UPPER EAST SIDE — A top-ranked doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital has been charged by police with two counts of sexual assault after masturbating on one female patient and fondling another, the NYPD said.
Dr. David Newman, the former Director of Clinical Research at the hospital’s emergency department, turned himself into the Manhattan Special Victims Unit at noon Tuesday and was charged with sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman at Mount Sinai on Sept. 21 as well as a 29-year-old woman he had drugged into a groggy state on Jan. 12, police said.
Investigators learned about the incidents last week, when the most recent patient alerted the NYPD Special Victims Unit following her horrifying interaction with Newman, sources said.
The woman, who went into the hospital seeking help with a pain in her shoulder, said she was ushered into a windowless room where a nurse administered a shot of morphine, which left her groggy, according to police sources.
She was told to change out of her clothes and into a hospital gown, in order for an X-ray to be taken, she said. After a technician took her X-ray photos, Newman entered the room and told her he was going to give her a shot of morphine, even though she told him she had already been given one.
She said she felt a burning pain in her arm similar to the one when the morphine was first administered, and said Newman began fondling her chest, sources said. As she moved in and out of grogginess, she said Newman moved the examination bed and began to masturbate over her, wiped her with a blanket and moved the bed back to its original position.
When she woke up from her morphine daze, she said she went into the bathroom, where she saved her stained gown as evidence, then returned to the examination room where she notified a new doctor who came in to check on her, sources said.
The doctor asked if she wanted to call police, but added that Newman was his supervisor, sources said.
The woman left the hospital and notified police, presenting her gown as evidence, sources said. During the investigation, a second victim stepped forward to describe a similar experience, police said.
Newman was arraigned Tuesday on charges of sexual abuse and forcible touching and ordered held on $150,000 bail, which had not been posted as of 6 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Department of Correction records.
He is due back in court on Feb. 23.
In a statement released Tuesday, Mount Sinai said Newman has been suspended from the hospital “pending the outcome of the investigation.”
“He has not provided care to patients at Mount Sinai since the investigation began,” the statement read. “We take the nature of these allegations very seriously and continue to conduct our own extensive internal inquiry.”
