Judge finds probable cause in veteran molestation case

BECKLEY – A federal magistrate ruled Tuesday that there was probable cause in the case of a doctor who formerly worked for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Beckley and was charged in a criminal complaint which included sexually molesting a veteran.

Dr. Jonathan Yates, 51, of Bluefield, Va., appeared via videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn for a preliminary hearing. After hearing arguments from the federal government’s attorney and defense attorney Ward Morgan, who is representing Yates, Aboulhosn ruled that there was probable cause.

According to the criminal complaint, while working at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in February 2019, Yates examined a male patient identified as Veteran 1, and during the examination, Yates sexually molested the veteran. Yates caused Veteran 1 severe pain and numbness, and temporarily incapacitated him by cracking his neck, after Veteran 1 had explicitly requested Yates not to crack his neck.

While Veteran 1 was incapacitated, Yates sexually molested Veteran 1, according to the complaint. This conduct, performed while Yates was acting under color of law in his capacity as a federal employee at the VAMC, deprived Veteran 1 of his constitutional right to bodily integrity.
Deprivation of rights under color of law, as charged in the complaint, is punishable by up to life in prison.

Special Agent Georgia Marshall of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who is assigned to the Huntington resident agency out of the bureau’s Pittsburgh division, testified at Tuesday’s hearing that the nature of the complaint was “inappropriate contact of a sexual nature during a medical appointment.”

Veteran 1 had sought a referral for massage therapy to address complaints including chronic back pain and pains in his hips, fingers and toes. Marshall said the veteran told Yates not to touch his neck because it was particularly sensitive. The incident took place in an examination room, and Yates and Veteran 1 were the only people there at that time.

Marshall said that the veteran told FBI investigators that Yates started by massaging his chest hair, but then commented about the amount of hair on his chest and called him “a real man.” She also testified that the Veteran said that Yates stated that it was normal to get “sexual arousal” during such appointments, and that Yates did not stop when Veteran 1 asked him to do so. During the examination, Yates touched Veteran 1’s genitalia, she stated.

During the incident, Yates performed a “neck crack” on Veteran 1 without warning him that he was about to do it, she told the court.

“He said that he experienced pain and numbness throughout his body and could not move,” Marshall testified. Yates then rolled the veteran onto his stomach without permission. At one point, Yates slapped Veteran 1’s backside.

Marshall said investigators consulted another osteopathic physician who said it is possible to immobilize a person with a neck crack if that person’s neck is particularly sensitive. The doctor the FBI consulted also stated there was “no medical reason” to touch Veteran 1’s genitalia.

“It ended with Dr.Yates hugging the veteran,” Marshall said.

Attorney Ward Morgan, who is representing Yates, asked if his client had made any statement during the FBI’s investigation. Marshall replied that to the best of her knowledge, he had not.

In the complaint, Veteran 1 said the examination room’s door was locked. Morgan asked Agent Marshall if she had ever visited the room and knew what sort of lock was on the door. She replied that she had not been there.

“The only proof you have that the door was locked comes from Veteran 1,” Morgan said.

“Yes, sir,” Marshall replied.

Morgan then asked Marshall what specific constitutional or statutory right investigators contend that Dr. Yates deprived Veteran 1 of. Marshall said it was “freedom of movement,” because he was unable to move and could not stop Dr. Yates from turning him over.

In his summation, Morgan argued that touching Veteran 1’s genitalia during the examination was “incidental” and that there was no evidence that he was incapacitated, and that he could have left at any point. He also argues that his client’s actions had not been shown to be a “willful deprivation of any right.”

Aboulhosn ruled that the case had probable cause. Yates is currently free on a $10,000 unsecured bond, but is under home confinement.

The hearing was conducted via teleconference due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has called for a congressional hearing about the case.

“I am absolutely disgusted to learn new details about a medical professional abusing Veterans at the Beckley VA Medical Center,” Manchin said. “It is unthinkable that someone in a position of power would exploit our brave veterans and I am glad the FBI acted to remove this former doctor and deliver justice for those who were abused. Our Veterans Affairs facilities should be places of comfort and world-class care. As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, I am going to demand a hearing to uncover how this abuse went undetected for so long.”

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Judge finds probable cause in veteran molestation case

Former Veterans Affairs doctor in W.Va. accused of incapacitating, molesting patient

BECKLEY, W.Va. (WHSV) — A doctor who formerly worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Beckley, West Virginia, has been charged with depriving a veteran of his civil rights under the color of law.

Dr. Jonathan Yates, 51, was arrested on Thursday at his home by Special Agents of the FBI and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, with the assistance of the Bluefield, Virginia Police Department.

That's according to the Department of Justice.

Federal prosecutors say the charge stems from an incident that happened while Dr. Yates was working at the VA in February 2019.

According to a criminal complaint, Yates sexually molested a patient during an exam.

The complaint says Yates also caused the veteran he was examining severe pain and numbness and temporarily incapacitated him by cracking the patient's neck after the patient explicitly requested him not to do so.

The complaint says while the patient was incapacitated, Yates sexually molested him again.

The alleged conduct, performed while Dr. Yates was acting under color of law as a federal employee at the VAMC, deprived the victim of his constitutional right to bodily integrity, the Department of Justice says.

That charge is punishable by up to life in prison.

Dr. Yates will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn on Thursday.

Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, U.S. Attorney Michael B. Stuart for the Southern District of West Virginia, FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel, and Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael J. Missal announced the charge.

The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5342).

The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Veterans Affairs Police Department. The U.S. Attorney’s Office sought immediate detention in this matter. The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Samantha Trepel and Trial Attorney Kyle Boynton of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg McVey of the Southern District of West Virginia.

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Former Veterans Affairs doctor in W.Va. accused of incapacitating, molesting patient

VA Still Arbitrarily Cutting Caregivers From Program, Even As It Aims To Expand

Ret. Sgt. Chris Kurtz and his wife Heather Kurtz pose for a portrait on the couch in their living room.

Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR

Chris Kurtz is trying to keep his sense of humor. Even after the VA told him last summer that he no longer needs a caregiver.

"Apparently my legs grew back, I dunno," he says with a laugh, and sinks into his couch in Clarksville, Tenn. And then he mentions that he probably can't get out of the couch without help from his wife.

In December 2010, a bomb blast ended his Army deployment to Afghanistan. He lost both legs above the knee and half of his left hand. Heather, then his fiancée, joined him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the VA suggested she apply for their new caregiver program.

The program was set up to support family members of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. They're mostly wives and mothers who receive a VA stipend to provide home health care that would otherwise cost the VA millions of dollars.

When it started in 2011, vets signed up in huge numbers, quickly overwhelming the VA staff assigned to the program.

In recent years many VAs have drastically cut their rolls — often with little explanation to the caregivers.

Top, Ret. Sgt. Chris Kurtz waits for his chair after arriving home. Bottom left, Kurtz wheels himself up to his front door as his wife and caretaker Heather Kurtz follows behind. Bottom right, Kurtz rests his hand, which is missing fingers from his injury. Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

The cuts come at a time the program is supposed to be growing. Congress approved a major expansion of the program in May, though implementation could take years.

Congressional sources confirmed that the VA has missed its first deadline in October to implement new information technology for the caregiver expansion — raising serious concerns of further delay. VA says the department will not deploy the new system until it is ready and has been tested thoroughly
.
But VA also recently blew through a deadline to fix the IT for a new GI bill rule, and did so without initially telling Congress about the delay.

Jillyan Motter holds her younger brother Gabriel Kurtz.

Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

Chris and Heather Kurtz had been getting the highest level of support — Tier 3. That meant a stipend, health care for Heather and quarterly visits from a nurse. But earlier this year, Heather Kurtz was told her standing in the program was being evaluated. And without anyone from the VA even coming to see them, the Kurtzes got dropped in July.

Not reduced to a lower tier, but simply told that Chris no longer needs any help from Heather.

"He's all better now, all better," she said sarcastically as Chris laughed. "So he doesn't need a caregiver for anything."

"It was part of my identity. And then to have a letter tell me, 'Well you're no longer on the caregiver program,' it hurt like a punch in the gut. Because I didn't stop caregiving. I've always been a caregiver and I always will be," she says.

The home of Ret. Sgt. Chris Kurtz and Heather Kurtz on base at Fort Campbell.

Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

The Kurtzes are not alone. Just across the border near Bowling Green, Ky., Ashlee and J.D. Williams also got bad news, around Thanksgiving.

J.D., a former Army sniper, lost three limbs in a bomb attack in Kandahar. He's fiercely independent, and he still finds ways to bow-hunt and target shoot. But he can't do basic things like put on his prosthetic legs without help from Ashlee.

"It's a 24/7 job," she says. "If he wants to put his legs on he needs assistance. He wants a shower, he needs assistance. It's not my choice. I worked full time before, at a job I enjoyed. [I had] to walk away from that."

The Williams were demoted to Tier 1 of the program — but once their story got negative media attention, they were quickly restored to a higher tier. Still, Ashlee Williams says the way the decision was so easily changed makes her nervous.

Former Staff Sgt. J.D. Williams poses for a portrait with his wife and caretaker Ashlee Williams.

Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

"We're in the clear right now — but for how long? It could be next month and they reassess us again," she says.

An NPR report this year found that some VAs across the country have cut their rolls drastically. The VA says it's part of standardizing the program and removing some vets who never should have qualified.

But a VA inspector general report in August found that about half the time, the VA wasn't adequately monitoring the veteran's health when it dropped them.

"So many caregivers are having issues," says Williams, "and there's no one to look at their case."

That's certainly true for the Tennessee Valley VA. From 510 caregivers on its rolls early last year, there are now only 104 — a drop of 80 percent.

It's not only Tennessee. A VA spokesman said nationally the total number on the program has decreased slightly as facilities more accurately and consistently identify veterans who meet eligibility criteria for the program.

Caretaker Ashlee Williams helps her husband, Former Staff Sgt. J.D. Williams, put on one of his prosthetic legs.Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

But it doesn't feel more accurate to Sherman Gillums — he's a paralyzed former Marine who uses the VA in Washington, D.C. His wife is his caregiver.

"I was also told that in order to stay on the program, that I needed to have gotten treatment in the VA within the last year," he says, "or else I'll be removed from the program."

Gillums says he had been to the VA for treatment. He thinks either the administrator who contacted him didn't seem to have complete access to his health records, or it was something worse.

"You could take that as just informing me of the policy or it seems like a veiled threat — that's just how I took it," he says.

Gillums is also a senior official with one of the country's largest veterans organizations, AMVETs. And he's the vice chairman of the VA's own caregiver advisory committee. He thinks there's an effort to shrink the program.

"I characterize it this way — beginning a purge," Gillums says.

Old wheelchairs and prosthetic legs sit in a corner of Former Staff Sgt. J.D. Williams' home.

Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

He says getting the program fixed is crucial — because it's about to grow five or six times bigger.

Congress passed a law in May, the VA Mission Act, which begins expanding the program to caregivers for veterans who served before 9/11, starting with vets from World War II, Korea and the Vietnam era.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie told NPR last month that improvements in the program are underway.

"I think we are close to fixing that. What was the Mission Act has done [is] provided us with more resources to go out into the community and find those families that we have not been supporting, from the Vietnam era in particular," Wilkie said.

Families like Paula and Chris Minger in Temecula, Calif. Chris suffered an abdominal wound in 1973, and complications led the VA to rate him 100 percent disabled. Paula has been taking care of him — without any VA stipend — for over 30 years. He's in and out of the hospital, and now he's often bedridden at home.

Former Staff Sgt. J.D. Williams practices shooting with his bow in his backyard on Dec. 11, 2018. Williams uses his love of hunting not only as therapy for himself but for other disabled combat veterans.Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR 

 

"He's probably just the most amazing guy I've ever known in my life. His mind is so good. He's an avid reader. He does everything he can to make himself better," she says.

But now he's 68 and she's 67, and she'd love some help, so the caregiver expansion was great news.
"I'm thrilled by it — I can't wait," Minger says.

She'll have to wait, though. The timeline isn't clear for when the expansion will start.

Bipartisan sponsors in Congress said they wanted to make sure to get the program right before rolling it out — particularly an update to the IT system. Congressional sources said it could be one to three years before Vietnam vets get in - but that hasn't been communicated to caregivers like Paula Minger, who thought she might be able to apply this spring.

"I'm speechless," she said upon hearing the one to three year estimate. "Think how many will die before then."

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VA Still Arbitrarily Cutting Caregivers From Program, Even As It Aims To Expand

My father and the dysfunctional, broken VA

Maureen Callahan and her father,Vietnam War veteran Bill

In 2014, after it was revealed that at least 75 US veterans had died while waiting to get appointments at their VA hospitals — with more than 120,000 never tended to, just abandoned or deliberately shuffled from one bureaucratic boondoggle to another — public outcry forced the following: congressional hearings, an internal VA investigation, an Obama administration investigation, an FBI criminal probe, a RAND Corp. investigation, an Office of Special Counsel investigation, and the “early retirement” of VA chief Dr. Robert Petzel and Eric Shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs.

“I assure you, if there is misconduct, it will be punished,” then-President Barack Obama said. “I want every veteran to know we are going to fix what is wrong.”

Yes, the federal government was going to internally fix what was wrong with a massive, federally funded institution.

Last Thursday, more than three years and two new secretaries later, the New York Times reported that current head David Shulkin is fighting to keep out the director of the Washington Medical Center, Brian Hawkins, who was fired last month for running a hospital at “the highest levels of chaos.”

Hawkins has appealed to the government’s Merit Systems Protections Board, claiming wrongful termination. The board gave him a stay, even though President Trump signed a law in June eliminating appeals by senior department executives to that body. But because disciplinary action was initiated against Hawkins in April, his lawyer claims wrongful termination — such action predates the new law.

So Shulkin now says he’ll use new evidence to keep Hawkins out, even though Hawkins can then appeal to a new internal review board, about which we know little.

What is clear is that multiple federally appointed boards and committees are working at cross-purposes to ostensibly fix the VA.

Sound absurd? Like the height of dysfunction and bureaucratic infighting, siphoning time, money and attention away from the very people Veterans Affairs and the federal government are meant to protect?

Welcome to the VA.

If you’ve never dealt with the VA, it’s impossible to understand how infuriating, dispiriting and broken it is. My initiation dates back to November 2013, when my father, a Vietnam vet, was scheduled for surgery to remove a supposedly localized mass in one lung.

We were told to arrive at the hospital at 11 a.m., before he’d be wheeled into the OR — which we did, only to find an empty hospital room. Where was he?

Oh, we were told, he was wheeled in at 7 a.m.

Why? No one had an answer.

Four hours later, a very kind resident emerged to tell us they had been wrong: My father actually had Stage IV lung cancer. There was nothing they could do and they were closing him up now. The doctor who’d made this catastrophic misdiagnosis, it turned out, was also the lead surgeon, and I asked to speak with him.

The resident told me that wasn’t possible. Why? He couldn’t say.

“No, really,” I said. “Why can’t I speak to my father’s surgeon?”

“You just can’t,” came the reply.

It was a harbinger of stonewalling to come. The VA loves to claim all kinds of outreach, services and benefits, but you’d better know your way around. At the Brooklyn VA, the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) maintains offices, but if you seek help from them, you can’t seek help directly from the VA — and DAV reps often aggressively pursue confused veterans.


Who benefits and by how much is unclear, but DAV employees aren’t always transparent with these veterans, some of whom my father and I met one winter weekday.

These men were older, sick and frail. One had risen early, made a very long drive, and now sat with the others outside these offices. They were waiting for their representative to show for their scheduled appointments.

I asked how long they’d been waiting. Hours, they told me. Their rep might not show up at all. It happened all the time. They had no choice but to wait.

Couldn’t they complain?

They laughed. To whom?

My dad and I walked down the hall looking for help. There, in a big office overlooking the river, sat a well-fed, well-tended anonymous chief of something. His role was deliberately ambiguous, but he had a corner office. Surely he could do something.

We walked in and I asked where the DAV rep was. Did he know there was a line of older vets waiting for help?  (Click to Continue)

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My father and the dysfunctional, broken VA