Accused of molesting a teenage patient after sedating her with gas, a Little Rock dentist denied using the anesthetic on the 15-year-old and told police he never inappropriately touched her.
Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen listened to the recorded statement of Dr. Jose Ernesto Turcios on Monday as Turcios' lawyer, Bill James, challenged the legality of the police questioning of his client.
But Griffen, after hearing the 39-minute recording, agreed with deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill that police had obeyed the law when they questioned the 45-year-old dentist in March 2015, about a week after the girl and her mother had gone to police to complain about him.
Turcios is charged with second-degree sexual assault, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence. His trial is scheduled for April 27.
Turcios was arrested at the Little Rock Athletic Club on Sam Peck Road shortly after police obtained an arrest warrant, detective Tabitha Carter told the judge.
The girl told police that Turcios had fondled her breast, put her hand on his penis and kissed her, telling her, "I want you so badly."
Asked after his arrest whether he could recall his accuser, Turcios said he remembered seeing her recently, but appeared to struggle to recall details of her treatment.
Turcios said he sees as many as 40 patients a week, but told Carter and fellow detective Jarred McCauley that he could remember the girl because she had been a patient for two years and was getting braces from him.
Brace work requires more dental visits because of the required adjustments, Turcios said.
"I don't know the names of every patient. But the reason I know who she is is because when patients have braces, they come every three to four weeks, so I see those patients a lot," he told the detectives. "So we become familiar with their names."
Turcios told the investigators that he does not use the nitrous oxide sedative on a brace patient.
The gas is reserved for treatment such as filling cavities, conducting root canals and placing dental crowns and bridge work, he said. And gas-sedated patients are never left alone because they require constant monitoring, Turcios told the officers.
"I never use gas with braces," he told the officers, saying he might have used it on her at an earlier visit for a dental filling.
He said he remembered urging her to keep using the elastic bands on the braces, and he told the officers that the girl was near the end of her treatment and ready to be done with it.
Turcios said he could never have touched her or made her touch him because he would never have been alone with the girl. He would have had an assistant with him, but since his practice employs nine assistants, he could not remember which one was with him, the dentist told the detectives. The girl's visit was uneventful, he said.
"I don't remember anything out of the ordinary," he said. "How could this happen? My assistant was right there."
The only physical contact he engages in with his clients, outside of his treatment, is to deliver a reassuring pat on the shoulder to calm nervous patients, he said.
With the girl, Turcios said, he did remember a moment when, while lying back in his treatment chair, one of her arms fell to the side. He told the detectives he put her arm back on the chair. But he said he was standing too far away for her to have accidentally brushed against him then.
"I think her hand went down and I put her hand back up," he said. "I remember that happened. She didn't touch me."
Asked why the girl would make up the accusations, which include the allegation that he kissed her, Turcios said he did not know, but he hoped their investigation would answer all of their questions.
"I want you to find out everything," he said.
Metro on 04/12/2016