Published: March 13, 2009 11:26 pm      

Former area doctor charged in assaults

A former Johnstown doctor who was acquitted in Cambria County court of sexually molesting a teenaged boy in 1998 now has been charged with sexually assaulting three male patients, including a 15-year-old, at his medical practice in Tennessee.

Dr. Rodney Carter, a general practitioner in Sevierville, Tenn., was arrested after a grand jury indictment was unsealed this week.

He is accused of sexually assaulting three male patients – ages 15, 19 and 28 – and touching them inappropriately, The (Sevierville) Mountain Press reported.

One incident took place in June 2007 and the others in January and February 2008.

Carter, 50, is charged with three counts of rape and three counts of aggravated sexual battery. He was released after posting $200,000 bond.

Sevierville police became aware of the allegations after one of Carter’s former patients told his new doctor what had happened and that doctor reported it to authorities.

Carter was a third-year medical resident at Memorial Medical Center in 1998 when he was charged with sexually molesting a 16-year-old boy while treating the youth for a sore throat at a clinic in Nanty Glo.

Carter was suspended immediately by the hospital. He left Johnstown after his trial here.

The Mountain Press reported that Carter had set up a practice in Sevier County, Tenn., in 1998.

At his nonjury trial in Cambria County, Carter was acquitted by Judge Gerard Long after testifying that while treating the boy’s throat, he had examined him for evidence of a sexually transmitted disease. The boy testified that the doctor had touched him inappropriately.

In a second case here, District Justice Leonard Grecek threw out charges that Carter had sexually assaulted a 28-year-old man during a physical exam.

Two other doctors who testified for the defense at the preliminary hearing said that Carter had acted appropriately when he gave the man a complete physical exam, including the rectum and genital area.