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 South Carolina, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: The state issues private agreements with some physicians accused of sexual contact with patients. Board orders provide scant information about allegations against doctors.
“If Respondent practices, there should be a check and balance system… whereby at least two individuals working with him provide Staff Surveillance Feedback regarding his patient care and lack of sexual harassment or professional sexual misconduct in those environments. In addition, he should have a polygraph every six months to ensure that he has not been involved in any sexual misconduct or sexual harassment.”
— Recommendation in the case of a doctor accused of a sexual relationship with a patient/employee to whom he prescribed various controlled substances, and a sexual relationship with another patient/employee
In 2001, the pediatrician was charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct and of a lewd act with a minor, among other charges arising from acts that occurred from 1977 to 1994 involving seven children he molested at his home and at his medical office.
According to court records, colleagues had suspected he was molesting young patients, but instead of notifying anyone, they allowed him to move to another office.
A man whose son was molested later filed suit, saying that a psychiatrist who learned from a victim that Marion was molesting patients failed to report it to law enforcement, the medical board or child abuse authorities. Instead, the lawsuit said, the psychiatrist attempted to treat Marion “for his predilection for child molestation simultaneously with [the psychiatrist’s] treatment of other existing victims.”
An appeals court in 2004 rejected the lawsuit, saying that the psychiatrist did not have a duty to report “because there was no specific threat to a specific individual.”
Marion has not yet responded to a request for comment.
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