A former Paragould women's doctor who was charged in April with photographing women during examinations without their consent faces three more charges after additional patients told authorities that he also took pictures of them.
Greene County District Judge Dan Stidham found probable cause Tuesday to charge Paul Becton, 69, with three new counts of felony video voyeurism.
Becton was arrested April 16 at a Newport motel after a Paragould woman accused him of photographing her at Becton Women's Clinic in Paragould on April 1. He pleaded innocent to five counts of video voyeurism and was released from jail after posting a $500,000 bond.
Arkansas State Police investigator Mike Grimes reported finding several images of women on Becton's cellphone that appeared to have been taken in his medical office during examinations.
According to affidavits filed in court Tuesday, the three patients connected with the new charges, one of whom is a minor, told police that they saw Becton use a cellphone to take pictures of them.
All three said Becton photographed them April 1.
Christy Wilson, a spokesman for 2nd Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington, said Becton would return to Greene County Circuit Court for an arraignment on the new charges Oct. 31. Ellington was out of town Tuesday and not available for comment.
Becton will also appear in court Dec. 1 for pretrial motions on the original five counts of video voyeurism and faces a Dec. 8 trial on those counts.
Paragould attorney Curtis Hitt, who represents Becton, did not return a telephone message Tuesday.
Becton has owned the Becton Women's Clinic in Paragould on West Kingshighway (U.S. 412) in Paragould since 2007. He worked at the Rogers Clinic for Women from 1984-1992 and at Pinnacle Women's Healthcare Inc. in Rogers from September 2004 to November 2005.
He has also held private practices in Rogers and Bentonville.
One of the women who told police that Becton photographed her, Ashtyn Cavazos of Paragould, has also filed a civil lawsuit against Becton.
Cavazos told police that she went to Becton's clinic April 1 for an examination and was scheduled for a hysterectomy on April 4. She said she saw Becton holding a cellphone in the reflection of a glass frame in an examination room. He was holding the phone horizontally and taking pictures, she said in her lawsuit.
Police confiscated Becton's phone April 3 and sought an arrest warrant for him April 7.
He was arrested eight days later at the Fortune Inn and Suites on Arkansas 367 in Newport after U.S. marshals tracked him to the Jackson County town through his cellphone. Hitt said in a hearing in April that Becton had traveled to central Arkansas on business and was returning to Paragould to surrender to police when he stopped at the hotel.
In April, the Arkansas State Medical Board issued an emergency order of suspension on Becton's medical license.
State Desk on 09/03/2014