California doctor charged with sex crimes on patient, plus cover-up

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Fresno urgent care doctor is ready to reopen Wednesday, less than a week after Fresno police arrested him for alleged unwanted sexual contact with a patient.

The state medical board is also working to possibly revoke his medical license.

"I'd be concerned if I were a patient of this doctor," said legal analyst Tony Capozzi. "I'd be concerned."

The sign on his office door says Vang Children's Urgent Care will reopen Wednesday, but the doctor's medical career is at a crossroads.

"Hard to believe a doctor would do something like this," Capozzi said.

A patient reported disturbing sexual contact by Dr. Tou Vang when she went for treatment in February 2017.

A state Medical Board accusation shows he unnecessarily examined her sexual organs even though she repeatedly asked him to stop.

With a police officer's help, she called the doctor two days later and discussed what bothered her. He admitted nothing but didn't deny anything either.

Police documents show Dr. Vang hung up relatively quickly and Capozzi says his defense got worse immediately afterward.

"That's not the end," he said. "He enters into the computer and makes changes to that medical report of the victim. That's strong indications that something was wrong here and he's trying to cover something up."

Vang's attorney told me he couldn't comment about whether that happened, but he says Dr. Vang didn't go nearly as far as the woman says.

"The doctor denied it and he continues to deny it," said defense attorney Roger Nuttall.

Fresno County prosecutors charged Dr. Vang with five felony sex counts.

The medical board's accusation accuses him of gross negligence, dishonest or corrupt acts, and incompetence.

They say Dr. Vang prescribed outdated treatments in addition to altering medical records and conducting an examination of genitalia without a female chaperone.

"What we're seeing here is an accusation of alleged touching that if it were to have been done, perhaps there should've been a chaperone, but we're maintaining those things never happened," Nuttall said.

Nuttall says they have a video of the patient walking in and walking out without any indication of something being wrong.

Vang's out of jail on a $225,000 bond. He's due to enter a plea to the criminal charges next week.

He has a Medical Board hearing in August, but until then, his office can reopen as scheduled.