The defense team representing the
Gilroy
doctor
charged with sexually assaulting his patients opened Wednesday with explicit testimony about his physical measurements
and the height of the exam table, laying the groundwork for its argument that it would be impossible for the physician to
sexually penetrate the women during pelvic exams.
Former patients of Dr. Raul Ixtlahuac have testified that they felt the
doctor
's clothes inappropriately pressing up against their vaginal area and then sensed something penetrating them that did
not feel like a speculum or fingers while they were lying on an exam table with a hospital drape blocking their view.
But defense attorney Doron Weinberg has said, since the trial began last week, that detailed measurements of Ixtlahuac,
taken by
Kaiser
physician Harley Goldberg, will support the
doctor
's innocence.
Wednesday capped a fifth day of graphic testimony in the Santa Clara County trial of Ixtlahuac, 41, a family physician
who practiced at
Kaiser
's
Gilroy
facility until he was
arrested
on the premises in May 2001. He is charged with four counts of sexual penetration and two counts of sexual battery between
fall 2000 and spring 2001.
A
Kaiser
official testified Wednesday that the facility conducted an
investigation after the first allegations surfaced in September
2000 and decided to allow Ixtlahuac to continue practicing.
If convicted of all felonies, Ixtlahuac faces 16 years in prison, said Deputy District Attorney Chuck Gillingham.
On Wednesday, Weinberg began to chip away at the testimony of one of the six women who said they were assaulted by the
doctor
.
The woman had testified that during an examination in September 2000 with Ixtlahuac, she felt ''male parts'' penetrate
her. She said she didn't say anything at the time because she was in disbelief.
Soon after, she called police.
But on Wednesday, a
Kaiser
nurse testified that the woman was never alone with the
doctor
during the examination. The nurse said she did not witness anything inappropriate while she was in the room.
After court, Weinberg said he will present further evidence regarding the measurements -- which included the length
of Ixtlahuac's erection -- that will show that what the women allege couldn't have happened.
But Gillingham said: ''As long as there has been sex, men have found ways to do the act. I think it's an absolutely
ludicrous argument that based on an inch or two, he couldn't pull this off.''