Doctor faces numerous additional sex charges

CLINTON, Conn. (AP) -- A Glastonbury doctor was arraigned Monday on 25 more sexual assault charges as the investigation into his alleged inappropriate touching of patients widened.

Dr. Tory Westbrook, 43, appeared in Middletown Superior Court a day after turning himself in on the new charges and posting $1.1 million bail. The new charges include one count of felony second-degree assault, 24 counts of misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault and a charge of illegally prescribing a narcotic. He's due back in court Aug. 28.

Details of the new charges weren't released, but all the arrest warrants in the case are due to be unsealed Aug. 14. Westbrook was first arrested on June 5 on several sexual assault charges involving three patients at the Community Health Center in Clinton. Police say the alleged crimes occurred between 2010 and January of this year.

Westbrook denies all the charges. His lawyer, Norman Pattis, said his client is innocent and that "copycats" may now be targeting Westbrook for money.

"We think he's a good doctor. We don't think there's credible evidence that he's harmed anyone," Pattis said.

Westbrook, husband of state Superior Court Judge Dawne Westbrook, left the Clinton clinic in February and is now on administrative leave from his new job as medical director of the Charter Oak Health Center in Hartford. The allegations led the state Medical Examining Board to suspend his medical license last month.

Pattis said outside court Monday that Westbrook's case reminded him of the McMartin preschool case in California, The Hartford Courant reported. That case, in Manhattan Beach Calif., led to the longest and costliest criminal prosecution in U.S. history — but no convictions.

The preschool became the focus of a child abuse investigation in 1983 when a mother later diagnosed as mentally ill told police she suspected her 2 ½-year-old son had been molested. In the months that followed, allegations were made that teachers at the school had molested dozens of children, often during bizarre rituals. Several school officials and teachers were arrested.

But by 1990, all the defendants were acquitted or saw their charges dismissed. The entire case lasted seven years and cost Los Angeles County $13 million.