A Santa Rosa chiropractor abused his position of trust when he touched a patient's genitals and made lewd comments about her body during a therapeutic massage at his office, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Brian Icke, 54, is on trial for a sexual assault prosecutors said happened in an examination room at Advanced Chiropractic on 4th Street in November 2011.
A 60-year-old patient testified that she was on the exam table when Icke touched her vagina and breasts and made lewd and otherwise inappropriate remarks about her body, prosecutor Tania Partida said in her closing argument.
The woman testified she panicked and got up to leave, Partida said. As she was walking out, she saw that Icke had an erection, Partida said.
Partida told jurors it was clear Icke was abusing his professional status to satisfy his own sexual desires. She asked them to find Icke guilty on two felony counts of sexual assault, setting him up for a maximum six-year prison sentence.
"She did not know the defendant was going to sexually abuse her," Partida said. "She trusted him."
Icke, who has been suspended from his practice until the case is resolved, listened from the defense table. A standing room-only crowd watched from the audience.
His lawyer, Chris Andrian, said the woman identified in court only as Jane Doe was lying about the assault to win money in a separate civil lawsuit against the chiropractor.
That lawsuit, which was filed in 2012, was the subject of lengthy cross-examination. The woman denied knowing it existed. Her lawyer, Rachael Erickson, testified she didn't tell her because she didn't want to "stress her out," Andrian said.
Erickson testified she filed the suit on her client's behalf to preserve her rights under the statute of limitations, Andrian said.
Andrian told jurors the explanation was suspicious, suggesting the two were covering up the lawsuit so jurors in the criminal trial wouldn't think there was a motive to lie.
"Is there a little bit of sleaziness to this whole thing that makes you wonder what's going on here?" Andrian said in his closing argument.
But Partida maintained no attorney would lie for her client. And she said the basic allegations remained. She pointed to testimony from another woman who claimed Icke touched her breasts and vagina and commented on her body in a similar office visit in the East Bay in 1999.
Partida said the testimony from the incident 15 years ago corroborated Icke's method of operation and could be considered in determining his guilt or innocence today.
"Both victims trusted him when they allowed him access to the most intimate parts of their bodies," Partida said.
You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.
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