Physician accused of sex assault suspended

In an emergency meeting Monday, the Arizona Medical Board voted unanimously to suspend Baez's license, saying he is "an imminent threat to public health and safety."

Baez, a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist who has practiced medicine in Arizona since 2002, denies the allegations, said his Tucson attorney, David Hill.

The patient, identified only by her initials, A.C., told a medical board investigator that Baez, 40, assaulted her — forcibly kissing her and groping her breasts — on the evening of March 1, when she went to his office after hours complaining of abdominal pain.

She was "totally devastated by the actions of Dr. Baez," the patient testified by telephone to the medical board on Monday. She called the Tucson Police Department the morning after the incident, police confirmed.

Baez's license will remain suspended until the case is heard by an administrative law judge within the next 60 days. The medical board will take final action on the case after the judge issues findings and a recommendation.

"The allegations are absolutely untrue," said Hill, the doctor's attorney. "Dr. Baez is steadfast in his denial. He's a good person. All we would like is for due process so he has a reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegations and disprove them."

Baez appeared in person at the medical board's emergency meeting in Scottsdale on Monday but did not testify, citing a possible criminal investigation. He also is refusing media interviews, on his attorney's advice. The TPD report on the incident wasn't available Monday, so the status of the criminal case remains unclear.

Hill declined to speculate about why the patient would make the assault accusation. But he said she had worked part time in Baez's office "for a brief period" about a year ago. He said her work was considered "unsatisfactory," and Baez did not offer to keep her employed there.

There is no mention of that brief employment in board documents on the case. A.C. is employed at a hospital where Baez sees patients and said she met him two years ago, when she was referred to him for a digestive-tract examination, according to those documents. She told investigators she saw him again for several follow-up visits, and also occasionally at the hospital.

A.C. told the board Baez "had always been cordial, had not previously made any advances, and she was taken completely by surprise by his conduct" during her March 1 visit to the office, at 2380 N. Ferguson Ave., the documents say.

On that afternoon, A.C. said, she called Baez on his cell phone because of abdominal pain, arrived at his Midtown office after hours, after his staff was gone, and was admitted by him by the back door, according to the board's investigation.

During the encounter, Baez performed an external exam of her abdomen, while she was clothed, and agreed that she probably needed a colonoscopy. She asked him to refer her to another doctor for that procedure, "because she was uncomfortable having (Baez) perform the test since they had become acquainted through AC's employment at the hospital," board documents say.

She then asked him for samples of a heartburn drug. When he handed her the medicine, he forced her against the wall "with his hands and body," pressed his groin against her leg, grabbed her hair to force her head back, kissed her "hard on the mouth," biting her lip, tried to remove her shirt and grabbed her breasts, she told investigators.

After she objected, she said, Baez verbally attempted to coax her into a sexual encounter. When she refused, he allowed her to leave, and told her he would pay for her colonoscopy.

Baez admitted to board investigators that he had given A.C. his private cell phone number, saw her that day after hours and gave her drug samples but denied any sexual encounter, according to their report.

On the order of the medical board, Baez was evaluated at the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, where he was found to be "untruthful" and "not safe to return to work," after performing "badly" on tests and flunking a polygraph, board documents say.

Baez made another appointment at the institute "to tell them what really happened" but then canceled, the institute reported to the medical board.

"The facts . . . demonstrate that the public health, safety or welfare imperatively requires emergency action," the board concluded in the order to suspend Baez's medical license.

The medical board did not identify the hospital where A.C. works, but the Carondelet Health Network put out a press release late Thursday that said Baez had privileges to practice as a gastroenterologist at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson and Holy Cross Hospital in Nogales, Ariz. The statement said the company automatically suspends those privileges if a physician's license is suspended.

Baez earned his medical degree in 1990 from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, completed his residency in internal medicine in 1999 at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in North Carolina and completed a fellowship in gastroenterology in 2002 at the University of Texas in Galveston, according to medical board records.

He's has no previous disciplinary actions, no malpractice cases with payment and no criminal record, medical board spokesman Roger Downey said.

"Other than this suspension, he has a clean slate," Downey said.