Medical board investigates after rape accusations
Doctor denies allegations; Cleveland Clinic sets up committee to review physicians’ conduct
The Ohio Board of Medicine is investigating accusations of rape against a former Cleveland Clinic colorectal surgeon after a USA TODAY article, and it has subpoenaed the clinic’s medical records for procedures done by the surgeon.
Ryan Williams wasn’t charged with a crime in the two cases of alleged rape.
Surgeon Tomislav Mihaljevic, who started as Cleveland Clinic’s CEO on Jan. 1, is the chairman of a “conduct review” committee established after the Jan. 5 report was published to review “serious incidents of harassment and misconduct to ensure appropriate action is taken.” New committees are developing policies on how to assess physicians’ conduct and govern the use of chaperones.
Chris Forshey, the medical board’s investigations supervisor, interviewed a woman last week who suspects she might have been assaulted and asked to remain anonymous.
Jennifer Davis, the woman’s sisterin-law and a former Cleveland Clinic registered nurse, filed a medical board complaint on the woman’s behalf Jan. 16.
The complaint to the medical board was reviewed by USA TODAY. The woman and Davis recorded their meeting with Forshey and provided that recording to USA TODAY. The woman gave permission for USA TODAY to identify her sister-in-law.
The Cleveland Clinic said Williams was required to have a chaperone when he was with female patients during the months Westlake, Ohio, police investigated rape allegations from 2008, which were settled confidentially.
Kristin Fehr said that she was sedated and raped by Williams in 2009 but that the memories didn’t surface for five years. Fehr has spoken openly
about her case and agreed to let USA TODAY use her name.
Williams’ one-year contract wasn’t renewed in June 2017, nine months after police reports from the two cases were sent with a complaint to the Ohio medical board, which declined to discipline him.
The police report included details about Williams’ semen found on the exam room floor. He told a detective that he sometimes masturbated to relieve stress, according to the police report.
Williams works at Ohio State University’s (OSU) Wexner Medical Center, which placed him on paid administrative leave last month after USA TODAY inquired about the allegations. Spokesman Christopher Davey declined to comment about Williams’ departure from Cleveland Clinic beyond earlier comments that OSU was unaware of the allegations, which didn’t come up in an extensive background check.
In an interview with USA TODAY, Williams said, “I vehemently deny what these women are saying.”
According to a police report, prosecutors said Fehr’s and the 2008 cases would be stronger if they were presented to a grand jury together, but a judge would require them to be separated at trial, so they declined to prosecute.
The Cleveland Clinic settled a civil case that the woman who brought the first allegation in 2008 filed against Williams and the hospital.
“The allegations were concerning, and we immediately reported them to the authorities,” clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said. “When the second patient came forward in 2014, five years had gone by — but again, the police came and investigated and had no evidence that anything occurred. We typically don’t terminate employees over unsubstantiated allegations that were thoroughly investigated.”
News reports about Williams prompted an outcry from women who have been patients. Some wonder whether pain or other problems during or after procedures signal that something could have happened when they were sedated, according to Brian Eisen, a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer. He said “a number of women” have contacted him because they’re worried they might have been victims.
“Several of those women have experienced strong emotional trauma as a result of learning that Cleveland Clinic kept Dr. Williams on staff after it had been made aware of very serious, potentially criminal conduct on the part of Dr. Williams,” said Eisen, a former federal prosecutor. “These women want to know with some certainty what happened when they were in Dr. Williams’ care and under anesthesia.”
In an interview with USA TODAY in December, Williams said he always had a chaperone with him. Patsy Bacha, his former medical assistant, told Westlake police that it wasn’t always possible for someone to be in the room with Williams and patients because of “staffing issues,” the police report says.
Fehr told police Williams said someone would come to the exam room shortly, then insisted she take two white pills even though she had been told that her hemorrhoid removal would require only local anesthesia.
Carol Miller, a former Cleveland Clinic employee, wrote a letter to the hospital’s new and former CEOs and to the board Jan. 10 urging them to issue a public apology and have “additional staff involved in every patient encounter.”
“We typically don’t terminate employees over unsubstantiated allegations that were thoroughly investigated.”
Eileen Sheil Cleveland Clinic