A jury will not be able to visit the office of a Little Rock dentist accused of sexual assaulting a patient during his trial set to start Wednesday, a judge decided this week.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen on Monday denied a motion seeking to take the jury on a tour of Dr. Jose Turcios' Healthy Smiles practice on North Bowman Road in Little Rock, court records show.
Turcios' attorney, Bill James, wrote in his motion that a visit to the dentist's office would "show [the] unlikelihood that the crime could have happened without being viewed by an eyewitness."
Griffen ruled that the visit is unnecessary.
Turcios faces a charge of second-degree sexual assault after a 15-year-old patient accused him of groping her while she was sedated with nitrous oxide in March 2015, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Griffen ruled earlier this year to allow testimony from a former employee at the practice who also accused Turcios of molesting her.