Utah County prosecutors continue to file criminal charges against OB-GYN David Broadbent, and on Wednesday, added two more felonies accusing the doctor of sexually assaulting a patient during a 2020 exam.
The Utah County Attorney’s Office has now charged Broadbent in connection with five patient reports; he has been sued in civil court in two lawsuits by a total of nearly 240 women who similarly allege he assaulted them during exams.
The latest criminal charges stem from a patient who reported she went to see Broadbent in 2020. During the exam, prosecutors say the woman asked Broadbent to use a smaller instrument for a Pap smear because she had been abused as a child. But, they allege, he was “rough” when using the speculum and ignored the woman as “she was crying and hitting the walls, telling [Broadbent] to ‘stop, no, no, no’ and ‘please no more.’”
After removing the speculum, prosecutors say Broadbent put his fingers inside the woman’s vagina and moved them in a circular motion while she continued to ask him to stop while hitting the walls around her.
In this case, Broadbent is charged with two counts of object rape, a first-degree felony. In total, he now faces 15 charges of object rape and two charges of forcible sexual abuse in connection to five patient exams. If convicted, Broadbent could face up to life in prison.
Defense attorney Cara Tangaro has said that her client “adamantly denies sexually abusing any of his patients,” and on Wednesday added that there was always a female chaperone in the room with Broadbent during these exams.
Broadbent has agreed to stop practicing medicine while the police investigation and prosecutions continue.
At least 49 women have reported to Provo police that Broadbent sexually abused them during exams, and prosecutors have been weighing whether to file charges for two years. Christopher Ballard, a spokesperson for the Utah County Attorney’s Office, said last month that prosecutors “are continuing to screen and evaluate cases involving Dr. Broadbent.”
“The Utah County Attorney’s Office will do everything it can,” he wrote in an email, “to ensure that all allegations of criminal conduct involving Dr. Broadbent are thoroughly investigated and that all possible charges are thoroughly evaluated.”
