Abuse by former chiropractor leads to calls for changes
Columbus attorney says ‘deficiency in Ohio law exposed.’
Christy Duncan COLUMBUS — was stunned when Columbus police investigators told her a chiropractor who groped her in a sexual manner during nearly a dozen visits to his Clintonville office was likely to face only misdemeanor charges.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she recalled.
Her disbelief turned to outrage when she learned that, after being charged with 66 misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition involving 22 victims, Ryan D. Smith faced a maximum penalty of 18 months in jail.
“That was devastating,” she said. “That’s not even one month for each of my charges.”
Duncan, a 48-year-old Worthington resident, is among those who have begun advocating for a change in Ohio law that would turn such conduct by chiropractors into a felony.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, whose office prosecuted Smith, said the case “exposed a deficiency in Ohio law” that needs to be corrected by state legislators.
“When you realize that the most he could get was 18 months, I thought that was an absurd sentence, considering the gross sexual misconduct that he engaged in,” Klein said.
In each case, Smith required his clients to strip down and wear a gown, then groped their bare breasts and manipulated their arms so that their hands would touch his genitals, said Joseph Gibson, the city’s deputy chief prosecutor. Smith sometimes convinced patients who came in with complaints about headaches or lower-body injuries that they had shoulder problems and then fondled their breasts during procedures, Gibson said.
Smith, who has permanently surrendered his chiropractic license, pleaded no contest last month to all counts. Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Mark Hummer sentenced him to 60 consecutive weekends in the county jail, a total of 180 days, and placed him on probation for five years, saying that would allow him to monitor Smith’s behavior.
Klein, whose office asked for the maximum, criticized the sentence. He has contacted state Sen. Stephanie Kunze, a Hilliard Republican, and state Rep. Kristin Boggs, a Columbus Democrat, and said both are supportive of a bipartisan effort to make felony charges possible for chiropractors who take advantage of patients the way Smith did.
Kunze said a misdemeanor sentence “certainly is not sufficient for a chiropractor who has done this over a long period of time with so many victims . ... Hopefully, no one thinks that’s acceptable behavior or an appropriate punishment.”
Exactly how the law might be changed is unclear.