2 Investigators: Patients Accuse Doctor Of Sexual Abuse
(CBS) -- His victims call him a predator doctor who used his medical license to find vulnerable victims to sexually assault and abuse. CBS 2's Dave Savini investigates years of complaints against Dr. Charles Dehaan and why no one stopped him sooner.
The 2-Investigators caught up with Dehaan outside of the Cook County Courthouse, where he is facing sexual assault charges. He had no response to this or other charges and lawsuits accusing him of sexually assaulting or abusing patients, including Susan Beesley.
"He's got me pulled all the way up to him, to where my knee is in his crotch, and rocking the chair back and forth. Telling me how beautiful I am," said Beesley.
Dehaan made house calls and would be alone with patients who often were elderly or disabled.
Deborah Curtis testified against Dehaan during a deposition from hospice.
"He was getting very inappropriate with me sexually," said Curtis.
Patient Debra Lingelbach was deposed before passing away.
"He was taking his stethoscope and playing with my boob," she said then starting crying."
After Dehaan moved his practice from the Chicago suburbs to Rockford, complaints and police reports, dating back to 2009, started piling up. At least 26 victims, ranging in age from 29 to 84, told similar abuse stories. One report from 2011, says Dehaan was "rubbing" her "breasts." She "started to cry" and said to Dehaan, "I'm 70 years old."
Dehaan was not charged until 2014. Despite all the reports that continued to pile up, somehow Dr. Dehaan was allowed to keep practicing medicine and making house calls from Rockford to Chicago.
Beesley says there was a lot of evidence against Dehaan, but it was ignored. She filed a lawsuit against the doctor and her attorney alone, Michael Gravlin, has ten cases against Dehaan.
"He was acting more like a sexual predator with a medical license, than an actual doctor," Gravlin said Dehaan gave some patients poor care too. "One of my clients, whom he saw over a nine-month period and did nothing but prescribe pain killers to, went to the hospital and they diagnosed her with stage four lung cancer."
And he says Dehaan targeted patients who may not make great witnesses and he describes one family's anguish.
"They said that the grandmother, who had dementia, told them about what Dr. Dehaan had done to her and, of course, no one believed her," said Gravlin.
Dehaan is charged with sex crimes in Cook and Winnebago Counties and federal Medicare fraud too. His medical license was suspended last year for sexual misconduct, including exposing himself and sexual activity with a patient who had a, "mental disorder."
Rockford Police did not return our calls.
