Newport Beach infectious disease doctor William Thompson IV is facing criminal charges after authorities allege, he sexually assaulted nine male patients under the guise of medical examinations.
Thompson, — a 56-year-old Huntington Beach resident who specializes in treating members of the LGBTQ community — has been charged with more than a dozen felony counts, including sexual penetration by means of fraudulent representation of professional purposes, sexual battery by fraud and forcible oral copulation.
A half-dozen of Thompson’s patients reported that they had learned the procedures he performed on them were allegedly not medically necessary, and were sexual assaults, according to a news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
“Many of Dr. Thompson’s patients depended on him to provide life-saving care and he exploited those vulnerabilities for his own sexual gratification,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, because of his specialized area of practice, Dr. Thompson put the very patients he was supposed to treat with professionalism and dignity, in a situation where they may have felt they had no other choice but to be subjected to sexual abuse in order to receive the treatment they needed to continue to live.”
Thompson was arrested at his medical practice in Newport Beach on Wednesday following a joint investigation by the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Newport Beach Police Department. Along with his general practitioner services, prosecutors say Thompson is affiliated with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.
Authorities are asking anyone with additional information, or who believes they may have been a victim, to contact Newport Beach detectives at 949-644-3682 or to make an anonymous tip at 1-800-550-6273.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi has represented thousands of patients who were sexually assaulted by doctors We are the lead attorneys representing Olympic athletes and victims of former US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar and secured $890 million in settlements for our clients. We also secured nine figure settlement on behalf of patients abused by doctors at USC,UCLA and the University of Michigan. In each of these cases we have helped victims and families get justice by conducting a thorough investigation of the doctor and the hospital where he worked. In many cases we have discovered that hospital administrators and executives knew that the perpetrator was a danger to patients and either did nothing or actively covered up the crimes.
