Friday, March 14, 2003
By Zeb Carabello

SAN JOSE - Deputy District Attorney Chuck Gillingham has decided to take a
second attempt at convicting a Gilroy doctor accused of sexually assaulting
five female patients during pelvic exams.

Dr. Raul Ixtlahuac, who practiced as a family physician for nearly 12 years
at Kaiser Permanente's Gilroy offices at 7120 Arroyo Circle, was acquitted
Tuesday on one of six counts of sexual assault, but a jury of eight men and
four woman couldn't reach an unanimous decision on the five other charges.

"After speaking with the victims I've made the decision to retry,"
Gillingham said.

Gillingham also said that he had been contacted by another alleged sexual
assault victims of Ixtlahuac's during the doctor's recent trial, although he
is still trying to decide whether to charge Ixtlahuac with the woman's
claims.

"She could be another victim very similar to the penetration victims,"
Gillingham said. "We're just looking into it now."

Ixtlahuac's defense attorney Doron Weinberg could not be reached for comment
this morning, but following the Tuesday verdict he said that he questions
the claims of any alleged victim who came forward after reading about the
doctor's trial in the newspaper.

Ixtlahuac, 41, will be facing more than 10 years of prison time for four
counts of alleged felony penetration with a foreign object and one count of
alleged felony sexual battery for instances occurring between the fall of
2000 and spring of 2001.

Throughout the previous trial, four alleged victims of Ixtlahuac's testified
the doctor penetrated them with his penis during pelvic examinations, and
two woman claimed he rubbed them in a sexual manner with his fingers. The
doctor was found innocent of one of the latter counts. The jury voted 10-2
in favor of guilty on two counts of penetration and 9-3 in favor of guilty
on the other three charges, Gillingham said.

During all the examinations the women were separated from the doctor by a
large drape hanging over their abdomen which obstructed their view of him.

The case against the doctor will now go back to the Superior Court system in
San Jose with a date of March 26 set for preliminary discussions, but the
next trial could be months away, Gillingham said.