PROVO — A Springville fertility specialist sentenced to 360 days in jail and two years of probation for sexually touching female patients may have his probationary license reviewed again.
A special meeting has already been planned by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing's Board of Osteopathic Licensure to discuss Larry Andrew, said board Chairman William David Voss.
"Anything decided by the board before the sentencing is preliminary in its status," Voss, a doctor of osteopathy, told the Deseret Morning News. "These decisions we make are re-evaluated on a close, periodic basis and so there can be revisions every two to four months."
The meeting follows Tuesday's sentencing, in which Andrew, a doctor of osteopathy, was sentenced to nearly a year in jail for eight class A misdemeanors of sexual battery.
He was also given a condition and warning by 4th District Court Judge Samuel McVey that he not practice fertility procedures during his two-year probation.
In August, Andrew pleaded no contest to massaging the genitals of female patients who came in for medical help with infertility. The next month, the Board of Osteopathic Licensure put Andrew's license on probation for five years.
Andrew agreed to take medical ethics courses, participate in therapy, meet with a supervisor regularly and have chaperones present during exams, according to DOPL documents.
But those conditions are not enough, one victim told the judge Tuesday.
The sobbing woman explained to McVey that there was a chaperone in the room when she was abused, but the young assistant didn't know what was happening.
"There's no excuse. There's no reason he should be able to get away with that behavior," the woman said. "We believe that doctors are in a position of trust, only doing what is best for us medically, and he totally took advantage of that trust. (I want) to make sure every future patient knows that Dr. Andrew has committed sex crimes against his patients and employees. That's the only way to protect people."
Andrew's victims felt strongly enough about the plea deal and the license not being revoked that several hired attorneys to argue that the plea hearing should be reopened so they could request a harsher deal.
However, McVey was quite clear that he wouldn't overstep the prosecutor's role and said he had already read all the victim's statements and knew their concerns.
"Victims have a right to be notified, heard, consulted, (but) ultimately it comes down to the prosecutor how they resolve the case," he said.
The victims were concerned that the plea deal reduced the severity of charges, avoided prison and would keep Andrew off the sex-offender registry.
But because defense attorneys would have presented evidence from other doctors who had approved of the massaging as a legitimate procedure, McVey and prosecutor Dave Sturgill both acknowledged the case would have been difficult to try before a jury.
"It's one of my most important goals to have the victims be satisfied and happy," Sturgill said. "It pains me that they don't see this resolution this way, but it's a good resolution and a great sentence. The state is pleased with the outcome."
Andrew spoke briefly during the hearing. "I made a lot of mistakes," Andrew said, weeping. "A lot of gross errors, a lot of judgment errors, a lot of boundary issues. I realize that I've hurt a lot of people."
He apologized to his patients, employees and family members who filled the courtroom.
"The therapy is helping," he said. "I should have gone into therapy a long time ago."
Defense attorney Ken Brown explained his client is going to therapy to finally deal with being molested as a child.
"When you look at punishment in terms of what he's gone through, he has been punished," Brown said, alluding to the intense media scrutiny, the effect on his medical practice and the financial hardships of attorney's fees. "This man is different than the Larry Andrew back when these allegations were brought."
But that doesn't constitute enough punishment, Sturgill said.
"There are certain acts, certain conduct that deserves punishment for no other reason than to simply punish the defendant," he said. "In this case, the state believes the acts were so egregious they do deserve punishment for the sake of punishment."
Sturgill asked that the judge impose a year in jail without the privileges of good time or being released on a GPS monitoring system.
"The defendant is an opportunist," he said. "He took advantage of women who were extremely vulnerable ... and used his position of special trust to mask sexually abusing his patients. This is a case where it's beyond bad judgment in the state's mind. It's beyond overextending the boundaries. This is an egregious case."
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