THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070561
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: 45 lines
A physician made sexually suggestive remarks to female patients, fondled a patient's breasts and exposed himself to two patients, complaints filed with the state Board of Medicine allege.
Dr. Mohamed F. Okail also called female patients at home and discussed his extramarital affairs, according to complaints from seven women.
The state licensing board will hold a hearing next month.
Warren W. Koontz, executive director of the medical board, documented the allegations against Okail in a July 23 letter he sent to the complaining patients.
Koontz also warned Okail he may have violated the law. If so, Okail could be suspended from practicing medicine or lose his license.
The Sept. 17 hearing in Fredericksburg will be closed to the public unless the board votes to open it.
Okail has denied in court papers that he did anything improper in the cases of two women who made the first complaints against him.
``This story is absolutely, 100 percent, totally false,'' Okail said Tuesday. ``I am very distraught over this. . . This is ruining an innocent man's reputation.''
Okail, a general practitioner, referred other questions to his lawyers.
His criminal lawyer, Thomas Smith, is on vacation, his office said.
Another of Okail's attorneys, Victor M. Glasberg, said he isn't involved with the substance of the women's complaints.
Koontz's letter details complaints that Okail put his hand on a woman's breasts while examining her for an ear infection in 1993, and made sexually suggestive comments to other women in and out of his Alexandria office. A copy of the letter was provided to The Journal newspapers.
Okail exposed his penis to two women, the complaints allege.
Robert A. Nebiker, deputy director of the state's Department of Health Professions, said he could not discuss the allegations.
Four years ago state regulators suspended Okail's license for 15 months in response to complaints he prescribed hundreds of unneeded doses of diet pills and maintained an inappropriate relationship with a female patient, according to state medical records.
KEYWORDS: COMPLAINT DOCTOR PHYSICIAN by CNB