O.C. Doctor Faces Second Trial for Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Patients

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

An Orange County physician "sexually assaulted" four patients under the guise of doing medical exams, a prosecutor told jurors today, but the defendant's attorney said the evidence was shaped by an Anaheim investigator who was trying to "stack" the case.

A mistrial was declared in the first trial of David Hung Do in October 2012 with jurors split 9-3 in favor of acquittal on one count and 6-6 on two other counts of sexual battery by fraud.

Do is accused of molesting four women, but is charged with sexually assaulting three of the alleged victims. The fourth woman's testimony will be used in the trial corroborate the other allegations.

A 21-year-old woman who was being examined by Do in May 2008 said he suggested a gynecological exam, Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nichols said.

"She was so bothered by how long he was down there that she asked him, 'Is there something wrong?' " Nichols alleged.

Do allegedly asked her if "being a virgin is a religious choice or a personal choice," Nichols said.

Another woman went to see Do in June 2008 to be treated for injuries from a car crash, Nichols said.

Do had the woman disrobe and "rubbed her nipples," Nichols said.

"She was so shocked she couldn't even tell her mother," who was with her for the exam, Nichols said.

The woman called police following the exam, Nichols said.

"The evidence will prove (the women) were sexually assaulted during exams by that man," Nichols said, pointing to the defendant.

One woman testified in the last trial that she went to Do's La Palma office in July 2007 because she needed a patch to combat sea sickness for a ride-along she was taking with the U.S. Coast Guard as part of an internship. She testified Do touched her groin.

A UCLA physician was expected to testify that the exams "were well below the standard of care," Nichols said.

Do worked at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and offices in Anaheim and La Palma, and a Kaiser office in Los Angeles, when he was accused of molesting the patients between 2006 and 2008. Do's medical license was revoked by the state on April 29, 2011.

Do "fled" Vietnam and worked multiple "menial jobs" before going to medical school and "pursuing the American dream," his attorney, John Barnett said.

"Seven years ago he achieved the American dream," Barnett said. "But the American dream he worked so long and so hard for became a nightmare."

Barnett said the mother of the alleged victim injured in the car crash was two feet away while Do conducted the exam. The defense attorney acknowledged that his client's hands were shaking, but it was because he was a new physician who was nervous.

When the woman confronted Do about touching her breast he denied it and the patient's mother sided with the physician, Barnett said. That angered the woman, Barnett added.

"She wants to vindicate her position so she goes to police," Barnett said.

Barnett said Anaheim investigator Brian W. Hayes, son of Judge W. Michael Hayes, told the woman she had to "stack the evidence" against Do because it was too difficult to prosecute cases with just one victim. Hayes died in a plane crash in 2011.

"This echoes through the entire case," Barnett said of Hayes' alleged coaching of the accuser. "Hayes infects the entire investigation by repeating this lie he's helped to construct."

Barnett noted two of the women filed civil lawsuits.

Investigators have "changed an accident into a predator, a hunter," Barnett said. "The evidence is going to show you he's not guilty."

--City News Service