Huber Heights doctor accused of sexual advances toward 13 patients

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of special reports by the I-Team and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about doctors accused of sexual misconduct. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s yearlong, 50-state analysis found medical boards in some states do little to inform or protect patients when doctors were found to have abused their power. Read the full national report here, and read the I-Team’s analysis of local doctors sanctioned by the Ohio Medical Board here.

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By the time Huber Heights doctor Shafik Ahmad had his license revoked in 2011 — after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for attempting to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife — he had been accused of improper sexual advances by 13 former patients.

Several of those patients had sued Ahmad in court. A Montgomery County Common Pleas Court magistrate awarded $30,000 to Cheriese White in 2009, who said Ahmad kissed her on the mouth and made other advances.

“I came there in trust of a family physician, not to be violated,” White testified in court.

A magistrate awarded more than $30,000 in civil damages and attorney fees to a woman who accused a family physician, Shafik Ahmad, of making sexual advances during an office visit.

“This case presents the question, when is a kiss not just a kiss?” Montgomery County Common Pleas Magistrate David Fuchsman wrote in the decision, referencing a lyric from “As Time Goes By,” a song from “Casablanca.”

“The answer to that question is when the kiss is planted on an unsuspecting patient, by her family physician,” Fuchsman wrote, according to a report in the Dayton Daily News.

During the trial another former patient told the court Ahmad fondled her breast during an examination in May 2004.

The Dayton Daily News reported in 2009 that Huber Heights police had investigated complaints of sexual misconduct by Ahmad from seven women since 2003, and three civil suits prior to White’s were settled out of court.

Ahmad denied the allegations.

“All my colleagues suffer from the exact same thing,” he said during a hearing. “Each of us who care about people, who examine people and nurture people, are subject to being misunderstood.”

In October 2009, Ahmad was arrested after hiring an informant posing as a hitman to murder his ex-wife, with whom he was in a child custody battle. He was convicted in January 2011.

In 2010 the medical board suspended his license. Board records allege Ahmad improperly touched and made advances toward 13 women, several of whom he was treating for depression or other mental health issues.

The board permanently revoked his license in July 2011 after he was convicted, and dismissed the sexual allegations.

Ahmad is currently in state prison and scheduled to be released in October.

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