BECKLEY – More than 40 patients at the Beckley Veterans Affairs Medical Center have filed civil lawsuits against the federal government after a former doctor there sexually abused them during medical appointments.
The 44 lawsuits have been filed this week in U.S. District Court against the United States. All of the complaints detail allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Dr. Jonathan Yates, who pleaded guilty in September to three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law.
Yates, 51, could face up to 30 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines. His sentencing is scheduled for January 4. Yates also has agreed to surrender his medical license, and the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine also has barred him from practicing medicine.
Yates
The 44 civil complaints accuse the VA of medical malpractice and negligence in hiring practices. They also allege other VAMC employees knew of Yates’ behavior and did nothing about it.
Steve New, one of the attorneys representing the 44 veterans who already have filed complaints, said more lawsuits will be coming.
“There are going to be at least five more from my firm, and there probably is a half dozen or so from some other firms,” New told The West Virginia Record. “I’d estimate somewhere between 50 and 60 total cases when it’s all said and done.
“These veterans deserve better. The deserved a government-operated health care system that doesn’t use doctors like Dr. Yates. He should never have been allowed to go work for the V.A. Medical Center.”
New said Yates had a history of similar incidents at Bluefield Regional Medical Center before he started at the Beckley VAMC.
“There was action against him in Mercer County,” said New, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard who retired as a major. “The VA didn’t adequately investigate his background. And once he’s there, a lot of these gentlemen he treated were with other doctors. They’d reveal to these therapists and other doctors what Yates had done. Yet, he was just allowed to continue to practice.
“Yates should never have been made a part of the Medical staff at the Beckley VA Medical Center. Several of these victims were themselves Beckley VA employees. They were going to their superiors and telling them about this mistreatment, and they were told to keep quiet about it.
“As soon as it happened, instead of trying to keep a lid on it, this should have been investigated fully.”
Each of the complaints provide the military service background of the individual plaintiffs and some information about Yates and the Beckley VAMC. None of the plaintiffs are named in the complaints. They are referred to as John Does numbers 1-44.
According to the complaints, the Beckley VAMC started a new program called Whole Health in July 2018 offering health and wellness services. Yates was part of the program.
Each complaint details how Yates allegedly conducted examinations of the patients. They say Yates would seek and contact potential patients through social media or by obtaining their cell phone numbers through medical records.
They claim Yates would divulge personal information about himself and his family to patients during their examinations. They say the exams were performed without respect for the patients’ privacy and did not explain the treatments he administered. They say he also conducted the sensitive exams without a chaperone.
“During treatments, Dr. Yates would commonly express a need to examine patients’ genitals, groin area or rectal area despite claims of pain in their neck, back, leg or other non-private area of the body,” the complaints state. “Dr. Yates would routinely unnecessarily digitally penetrate patients’ rectums and/or probe their genital areas without any medical explanation or consent, causing pain, embarrassment, confusion and frustration.”
They claim Yates would make inaccurate entries into medical records to justify such exams.
The plaintiffs say other VAMC staff members were told of Yates’ actions, including Beckley VAMC Director Stacy Vasquez. Online complaint forms also were used, and one patient finally went to the news media with the allegations.
The first complaint describes one man’s “first and last appointment” with Yates for hip and shoulder injuries.
“Dr. Yates began his examination of John Doe #1 without exam gloves on,” the complaint states. “Dr. Yates then began to examine John Doe #1’s hip, and asked him to pull his pants down to his knees. As Dr. Yates continued his examination, he pulled John Doe #1’s underwear down to his knees as well. Dr. Yates continued to feel around John Doe #1’s inner hip near his penis and testicles with the back of his hand.
“After five minutes of this examination, Dr. Yates leaned over John Doe #1, put his hands on his shoulders and said John Doe #1 could hold his shoulders to help him up. John Doe #1 declined and indicated he could get up on his own.
“Dr. Yates sat in a chair on the left side of the room and told John Doe #1 to take his pants completely off so he could watch him walk back and forth. John Doe #1 moved to pull his underwear back up, and Dr. Yates told him to leave them down so he could see the bone movement.
“Dr. Yates leaned forward to eye-level with John Doe #1’s genitals and watched him walk back and forth twice. Dr. Yates then asked John Doe #1 to stand in front of him and started to feel around his private area with the back of his hand, pushing his penis and testicles around.”
The plaintiff says he asked if something was wrong or if the doctor felt something because of the amount of time he spent touching his genitals.
“Dr. Yates responded that watching John Doe #1 walk back and forth reminded him of his college fraternity initiation and explained that the initiation involved walking naked across a room and picking something up with his butt cheeks to carry it across the room,” the complaint continues, saying Yates said he was checking for a hernia before asking the patient to lie face down on the exam table.
Yates told the patient he wanted to try acupuncture to help the patient obtain relief from the chronic pain in his hips and shoulders. That included needles in the neck and shoulder area as well as some in the lower back, hip and right butt cheek. Yates also used a tens unit. The plaintiff says both the needles and tens unit caused pain.
He says Yates then put oil on his bare hands and began to rub the areas where he had placed the needles.
“Dr. Yates first rubbed John Doe #1’s butt where the needles had been, but then started to play with his butt cheek,” the complaint states. “Dr. Yates then began rubbing both butt cheeks and spreading them apart so he could see his anus.”
That’s when the plaintiff told Yates to stop and that he was done. He got up and put on his clothes. He said Yates wrote three prescriptions for sexually transmitted disease, which he says he doesn’t have. He says that caused difficulties in his marriage.
The plaintiff told the receptionist he wasn’t coming back and to remove him from the patient list. Two days later, the receptionist did call and ask him to come back, but he told the receptionist he didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
He says he also told his mental health provider and his primary care physician at the Beckley VAMC about the incident.
The complaints accuse the federal government of negligence in hiring, supervising and training Yates, who breached his duty of care and the standard of care.
The plaintiffs say they have suffered injuries and damages such as medical costs, emotional distress, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of dignity.
They seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief. They are being represented by New and Amanda Taylor of The Law Office of Stephen P. New in Beckley.
Although it didn’t do so during the six-month investigation into these allegations, New said he expects the federal government to step up.
“I expect that the United States will do the right thing and compensate these veterans fully for what they’ve been through,” he told The Record.