Arizona Medical Board Suspends License of Mesa Doc Accused of Sexually Assaulting Patients

MCSO

Dr. Gabriel Ogbonnaya

​The hits just keep on comin' for a Mesa doctor accused of sexually abusing several of his patients.

Last week, Doctor Gabriel Ogbonnaya was arrested -- again -- after new allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced, and yesterday the Arizona Medical Board suspended his license.

The board met Wednesday to discuss the allegations against Ogbonnaya and found that "the physician may pose an imminent danger to the public."


The board met earlier this month -- after Ogbonnaya was arrested the first time -- and decided to allow him to continue practicing medicine as long as he signed a practice restriction requiring a female medical professional be present whenever the doctor met with a female patient.

However, when Ogbonnaya was arrested again last week, the board opted to pull the plug on the doc's license.

"Due to the increased number of alleged victims and the seriousness of the recent allegations, the Board believed the public was best protected by a suspension of Dr. Ogbonnaya's license," the board wrote in a statement given to New Times.

According to court documents obtained by New Times, victims say Ogbonnaya, a doctor with the Healing Touch group, made sexual advances toward them -- including patting their vaginas and insisting they "have more sex."

Check out all the details from the court documents here.

Ogbonnaya was originally charged with three counts of sexual abuse but has been charged with five additional counts after victims came forward following his arrest

Mesa Police Detective Steve Berry told New Times last week that Mesa police have received 25 calls about Ogbonnaya's alleged sexual abuse since his original arrest on June 9, which led to his arrest on the five additional counts of sexual abuse.

Berry says the complaints are all fairly similar to the original accounts of the alleged abuse and that none of the victims know each other.

That kind of puts to rest the theory of Ogbonnaya's attorney, Jan Buescher, that the original two victims were friends conspiring to ruin the doctor. 

Ogbonnaya was also charged with two counts of sexual assault since he was first arrested.

Those charges, Berry says, came after one of the victims claims Ogbonnaya penetrated her with his finger after putting his hand down her pants during exams on two separate occasions.

In total, Ogbonnaya faces eight counts of sexual abuse and two counts of sexual assault.