Article - March 29, 2008 - Youngstown Vindicator

Chiropractor found guilty
The jury deliberated 10 hours before reaching a mixed verdict

By Peter H. Milliken

YOUNGSTOWN — An assistant Mahoning County prosecutor is calling for maximum consecutive sentences totaling 48 years in prison for Dr. Gregory S. Dew, the former Boardman chiropractor convicted of rape and other sex crimes.

“He took advantage of his position as a chiropractor and sexually abused his patients,” explained Natasha K. Frenchko, assistant prosecutor. The victims of his earlier offenses, committed while he was a gymnastics coach, were minors who were his students, she added.

“He’s talked his way out of things his entire life, and he thought he would be able to get away with this as well by trying to justify every bad thing that he has done,” Frenchko said.

After about 10 hours of deliberations, a seven-man, five-woman jury convicted Dr. Dew of four counts of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of corruption of a minor.

The jury delivered its verdicts early Friday evening to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who presided over the weeklong trial.

“We will ask the court to be merciful,” said the defense lawyer, Elizabeth Kelley of Cleveland. Noting that Dr. Dew has no prior criminal record, Kelley called for the minimum prison sentence, which would be three years if all prison terms would be concurrent at the low end of the available range. She also said her client plans to appeal.

After the verdicts were read, the judge revoked Dr. Dew’s bail, and Dr. Dew was immediately handcuffed by a deputy sheriff and taken to Mahoning County Jail to await his noon Monday sentencing.

Dr. Dew, 46, of Kelly Park Road, Columbiana, was convicted of only seven counts out of the 23 he was charged with in two indictments.

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