Dr. Jack Levine (Photo courtesy of the Shelbyville Daily Union)
CHARLESTON – Along with pending civil cases in West Virginia and Illinois, a former Mason County physician now faces criminal charges in Ohio, according to police and media reports.
According to the Chillicothe Gazette, Dr. Jack M. Levine was arrested and charged on Wednesday, Dec. 19 with one count of sexual imposition. Levine's arrest, according to the Gazette, was a result of a joint investigation conducted by the Pike County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Medical Board.
According to an incident report the Sheriff's Office released to the media, the investigation was launched on Nov. 30. It was apparently a result of information one patient provided to investigators about related incidents at the Pike Community Hospital in Waverly where Levine now practices medicine.
According to the report, the woman who provided the tip was keeping a scheduled appointment with Levine. The woman, who is unidentified, is a cancer patient who was seeking treatment from Levine for an addiction to prescription pain medication.
Upon approaching Levine's office, the report states, the woman encountered another woman leaving the office. The second woman, who also is unidentified, reportedly said Levine's "nothing but a sex addict."
The report goes on to say that Levine had "unwanted sexual contact" with the cancer patient during a later visit.
According to WBNS-TV 10 in Columbus, the cancer patient has cooperated with authorities Information she provided was enough for the Sheriff's deputies to not only arrest Levine, but also execute a search warrant on both his office and two residences in Waverly.
After he was arraigned on the sexual imposition charge, Levine was released on bond.
In Ohio, sexual imposition is a third-degree misdemeanor, and is punishable by up to 60 days and jail, and a $500 fine.
WBNS attempted to obtain a comment from Levine by visiting both his residences, and office on Dec. 21. Efforts were unsuccessful as nobody answered the door at either residence, and his office was closed.
However, Craig Solle, PCH president, told WBNS that Levine was out-of-town on a "previously scheduled vacation." Also, Solle said Levine will remain on staff of the hospital until the outcome of the case.
"You don't change a qualified surgeon's status based solely on an accusation," Solle said.
Nevertheless, according to WBNS, a judge ordered that Levine be accompanied by a member of his staff anytime he sees a female patient.
The West Virginia Record attempted to obtain a comment from Barry M. Taylor, with the Huntington law firm of Jenkins Fenstermaker, who is representing Levine in a pending malpractice case in Mason Circuit Court. Taylor did not return repeated telephone calls.
In that case, Ralph A. Barcus, of Gallipolis, Ohio, alleges that he suffered from chest pains as a direct result of pieces of a catheter Levine left in his chest. According to court records, Levine first inserted the catheter in November 1999, and removed it in May 2001.
Along with the malpractice case in Mason County, Levine remains a respondent-in-discovery in a wrongful-death suit in Shelby Circuit Court in Shelbyville, Ill. In that case, Penny Shasteen alleges Dr. Arnold V. Agapito, Shelby Memorial Hospital and the Shelby Area Ambulance Service contributed to the death of her mother, Donna Ogilvie, in 2005 when they failed to properly provide her care following complications resulting from a colonoscopy.
Though court records show Levine as the one who performed the colonoscopy, at this point he is not being held negligent in Ogilvie's death. Instead, Shasteen is asking that Levine answer all discovery requests, and be available for deposition as the other defendants.
Pike, Ohio County Court, Case No. 07-CRB-1035