Doctor's Too Fat To Sexually Abuse Patients Defense Rejected By Court

A Canadian doctor was accused of rubbing his penis against several patients’ legs during examinations -- a charge he appealed last year by arguing his belly was too fat to purposely touch his penis to anything.

A disciplinary committee panel for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario ruled Thursday that Dr. Rodion Kunynetz is to have his license revoked after being found guilty last year of sexually abusing a patient, the Toronto Star reports. But the panel of his peers was forced to examine whether or not Dr. Kunynetz, a Barrie dermatologist, was physically able to rub his penis on patients.

Many of the expert recreations and examinations of Kunynetz's penis impossibility defense centered around whether it was even physically possible for the touching of "that part of Dr. Kunynetz's lower abdomen at the level of his pelvis," and if "patients were distressed by this."

That part of Dr. Rod Kunynetz's stomach or abdominal panniculus was often referenced throughout the investigation as his "abdominal fat pad."

Expert examinations conducted by the disciplinary committee included reviewing photographic evidence of Kunynetz’s large belly against the possibility he could have maneuvered his body enough to place his penis on a patient. Physicians even induced chemically induced erections in Kunynetz and had him simulate patient examinations in order to see if it was “impossible” for him to have placed his penis on a patient’s leg.

Although the panel was ultimately unable to determine if he had or had not, a majority of the panel ruled that “the impossibility of contact between the doctor’s penis and a patient’s skin (through clothing) was not established.”

During the Tuesday penalty phase of the Ontario physician and surgeon panel inquiry, the panel acknowledged that the news media sensation created around the Kunynetz case was “extremely unpleasant, stressful and even salacious.”

However, the panel also conceded that much of this consequence was based on the doctor’s bizarre defense.

As a result of his appeal being rejected by the panel this week, Kunynetz will have several other financial penalties in addition to having his license revoked. He is ordered to post credit for $16,000 for potential therapy costs of patients and he must pay the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario $145,000 for the cost of the disciplinary proceedings.