St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

October 11, 1987, Sunday, City Edition
Correction Appended

Doctor loses license after accusations of ‘scandalous’ sex

BYLINE: CAROL GENTRY

SECTION: METRO AND STATE; Pg. 1B

LENGTH: 785 words

DATELINE: TAMPA

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TAMPA – A Naples psychiatrist accused of performing sex acts on unconscious women and videotaping the activities has lost his license to practice medicine.

The Florida Board of Medicine ruled Saturday to revoke the license of Dr. Jose Rodriguez Lombillo, 49, after privately reviewing more than six hours of the videotapes.

Several women said Lombillo doctored their after-dinner drinks with sedatives and, when confronted later, admitted it, according to records of the Department of Professional Regulation (DPR). The women said they didn’t know what had happened to them until they saw the photos and videotapes.

The videotapes, taken in Lombillo’s home, showed him performing intercourse, oral sex and sodomy on women who were unconscious, said Bruce Lamb, attorney for DPR, the investigative arm of the board of medicine.

One of Lombillo’s attorneys, George Vega, called the tapes “shocking” and “scandalous.”

Lombillo was charged with sexual battery two years ago but was found not guilty in circuit court. It was not clear from the hearing Saturday whether the circuit court jury saw the videotapes.

Three attorneys representing Lombillo at Saturday’s hearing said that what he did in his bedroom was his business, since the women weren’t his patients.

They said that the community has rallied around Lombillo since the criminal trial, and that he still is head of psychiatry at Naples Community Hospital.

“How can this be true if Dr. Lombillo is a monster, as (DPR) has portrayed him?” asked attorney Kenneth Oertel of Tallahassee. “This whole thing’s just blown out of proportion.”

However, board member Dr. Margaret Skinner said, “Performing sexual acts on a totally unresponsive (person) is out of keeping with the character expected of a physician.”

Dr. Fuad S. Ashkar called Lombillo’s actions “an insult to the female sex.”

As an expert witness, Lombillo has testified in numerous cases. The most famous was the murder trial of Steven Benson, who was convicted last year of killing his wealthy mother and brother Scott with a pipe bomb.

A native of Cuba, Lombillo worked in the underground anti-Communist movement after Castro came to power, his attorneys said in previous hearings. Photos he took of Russian missiles and smuggled off the island were published on the cover of Life magazine, attorney Vega said.

After studying psychiatry at the famed Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., Lombillo moved to Naples in 1969 as director of the Collier County Mental Health Clinic. He later went into private practice.

According to Vega, Lombillo’s marriage fell apart and he was given custody of their three children, now in their teens or 20s.

“Following his divorce, (Lombillo) concluded that by marrying at a young age, he had perhaps missed out on much of life and decided to try a more libidinous lifestyle,” wrote K.N. Ayers, a state hearing officer who reviewed the case and made a recommendation to the board of medicine.

In a letter to Ayers, who conducted a hearing several months ago, one of the women wrote that she was humiliated to have pictures of her nude displayed at the hearing but that it was worth it “to rectify this horrible atrocity.” Another woman said in a deposition that Lombillo tried to use the photos and tapes to keep her from testifying against him.

The board deemed Ayers’ recommendation – suspension of Lombillo’s license for two years and five years of probation – was too mild.

The unconscious women Lombillo had sex with could have died from airway obstruction because they were in such “unusual positions,” said Dr. Ashkar.

One woman was so deeply unconscious, said Dr. Kathryn Stuart, that “she did not respond to what should have been an extreme level of pain.”

Said Dr. Skinner, “It doesn’t matter if the person on that bed was his patient or not, that person was in clear and imminent danger.”

In other action Saturday, the board placed Pasco family doctor Robb E. Ross on one year of probation and fined him $ 2,000 after he was accused of prescribing amphetamines inappropriately to three patients.