The Boston Globe
Psychiatrist sentenced for fondling patients
By William F. Doherty
March 25, 1998
A Duxbury psychiatrist who was the admitting physician for patients at Pembroke Hospital was sentenced in Plymouth County Superior Court yesterday for fondling three young patients in 1994 and 1995.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara ordered Antonio DeGuzman, 43, to serve a three- to four-year prison sentence, followed by 15 years probation.
At the hearing yesterday, the mother of one of the boys gave an emotional statement before the sentence was imposed. She told DeGuzman that he had betrayed her trust and that of her son.
The woman said that after he was released from the psychiatric hospital, her son complained about DeGuzman\’s examinations during the boy\’s outpatient visits. As tears welled in her eyes, the mother said she mistakenly assured her son, \”That\’s what doctors do,\” and told him to continue seeing DeGuzman.
\”I will never forgive you for what you did. I trusted you,\” the woman told DeGuzman.
Plymouth prosecutor Geline Williams said the patients, ages 15, 18, and 22 at the time, each testified that DeGuzman groped or fondled him several times.
One South Boston man, now 19, testified that he began treatment with DeGuzman after a suicide attempt at age 12. He said DeGuzman gave him physical examinations that included inspecting and fondling his genitals.
Williams recommended the doctor serve a 5- to 10-year sentence.
\”It is disgusting and repugnant what this man did,\” Williams said. \”These were kids who went to him when they were the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.\”
\”Sexual assaults against young people are bad enough,\” Williams said. \”But when that person is a physician in a white coat with a stethoscope, it is very hard to understand that he is a devil in disguise.\”
DeGuzman, who specialized in adolescent psychiatry, has been in custody since Friday, when a jury convicted him of indecent assault and battery. He was acquitted on child rape charges and sexual assault on two other patients.
His lawyer, Kevin Reddington, maintained DeGuzman was performing routine physical examinations. The defense claimed most of the exams were performed at the time the youths were admitted to the hospital, as required by law.
DeGuzman, who did not testify at the trial, said he checked in some cases for hernia, swollen lymph nodes, and drug abuse; three of the four former patients who testified said they had thought the exams were medical and necessary.
After the allegations came to light, DeGuzman resigned from the hospital and agreed not to practice.