by Staff writer
A New York City doctor has appeared in court for putting his mouth on a patient’s breast during a cancer-screening exam.
Dr Mark Jackson, 58, allegedly performed the unorthodox act on Sept. 15, 2017, while working at the Star Treatment and Recovery Center in Harlem.
“The defendant placed his mouth on her right breast and grabbed her hand and placed it on his penis and stated in sum and substance: Do you see how hard you got me?” court papers say.
Jackson was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court on two counts of sex abuse and one count of forcible touching.
Manhattan Prosecutor Matthew McCarthy said that Jackson “betrayed the trust of his patient and sexually abused her while she was seeking a simple cancer screening.”
In a previous meeting with investigators, Dr Jackson insisted he did not touch the patient with his mouth.
“I only touched her with my hands during the breast exam, ” he allegedly told prosecutors.
Dr Jackson admitted to authorities that he later called the patient at home — but only after “she wrote her number on a piece of paper, handed it to me and said call me sometime.”
“I told her I would do that.”
This wasn’t Jackson’s first brush with the law. In 1996 he was convicted of distribution of a controlled substance in Manhattan federal court and was sentenced to one year in prison.
Legal Aid lawyer Jin Wu said that Jackson is still practicing as a physician but didn’t specify where. He added that his “client denies the allegations.”
The judge ordered Jackson be held on a $1,500 bail and issued an order of protection in favor the victim.
He will reappear in court on Aug. 27.
