Article - April 29, 2008 - Sacramento Bee

No action taken on chiropractor's DUIs
Antioch man now accused of drugging two women, assaulting one

By John Hill

The California board that polices chiropractors knew that one of its licensees had a drinking problem that had led to three convictions for drinking and driving. But it took no action – until it learned he had been accused of something much more serious.

Jason Phillip Goettsch of Antioch now stands accused of drugging two women in a bar in February and sexually assaulting one of them after taking them to his chiropractic office. He turned himself in Thursday.

Well before the alleged assault, the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners had heard that Goettsch's drinking was running afoul of the law. It got official notice in 2006, and again in 2007, that he had been convicted of drunken driving.

Drunken driving is grounds for disciplining chiropractors and other health care professionals, including taking away their licenses.

But the board took no action after getting notice of the 2006 offense, reasoning that it was Goettsch's first, executive director Brian Stiger said. Goettsch had been convicted in 1998 of alcohol- related reckless driving, but that was not technically a drunken driving conviction and occurred before he became a chiropractor.

After the 2007 conviction, the board normally would have moved to discipline Goettsch, Stiger said. But by that time, its budget had been cut in half by lawmakers unhappy with a series of legally questionable actions last year.

With a depleted staff, Stiger said, the board could only go after chiropractors accused of harming patients – and so put the Goettsch case on hold.

"I would say, based on what I have seen in the files, that the board acted reasonably," Stiger said.

The case is another example of spotty discipline at the chiropractic board, said Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth, administrative director of the Center for Public Interest Law, part of the University of San Diego School of Law. The center monitors state licensing boards.

"This is a pretty egregious case," Fellmeth said. "They should have gone after this guy before this."

The Bee reported earlier this year that the board allowed a Los Angeles chiropractor to keep practicing for two years after it got notice that he had been accused of rape. It acted only after four more victims – three patients and one job applicant – reported that they had been sexually abused.

State Auditor Elaine Howle issued a report last month finding that the board had failed to aggressively pursue wayward practitioners and that delays could have allowed chiropractors accused of fraud or sexual abuse to continue to endanger the public.

Goettsch's most recent run-in with the law began when the chiropractor ran into a patient and her cousin at a bar in February, Antioch police Sgt. Diane Aguinaga said.

He is accused of drugging the two women with the "date rape" drug known as GHB and taking them to his chiropractic office, where police say he sexually assaulted one of them.

At some point, according to police, Goettsch was dragging the victim to his car after the assault when an Antioch police officer happened to see him and intervened. The woman was taken to the hospital, and Goettsch was jailed for an outstanding warrant related to one of the drunken driving cases, Aguinaga said.

The woman's blood was tested for the date rape drug, but before the results came in, Goettsch had been released from jail. Police believed he he had fled, but the chiropractor turned himself in on Thursday.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of oral copulation, digital penetration, administering a drug with the intent to commit a sexual act and possession of a controlled substance, said his attorney, Dirk Manoukian.

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