Summit Pain Specialists in Stow is permanently closing Monday after years of wrangling over a sex abuse scandal involving a doctor there.
What prompted the clinic to close now is not entirely clear. No one could be reached Thursday at the office.
But the Ohio Supreme Court on Aug. 3 upheld the Summit County Common Pleas Court conviction of former doctor James Bressi, who once co-owned the business with former doctor Robert Stephen Geiger.
The clinic’s troubles started in 2012, when patients began calling Stow police reporting that they had been sexually abused by Bressi inside the pain clinic.
Stow police ultimately took reports from about 95 patients — including some in their 70s — who made similar claims, according to a detective’s court testimony.
A Summit County grand jury in 2013 indicted Bressi on 27 counts of rape, gross sexual imposition and misdemeanor sexual imposition involving 10 patients and a clinic nurse.
During his trial, Bressi told jurors that his accusers must have mistaken two bottles he carried in his pocket — one filled with the sweetener stevia, another with a dietary supplement colloidal silver — as his genitals rubbing against them.
Bressi — who voluntarily and permanently surrendered his Ohio medical license — was ultimately convicted of a single misdemeanor count of sexual imposition. He was sentenced to 59 days in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender. But a judge held off imposing the sentence until Bressi exhausted his appeals.
The scandal, meanwhile, hit Bressi’s former business partner, Geiger.
Geiger did not face criminal charges. But the state medical board went after Geiger’s license for failing to report the sexual conduct of Bressi. The board said Geiger knew that Bressi had been accused of sexual misconduct with patients for nearly three years without reporting it.
Geiger’s medical license was permanently revoked earlier this year, records show.
Now that the state Supreme Court has upheld Bressi’s conviction, Summit County prosecutors will ask a judge to move forward imposing the sentence against him. No hearing has been scheduled.
On Thursday, all that remained of Summit Pain Specialists’ website was a posting announcing its pending closure and a notice saying that a third physician — Dr. Michael Louwers, whose medical license is in good standing — would still be practicing in the local area, but that he was not accepting new patients.
“We sincerely appreciate your trust and confidence in allowing us to participate in your care,” the pain specialists’ website said.
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.