014 of a misdemeanor charge of sexual imposition and cleared of the other counts. He was sentenced to 59 days in jail but appealed and his sentence was stayed.
In the spring of 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear his case and Bressi’s sentencing was delayed while Mike Callahan, his attorney, argued the need for a new trial.
Bressi voluntarily surrendered his Ohio medical license. He practiced osteopathy, which is an alternative medicine that involves the manipulation of muscle tissue and bones.
The new evidence includes emails from one of Bressi’s former partners to his attorneys asking if they should get the alleged victim to embellish her story against Bressi. Other emails asked what should be done when it becomes known that the victim exaggerated her claims. The emails were uncovered by Zachary Burkons, a receiver in a bankruptcy case for the former Summit Pain Specialists. Burkons received 20,000 emails.
Other new evidence includes statements from four women, one of them a former patient who says the alleged victim called her twice and tried to get her to implicate Bressi in inappropriate behavior and to call Stow police. Another woman, who worked at Summit Pain Specialists, said she heard the accuser say she would get Bressi.