Article - April 25, 2008 - San Jose Mercury News

Chiropractor pleads not guilty to sexual assault

By Malaika Fraley

MARTINEZ — An Antioch chiropractor pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he drugged two women and sexually assaulted one of them at his office.

Jason Goettsch, 37, is in jail on $420,000 bail after he surrendered to authorities on an arrest warrant Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Charles Burch rejected a request by the state Attorney General's Office to keep Goettsch from being a chiropractor while the case is pending, on the chance he makes bail. Burch said another judge could decide the issue at a future bail hearing.

Deputy attorney general Jonathan Cooper, representing the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners, said a hearing to suspend Goettsch's license temporarily is scheduled for May 14.

Prosecutors charged Goettsch on Monday with two counts of drugging a victim with the intent to rape and one count each of oral copulation of a drugged victim, digital penetration of a drugged victim and possession of GHB, also known as the "date rape drug."

Police said that on Feb. 21, Goettsch drugged two 27-year-old women, one of whom was his client, after he met them at a bar and took them back to his office. There, he sexually assaulted one before returning to the bar to show patrons a cell phone video of the assault, police said.

Court records show the woman who was assaulted obtained a temporary restraining order last month against Goettsch, whom she said she did not know.

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