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Doctor Arrested for Los Angeles Sexual Assault
July 22, 2008

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Los Angeles Comedian Arrested for Murrieta Sexual Battery
July 17, 2008

This is one Andy Dick act that no one is going to be laughing at. The comedian, who is as well known for his comedy routines as for his frequent brush-ins with the law, has been arrested on charges of sexual battery in the town of Murrieta, California. He allegedly groped a teenage girl outside a restaurant, after which her friends called the police.

The comedian is no stranger to controversy. His off-screen and off-stage life has actually been a series of scandals and skirmishes with the law. The man seems to derive some sort of perverse pleasure in defying the law, and offending sensibilities. Last year, he was cited in Ohio for urinating in public, and was thrown off the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live because of his offensive behavior towards Ivanka Trump who also happened to be a guest on the show. In 1999, Dick was charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine, after a car accident in which he drove his car into a telephone pole.

On Tuesday, the comedian had a run-in with cops when he was involved in a minor altercation at a sports café in Murrieta at about 9 pm. The cops noticed that he was intoxicated, and told him to either leave or he would be arrested on charges of public intoxication. Soon after, Dick arrived at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Murrieta with his entourage and proceeded to drink heavily.

The young girl who was at the restaurant with her friends approached him, after she recognized who he was, but backed off when she realized that he was intoxicated. As Dick was leaving the restaurant, he spotted the girl with her friends, and went up to her. According to the complaint that the girl filed, he groped her, and even exposed her.

When the police arrived, they forced him and his friends to line up so the girl could identify him. After the girl made identification, he was charged with sexual battery. He was also found to have marijuana and XANAX in his pocket for which he had no prescription. He has also been charged with possession of an illegal substance. There are also possibilities that he will be charged for public intoxication too.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a scene from one of his raucous acts, and it would be foolish to neglect this man’s constant flouting of the law, just because he is a famous face. We need to stop laughing at his jokes, and the girl needs to haul him to court, so he can be exposed as the diseased mind that he is. We encourage such predators when we continue to ignore their sordid behavior and raise them on a pedestal. We seriously hope the girls parents are not intimidated by his celebrity status, and are considering all possible legal means at their disposal.

Their daughter’s humiliation in public by this arrogant man has to be compensated. There’s no doubt that she is scarred by what happened. The family must not let this go unpunished.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual battery. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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Anaheim Doctor Convicted of Sexual Assault of a Minor
July 14, 2008

For Anthony Lee, it's three years in the slammer, and the loss of his much-abused medical license. For his unfortunate victim, however, it's a lifetime of scarring and endless therapy. The 64-year-old gynecologist from Anaheim, California has been convicted of sexual abuse of a teenage girl. Lee pleaded guilty to felony charges of sexual battery by fraud, as well as residential burglary by entering a home with the intention of committing sexual assault on a minor victim.

The doctor, the district attorney's public affairs counsel said, was a friend of the victim's family, and was a visitor to their home. On one such instance, Lee pretended to have arrived for a medical consultation, and offered to teach the unidentified 16-year-old girl about contraceptives. He then followed the girl upstairs to her bedroom, where he proceeded to sexually abuse her. Lee was arrested when the girl told her mother. She also said that the doctor had abused her on a prior occasion, when she was 10 or 11 years old. With her trusting parents having seen no need for caution, the girl had been also abused on one other occasion when Lee, ever the benevolent father figure, was teaching her to drive.

After this sexual abuse case broke into the news, two other women came forward to claim that the gynecologist had made sexual advances on them in his La Palma Avenue office during medical exams. Those assaults cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations on them has expired.

One wonders how many more silent victims this pervert-in-doctor's-clothing has managed to leave behind in his path. For a trusted doctor to misuse the sort of faith that his patients bestow on him is disgusting and completely shameful. All he has to pay for his despicable behavior is three paid-for-by-the-tax-payers years in the state prison, and the loss of his license. Lee will also be registered as a sex offender, which may or may not make much difference to him if he decides to move away from town, taking his sickening behavior with him. In other words, what's to say that there won't be a repeat of this case in another city halfway across the country, when he's finally out of jail in three years time?

Punishments for sexual assault on minors in this country are pitifully low. Convictions like Lee's come with great difficulty, if at all, and sentences are ridiculously light. Meanwhile, the young teenager undoubtedly will carry the burden of this experience with her for the rest of her life. For her, there will be no escaping the sense of revulsion and complete betrayal by a reputed doctor trusted by her and her family. How can three years compensate for this?

As a young victim of sexual assault, this young woman has every right to claim compensation for the limitless mental and emotional havoc wreaked on her and her family through Lee's shameful behavior. A few months behind bars is a ridiculous punishment for a crime this grave. The victim's family should, definitely consider filing a civil lawsuit against Lee for the suffering he has caused them.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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San Diego Diocese Settles Sexual Abuse Claims for $198 Million
September 11, 2007

It's been a long and arduous wait for the 144 victims of sexual abuse by priests in the San Diego Diocese. On September 8, the Diocese agreed to a $198.1 million settlement, the second highest payment in the Catholic Church sexual abuse lawsuits. The highest settlement reached to date was by the Los Angeles Diocese, which in July paid out $660 million, bringing its total payments tally to $764 million.

Emotional scenes were witnessed at the courtroom as the claimants, many of whom have been doggedly pursuing the matter since the scandal broke out in 2002, wept and hugged each other. For victims of sexual abuse by San Diego clergy, the settlement was a long time coming as Diocese authorities protested that unlike Los Angeles, the San Diego diocese did not have access to insurance cover or other assets. The Diocese claimed making payments on such a large scale would cripple all the social service programs that they had undertaken. It initially offered a $95 million payout, and filed for bankruptcy, many say to prevent the lawsuits from going to trial. But Judge Adler disagreed with these arguments, saying the proposed settlement was far lower than the average payments made nationwide to victims of clergy abuse. Judge Adler also made it clear that at least 42 of the cases could end up in court. It was this specter of the lawsuits going to trial and the embarrassment that would ensue - if more embarrassment was indeed possible in this case - that seems to have prompted the San Diego Diocese to agree to a settlement. As part of this settlement, the Diocese will also release information on other priests who are suspected of having abused children in their charge.

There's something bittersweet about this settlement. Many of the accused parish members either don't work for the church anymore or are dead. While financial compensation cannot bring back lost innocence and shattered trust, the massive amounts of money involved in such settlements will hopefully pressure the Church to introspect its own role in the scandal and implement firm measures to prevent such incidents from occurring again. The Diocese owes it to a generation of Californians, for whom church will never be a safe or comforting haven again.

If you or a family member were sexually abused as a child and wish to seek legal action against the perpetrator, it is crucial to act quickly and to retain an experienced and well-resourced attorney. Contact The Reeves Law Group immediately for a free consultation and explanation of your legal rights as a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

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