NEW KENT, Va. — The former medical director of a Virginia hospital that serves vulnerable children used physical examinations as a “ruse” to sexually abuse two teenage patients, a prosecutor said Monday, while the doctor’s attorney “adamantly” denied any inappropriate conduct.
The trial of Daniel N. Davidow of Richmond, who for decades was medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, began Monday morning in New Kent County, where a judge will weigh the charges against him.
Davidow, along with the hospital and its parent company, is facing a separate civil suit in which dozens of former patients have accused him of inappropriate touching, allegations he has also denied. He was criminally charged in December 2022 with four felonies related to allegations made by two of those former patients.
The young women, who were teenagers when they were admitted to Cumberland, both testified Monday, saying Davidow groped their breasts and genitals during a physical examination as part of the admissions process.
“I was shocked. I was in shock,” one woman told the court.
One woman said the abuse continued during subsequent exams, and the other said she had additional encounters in which Davidow touched her inappropriately or made her feel uncomfortable.
T. Scott Renick, the top prosecutor in New Kent County, east of Richmond, where the hospital is located, said in his opening statement that the girls were in extremely vulnerable conditions and living without their parents or other caregivers at the residential facility that specialized deals with complex cases and sometimes accepts patients from other states on court orders.
“The truth is that the so-called exams were a ruse” to inappropriately touch the two girls, Renick said, adding that Davidow, as the facility’s medical director, “had complete control over them.”
Attorney Craig Cooley said Davidow “adamantly” denies the allegations. He said other doctors who had been in the room with Davidow as chaperones during exams will testify that they never saw any inappropriate touching from any of the former patients, and he described Davidow as a dedicated doctor committed to tackling even the most difficult or to help the most medically complex children. .
Cooley also expressed concern about the motivations of the former patients, noting that they are each seeking many millions of dollars in the ongoing civil case.
“They have an interest in the outcome of this case,” he said.
One of the former patients told Cooley during a pointed exchange that she was unfamiliar with the legal system and never intended to seek compensation. She hired the attorneys who represented her in the civil case because she believed they could help her “get justice,” she testified.
The Associated Press is not naming either woman because it generally does not identify those who say they were sexually assaulted.
Near the end of Monday’s hearing, after the prosecutor rested her case, Cooley — a well-known Virginia attorney — filed an unsuccessful motion to dismiss the charges, raising concerns about the women’s credibility and the discrepancies between the various explanations they had given about the alleged misconduct.
“We have these allegations, but they are changing,” he said.
Renick responded that Cooley was trying to “get us all into the woods” by noting what he described as minor differences in the stories they had given. Inconsistencies or additions to victims’ testimonies are normal, he said.
“When children come forward in these situations and disclose, it doesn’t always happen all at once,” he said.
Davidow, 71, pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent liberties and two counts of sexual penetration, also a misdemeanor.
About a half-hour drive east of Richmond, Cumberland treats children and young adults with complex medical needs, including chronic diseases, brain injuries and neurobehavioral disorders. Cooley described it as unique in the country because of the types of cases it handles, accepting referrals from patients from all over the world, he said.
Cooley, who listed nearly three dozen witnesses who might be called, was scheduled to present his defense on Tuesday.
He declined to comment after Monday’s hearing, as did attorneys representing the former patients in the civil case.
Virginia State Police began investigating staff at the hospital in October 2017, a spokeswoman said, and Davidow is at least the third former Cumberland staffer charged with a crime related to a patient.
One, a psychotherapist, was accused of sexually abusing a patient and died by suicide on the same day he was scheduled to appear in court for a plea deal. The other, a behavioral technician, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading no contest to a charge that she deliberately scalded a disabled child with boiling water.
Five plaintiffs in the civil case, who survived an attempt by the defendants to have the case dismissed and another attempt to recover their claims under the state’s medical malpractice law, will go to trial in September.