After 22 women came forward to allege sexual assault by a doctor, and only two ultimately filed charges because of how low the potential penalties would be for him, lawmakers are considering a bill to increase those penalties.
Under current Texas law, a doctor who gropes a patient during an exam will at most face a Class C misdemeanor, similar to a traffic ticket, according to coverage by NBC 5. That means no jail time, no record as a sexual offender and no high fine. But House Bill 2987 seeks to change that.
“HB 2987 enhances the penalty for perpetrators that commit indecent assault if they are repeat offenders or if the offender is a health care or mental health provider,” state Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Farmers Branch) said in a post to her official Facebook page.
Johnson said that she filed the bill in response to the case involving Dennis Doan, a now-former cardiologist at Heart Center of North Texas.
“While the physician was fired from his job, his medical license was only temporarily suspended and he saw zero jail time due to limitations in current law,” Johnson said in her post. “This egregious gap in the justice system caused many of the women in this case to decline pursuing charges against him.”
Lisa Mehrhoff, Parker County’s victim assistance coordinator, told NBC 5 that one of the victims even ultimately chose to leave the state, seeking to find a place to call home that would take sexual assault more seriously.
“They’re embarrassed. They’re angry. I would say they feel betrayed,” Mehrhoff was quoted by NBC 5 as saying of the victims.
Yet, some of those victims broke their silence to come out and support HB 2987, according to Johnson’s post, and she thanked them for putting themselves on the line and sharing their personal stories with the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.
The committee has reported the bill favorably without amendments, according to the state House website.
If passed into law, HB 2987 would instead make actions such as Doan’s a felony, with the severity dependent on past history.
First, it would bump up the offense from a Class C to a Class A misdemeanor. However, anyone convicted of a previous offense or who is a health care or mental health provider would be guilty of a state jail felony
It would also make any subsequent felony offenses under that law third-degree felonies.