From the Sacramento Bee:
6 more suits accuse doctor — Patients say plastic surgeon sexually exploited them.
By Mareva Brown — Bee Staff Writer
Six more patients of a Kaiser Permanente plastic surgeon have filed civil cases alleging he sexually assaulted and exploited them by improperly touching them and photographing them nude under the guise of medical care.
The patients, mostly young women undergoing medically necessary breast reductions, were referred to Dr. Scott Takasugi between 1997 and May 2006, when he was escorted off the Kaiser property on Morse Avenue following a patient complaint.
“He’s a predator,” said attorney Noel M. Ferris, who has filed civil cases against Takasugi on behalf of nine women and said she expects to file three more next week. “And he has been doing this for a long time.”
Takasugi’s criminal defense attorney, Quin Denvir, said his client has not yet hired a civil defense attorney, nor has he seen copies of any lawsuits filed against him, but expects the doctor to “vigorously defend” himself in civil court.
The women’s lawsuits also accuse the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of allowing Takasugi to remain on staff despite earlier complaints from women that he had been sexually inappropriate.
“(Kaiser) intentionally and with conscious disregard for the rights of plaintiff subjected her to sexual exploitation and inappropriate medical treatment” by failing to remove Takasugi from his job or warn female patients of the misconduct complaints, the lawsuits say.
Kaiser spokeswoman Kathleen McKenna said Friday she did not believe administrators had seen copies of the civil filings and could not comment on the case.
Ferris said her clients all were young, attractive women who came into contact with Takasugi. In at least two cases, patients were under 18 at the time. In some cases, they were accompanied by a mother or a sister when they visited Takasugi, Ferris said.
But despite feeling uncomfortable with the doctor’s alleged photographs and sexually intimate examination, the patients complied because they believed they should follow their surgeon’s orders, their attorney said.
“They’re all humiliated,” she said. “They think most people would think they were really stupid for allowing it to happen and that’s what makes me the saddest, because he is very smooth in the way he gets them to do it.”
Takasugi was arrested June 14 and faces eight felony gun charges and a single charge of sexual penetration. Sheriff’s officials said they are interviewing other women who have described acts of sexual impropriety in Takasugi’s medical office and that additional criminal charges may be filed.
The 53-year-old surgeon, who collected exotic weapons and vintage sports cars, has practiced medicine at Kaiser Permanent for the past 14 years.
According to the civil lawsuits, he persuaded women under his care to disrobe under the guise that photographs were medically necessary to prepare for their surgeries and then took sexually explicit close-ups of them.
Most of the women were being prepared for breast-reduction surgery, and Takasugi told them to submit to fully nude frontal shots in preparation for surgery, as well as close-ups. One patient was undergoing a rhinoplasty, or reconstructive nose surgery.
Another was being seen for reconstructive surgery after having a cancerous tumor removed from near her collarbone. That patient’s visit May 2 prompted the criminal investigation after she told sheriff’s detectives that Takasugi told her he needed to take pictures of areas he would be grafting skin from and then had her pose nude in inappropriate positions to photograph her vagina and buttocks.
The patient said Takasugi called her on his days off and during his vacations to inquire about her and offered to pick up her prescriptions and bring them to her home after surgery, according to court documents.
When detectives began investigating, they discovered Takasugi already had been removed from his job because of the complaint of another patient — seen the same day — who said the surgeon ignored her refusal to remove her underwear for photographs and yanked them down himself, the documents say. He also conducted an unnecessary “pelvic exam.” That patient, a 22-year-old, later identified five photographs of herself that appeared on the doctor’s personal digital camera.
“All of them felt incredibly uncomfortable, like it was a huge violation, but they believed there was a medical reason for it,” Ferris said. “Now they’re furious.”
Previously:
Sexual abuse complaints against Kaiser surgeon go back 5 years