OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The so-called “Hockey Doc,” Dr. Zvi Levran, was back in court Monday in Oakland County as he faces several criminal sexual conduct cases.
In this case, a judge tried to decide whether to take the prosecution’s two charges to a jury.
Levran has several cases against him due to his association with a boys’ hockey team, but this case was different.
A woman who visited him for an exam said she felt her visit and his treatment were inappropriate and then heard about the hockey team cases and went to prosecutors.
“I feel dirty and unclean, and something is wrong with me,” said the woman.
It was an often tearful testimony back in April when the woman with numerous medical issues sought Levran’s help on a referral.
She testified she very clearly told him her surgeon had forbidden a digital exam.
She claimed Levran asked her many sexually explicit questions and did the exam anyway with the nurse in the exam room.
“It seemed very unprofessional, and I said it was very creepy, and I didn’t like the vibe, and it was just horrific at that point,” the woman said.
In court Monday (July 17) afternoon, attorneys carefully reviewed her testimony and expert testimony to assist Judge Kim Small in deciding whether to send two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for trial.
Defense Attorney Jonathan Jones concluded there was no crime there.
“When she went to another doctor and their own expert testified that this is the only way an exam can be done, it cannot then become medically unnecessary, and if it’s not medically unnecessary it cannot be a force,” said Jones.
Assistant Prosecutor Rob Van Wert called it a simple case.
“Yes, a doctor performing a certain type of exam may not be criminal sexual conduct on its face, but when a doctor digitally penetrates a patient after the patient tells him not to, it becomes a sexual assault,” said Wert.
The attorneys will turn in written versions of their pleadings, and the judge in the case says she’ll likely have a decision on whether it goes to trial by the end of August.
If convicted in this case, Levran could face life in prison.
