Closing arguments in chiropractor's trial

Published: 2011-06-10 09:24:07
Author: The Desert Sun | June 9, 2011

Jurors are expected today to begin deliberating the fate of a Coachella Valley chiropractor accused of sexually assaulting female patients under the guise of medical examinations.

Stuart Greenwood is charged with two felony counts of sexual penetration by fraudulent representation, three felony counts of sexual battery under unlawful restraint and three misdemeanors counts of sexual battery.

All charges involve acts that allegedly occurred at his Indio office over a three-year span.

Attorneys gave their closings arguments Wednesday afternoon at the courthouse in Palm Springs.

Deputy District Attorney Bridget Rodarte is expected to give her rebuttal to the defense's closing this morning, with jury deliberations to follow.

Rodarte alleges that Greenwood touched the women — who came to him seeking treatment for back, shoulder and neck problems — under the guise of providing a gynecological examination, after telling them a yeast infection was the source of their pain.

Greenwood, 61, is accused of sexually assaulting the female patients — who ranged in age from their 20s to their 60s — between February 2005 and November 2008.

One of the women testified that she went to Greenwood's office in November 2007, suffering from severe back pain.

She said the doctor first felt her back and then her stomach to check for pain.

Standing in front of the woman, he then asked “May I?” and ran his hands up from between her thighs to her genital area, she testified.

‘He said it was routine'

The witness said she thought Greenwood was going to press her stomach again.

“It just felt wrong, I didn't think it was right,” she said. “I didn't know what a chiropractor did I believed him because he was a doctor.”

She said Greenwood, who labeled himself as a “holistic” chiropractor, connected her problems to a yeast infection.

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