KEARNEY — A woman said her former Kearney psychiatrist put his hand down her pants from behind, felt her buttocks and groped her breast during a counseling session in August 2021.
The testimony came on the first day of the misdemeanor third-degree sexual assault trial in Buffalo County Court against Reynaldo A. De Los Angeles, 77, of Kearney. He is accused of having sexual contact with a victim at his office on Aug. 25, 2021, without consent that didn’t cause serious personal injury.
De Los Angeles is a board-certified psychiatrist with certification in addiction and forensic medicine and provides professional psychiatric services, care and treatment for individuals and families. He currently has an office in Kearney, and at one time he had a practice in Grand Island. It’s unclear if the Grand Island office is still open.
Chief Deputy Buffalo County Attorney Melanie Young argued that De Los Angeles used his position as a psychiatrist and addictionist to take advantage of a patient. An addictionist is a physician who deals with prescription medical management.
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De Los Angeles’ attorney, Aaron Bishop of Kearney, argued that the accusations are false.
The alleged victim testified for 2½ hours Monday about how she went to De Los Angeles’ office on Aug. 25, 2021, to straighten out her prescription medications that he had ordered for her days earlier.
The woman has been a patient of De Los Angeles’ off and on since 2004, when she was 24, for counseling and medication management. At the time of the alleged incident, the woman had been a regular patient of De Los Angeles for about five years and relied on him for her medications.
On Aug. 23, 2021, the woman said, she had a regular appointment with De Los Angeles and he adjusted her prescription medications. Two days later, the woman said, she met with him again because she felt the dosage was decreased to the point where she was nonfunctional and she felt like she may relapse.
It was during the Aug. 25, 2021, appointment, which the woman estimated lasted three hours, that she alleges De Los Angeles inappropriately touched her. The woman confronted De Los Angeles about her prescriptions being significantly smaller dosages and that they caused her to start withdrawals.
Feeling weak that day, she asked De Los Angeles to give her similar medications she’d had in the past. Instead, the woman said, De Los Angeles avoided her concerns and asked her inappropriate personal questions, including what it was like to kiss someone with dentures, which the woman has.
At one point De Los Angeles gave the woman a box of magazines, which she took to her car. When she returned to the office, De Los Angeles was sitting in a chair in his office lobby and tried to pull the woman to sit on his leg, then he tried to kiss her and hold her hand.
The moment was cut short by a woman coming into the office to pick up a package from De Los Angeles. The topic of conversation was changed, and the alleged victim, who works in automotive sales, went outside to look at De Los Angeles’ pickup, which was leaking fluid in the parking lot.
She opened the hood and inspected the engine, telling De Los Angeles what he needed to do to fix it. The two returned to the office, where the woman said she again asked De Los Angeles to correct her prescription.
De Los Angeles gave the woman more magazines, which she held in her left arm along with her keys and purse. De Los Angeles wrote the woman another prescription. As she tried to leave the office, the woman says, De Los Angeles hugged her from behind. He then stuck his hand under the untucked shirt she was wearing and into her jeans, under her panties and rubbed her buttocks.
The woman said De Los Angeles then reached around the right side of her body, put his hand under her shirt and groped her right breast as she turned away from him. She was lost for words. “I didn’t know what to say.â€
The woman then left De Los Angeles’ office and drove to a Kearney pharmacy to fill her prescription. Instead she sat in her car for some time trying to absorb what had just happened.
“I was upset about being physically violated and not being able to trust my doctor again,†she said.
The woman eventually took her prescription into the pharmacist and was asked by staff why she was upset. Pharmacy staff and the woman’s mother, who was also at the pharmacy, encouraged the woman to report the incident, but the woman was upset, overwhelmed and unsure about what to do.
“I feel doctors kind of have a power over their patients, and their word might be better than mine,†she recalled feeling.
The woman eventually reported the incident to Kearney police and was interviewed at the Family Advocacy Network in Kearney.
During cross examination, defense attorney Bishop questioned the woman to clarify the date De Los Angeles gave her the different prescription. The woman corrected her testimony, saying De Los Angeles changed her medication on Aug. 16, nine days before the alleged incident, not Aug. 23 as she first told prosecutor Young.
Bishop also questioned the woman about the timeline of events while she was in De Los Angeles’ office on Aug. 25, what medications she thought her new prescriptions were for and how many prescriptions he wrote her.
Bishop also questioned the woman about her medications being destroyed before Aug. 25, and if that was the reason she needed a different prescription. The woman said her boyfriend took her medications and De Los Angeles gave her another prescription for a week.
Monday’s hearing ended with the woman’s testimony. Additional witnesses, including pharmacists who saw the woman after the alleged incident, have been summoned to testify.