Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding New Jersey, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: Doctors banned from treating females or under other practice restrictions are to get tighter oversight from the state, following a state review in 2015 about how the Board of Medical Examiners was handling cases of sexual misconduct. The investigation came after The (Bergen County) Record raised questions about why some doctors were allowed to keep practicing despite repeated allegations and criminal charges of sexually abusing patients. (Note: In May 2013, the Board of Medical Examiners discontinued using confidential private letters that banned physicians from treating females or required them to do so only with a chaperone.)
“Dr. Garcia, the women came to you in a vulnerable situation. They wanted children; they were hoping and praying to have children. They put their faith in you, and instead you sexually assaulted them.”
— Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian, in sentencing of fertility doctor Alfredo Garcia in 2015, as quoted by The Record of Bergen County, N.J. Garcia had entered a guilty plea and "admitted that he had engaged in acts of criminal sexual contact with regard to eight patients and criminal sexual assault of a ninth patient,” according to board documents. He was sentenced to seven years at a Department of Corrections diagnostic and treatment center. His medical license was revoked in 2015. In 1989 he had been required to have a chaperone with female patients. His license had been suspended 150 days in 2004 after two patients accused him of “medically inappropriate examinations,” according to board records.
In 2003, the dermatologist was criminally charged after two female patients alleged that he had touched them in a sexual manner during medical exams in his office, but he entered a pretrial intervention program and was ordered to have a monitor whenever he examined a female patient, according to court documents.
In 2008, a state deputy attorney general filed a complaint alleging 10 counts of unwarranted touching of breasts during exams. (“All of the alleged impermissible touching took place no later than 2003,” the board noted). Victims spoke of his “groping,” “manhandling” and “copping a feel.”
Criminal charges again were filed, and for a second time Ragi got pretrial intervention.
The board tried to revoke his license in 2009, noting his lack of remorse. It also noted that “in exchange for the extraordinary grant of PTI a second time,” he had agreed to several requirements, including that there would be no need for the victims to testify. Instead, all statements or grand jury testimony could be presented to the medical board without objection or without need for the women to be present, the agreement said.
But Ragi objected to the board's using the statements because they were hearsay, and in 2010 an appeals court reversed the board and ordered “a full contested proceeding.”
In 2011, the board allowed him to see only male patients. The state board's website shows that his license is now active, with no restrictions.
Ragi has not yet responded to a request for comment.
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