Mesa Doctor With “Healing Touch” Accused of Sexually Assaulting Two Patients

A Mesa-based primary-care physician with the Healing Touch Internal Medicine group was arrested yesterday after police say he sexually abused two of his patients.Victims say Gabriel Ogbonnaya, a doctor with the Healing Touch group, made sexual advances toward them -- including patting their vaginas and insisting they "have more sex"...
Carbonatix Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Carbonatix

Independent Journalism in Phoenix Needs You

We need to raise $15,000 by August 9 to support the reporting our community depends on. Reader support keeps us independent and is playing a larger role in funding local journalism and shaping what comes next. If you believe independent local journalism matters, make a contribution today.

$15,000

A Mesa-based primary-care physician with the Healing Touch Internal Medicine group was arrested yesterday after police say he sexually abused two of his patients.

Victims say Gabriel Ogbonnaya, a doctor with the Healing Touch group, made sexual advances toward them — including patting their vaginas and insisting they “have more sex” — despite the victims being adamant that his behavior was unwanted, according to court documents acquired by New Times.

One of the victims says she went to the doctor’s office on Monday and was placed in an examination room.

Once Ogbonnaya entered the room, the women says he immediately started caressing her face and — while standing face-to-face with the victim — leaned in and put his forehead against hers.

Catch up on the latest

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter for a recap on politics, dining, culture, music and more

After the alleged face-time with the doc was over, Ogbonnaya, the victim claims, started rubbing her neck and telling her how beautiful she is.

Then, the victim claims, Ogbonnaya told her to “keep breathing” as he rubbed her chest for three-to-five minutes.

Ogbonnaya — after hugging the victim and telling her how much he cared for her — then repeatedly “tapped” the victims vagina and asked “are you still doing this?”

According to court docs, Ogbonnaya was referring to advice he’d given the victim during a previous visit. That advice, court docs claim, was to have more sex and find a new boyfriend.

Related

Ogbonnaya then offered to “pick up” the victim, who’s married, so they could go jogging together.

Police paid Ogbonnaya a visit at work yesterday and note that the first thing he said upon seeing the cops was, “I am under arrest.”

Police say Ogbonnaya was involved in a similar incident, with a different victim, on December 4, of last year.

In that case, the victim made similar allegations that Ogbonnaya had “tapped” her vagina and encouraged her to have more sex.

Related

Calls to Ogbonnaya’s Mesa office went unanswered this afternoon.

Ogbonnaya was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual abuse — one for each alleged victim.

Detectives believe that, because of the similarities in the two cases, there could be additional victims. Anyone who might have information should contact the Mesa Police Department at 480-644-2211.

Loading latest posts...