In
Copyright Since September 11,
2000
RH doctor faces sex charges
Sampras' former coach accused of molestation
The allegations against Dr. Peter Fischer, a pediatric endocrinologist, involve four boys who were 13 to 15 years old at the time, said Deputy District Attorney Eloise Phillips.
Fischer, 55, has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney declined Thursday to comment on the charges, saying pretrial publicity would be unfair to Fischer.
In one case, filed in February, Fischer is charged with three counts of committing a lewd act on a child, and three counts of penetration by a foreign object.
In a case filed June 23, Fischer is charged with 10 felonies in connection with three other alleged victims ages 13 to 15, the prosecutor said.
Phillips contends two of the alleged victims were molested at the doctor's office and one at his home.
Fischer is free on $460,000 bail, Phillips said. A physician at Kaiser Permanente in Bellflower for 20 years, he has been suspended from medical duties pending the outcome of the case.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Tuesday in Downey Municipal Court.
The charges cover the period from 1988 to 1996, Phillips said. Three of the youngsters were patients and one was a friend, according to the prosecutor.
Sampras, the world's top-ranked tennis player who won Wimbledon earlier this month for the fourth time to give him 10 Grand Slam titles, began practicing at age 9 with Fischer at the Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Rolling Hills Estates. Sampras grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes and now lives in Florida.
They split in the late 1980s over Fischer's authoritarian ways and Sampras found other coaches.
They renewed their friendship four years ago, according to a recent article in Sports Illustrated.
"I support Pete," Sampras told the magazine. "He's been like a second father to me. The hard thing for me is that his reputation will never be the same."