Dentist Accused Of Making Patients Swallow His Semen

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Former employees of a dentist claim the man made female patients unwittingly swallow his semen during visits to his office. Dr. John Hall is accused by the state dental board of violating dentistry's standard of care, engaging in immoral conduct, and committing sexual assault or battery.

Six former patients say he tricked them into swallowing his semen. A seventh claims he jumped on top of her in the dental chair and "began to gyrate against her lower body in a sexual manner."

The dental board suspended Hall's license Nov. 5, after police began investigating allegations by two former employees. In February, it conditionally restored his license, barring him from being alone with female patients.

Hall's lawyers say the dentist has been falsely accused by disgruntled former employees. He was collecting his semen because he was taking Propecia, a drug to promote hair growth, and was concerned about potential side effects that include low sperm count and diminished semen, his lawyer, Emerson Thompson, said.

The dental board heard testimony Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The hearing is to continue next weekend.

The five-member panel will decide whether Hall can keep his license. The case is still being investigated by authorities in Charlotte, Cornelius and Mecklenburg County.

Hall's former assistant Cheryl Lynn MacLeod testified Saturday that she found it odd that Hall began asking her to leave a patient's side to retrieve items that he never used.

She also became suspicious when she overheard him tell patients to "swallow" something, and when she saw him take a syringe out of his lab coat pocket while working beside a patient.

In May 2003, she and former office administrator Susie Hillman took the five syringes from office waste containers and Hall's lab coat pockets and gave them to police.

Hall's lawyer, Thompson, suggested the substance Hall asked patients to swallow could have been a dental product.

But in a sworn deposition read aloud Saturday, Hall's former dental assistant Rhonda Hamilton described several dental products used in Hall's office and none matched the patients' descriptions of what was put in their mouths.

When Cornelius police searched Hall's office Nov. 5, they confiscated five more syringes with Hall's semen from his desk, according to the board and hearing testimony.

Five of the six patients testified Friday. The first, a 40-year-old woman, said she objected when Hall began to put a substance from a syringe into her mouth during a procedure on Sept. 4, telling him: "That smells like sperm."

She said Hall drew back and said, "You're crazy." She said she couldn't taste the substance because her mouth was numb.

Another witness, a 33-year-old woman, said Hall asked his assistant to retrieve something from another room during her appointment in May 2003. While the assistant was gone, she said Hall told her to lie back, open her mouth and swallow.

"When I swallowed I tasted it, and it was semen. ... He told me it was cleaning solution." She said she drove directly to her husband's office nearby and told him what happened, but he and a colleague dismissed the idea. She said she tried to convince herself she was wrong, and contacted police only after hearing about the investigation on the news.