MEDICINE HAT, AB — Charges have been stayed against a Medicine Hat doctor accused of sexually assaulting a patient last year.
On the first day of the trial in Medicine Hat provincial court, crown prosecutors moved to stay charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a person with a disability against Dr. Ian Gebhardt.
The decision was made after the complainant, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, was determined to have made contradictory testimony on the stand.
The crown is able to refile the charges for one year after the charges were stayed if new evidence is brought forward.
The charges against Gebhardt were originally laid in August 2017. He suspended his practice after the charges were laid.
In order to be reinstated, Gebhardt will need to go to the College of Physicans and Surgeons of Alberta.
“There has to be some determination made, essentially, if you wish, as to whether or not a regulated member may or may not be, and the term we use is, ‘guilty of unprofessional conduct’, that’s the language in our act, and that’s the process that would start off in anything to do with a regulated member who’s been through a criminal process,” said Dr. Michael Caffaro, assistant registrar and complaints director with the College of Physicans and Surgeons of Alberta.
