Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The case was in limbo for eight years after the doctor, charged with sexual battery, fled to China. His accuser was unwilling to testify.
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 17, 2000
NEW PORT RICHEY -- The charges leveled against Dr. Robert C. Yang by a 23-year-old female assistant in 1992 were explosive. As treatment for a cold and a cigarette habit, Yang coaxed her into submitting to acupuncture treatment at his Port Richey clinic, she told police, then raped her while she lay immobilized by the needles.
Charged with sexual battery, Yang fled to his native China, leaving the case in limbo for years. Eight years after the reported attack, with Yang back in custody at the Land O'Lakes jail, the case was finally slotted for trial next week.
But with the prosecution's case hobbled by the victim's unwillingness to testify, it ended quietly at the West Pasco courthouse Friday. Yang, 56, pleaded no contest to a lesser count of aggravated assault, and Judge Craig Villanti sentenced him to time he has already served -- 44 months -- along with a year's probation.
"He'll be a free man," Pasco prosecutor Mike Halkitis told the Times. "Her allegations, I believe, are truthful. It's just the case is extremely weak without a cooperating victim."
Pointing to the psychological trauma a trial might entail, the victim begged to have the charges dropped, according to Halkitis. "I told her lawyer, "I'm not dropping the charges,' " Halkitis said. But he added that he didn't like the thought of forcing the victim to testify either. "So we're between a rock and a hard place."
Halkitis said the victim received a $30,000 civil settlement from Yang. The victim's lawyer, Terry Brocklehurst, declined to discuss the case.
According to the victim, Yang put needles in her back and neck, then fondled her breasts under the pretext that he was checking for fluid in her lungs. Then, she claimed, he put needles in her arms and legs, and she could not escape the sexual attack without the needles sinking further into her skin.
If the case had gone to trial, Yang's defense attorney, Keith Hammond, planned to call an expert to challenge the contention that acupuncture needles immobilize a person who wants to get away. Hammond could not be reached for comment Friday.
According to Yang's arrest affidavit, the victim had bruises on her inner thighs after the attack, and Yang later made incriminating remarks during a tape-recorded conversation with her.
Yang became a fugitive in 1994 when he missed mandatory court appearances in the rape case. Armed with an indictment against him on unrelated charges of Medicaid fraud, federal authorities found him in Hong Kong in 1997 and returned him to the United States. He is currently on probation after pleading guilty to one of the fraud charges.
State regulators restricted Yang's license to practice in July 1992, accusing him of having sexual contact with six female patients. State records now list his license as being "null and void."
Should he reapply for a license, he will be required to answer whether he has ever been convicted of a felony, though answering yes does not necessarily disqualify an applicant, said Health Department spokesman Bill Parizek.
-- Christopher Goffard covers courts in west Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6236. His e-mail address is goffard@sptimes.com.