Ex-Cal doctor gets probation for sexually exploiting patients

Defense attorney Robert Beles, left, walks with his client, Robert Kevess, to court in 2011. Defense attorney Robert Beles, left, walks with his client, Robert Kevess, to court in 2011. Photo: Kat Wade Photo: Kat Wade Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Ex-Cal doctor gets probation for sexually exploiting patients 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

A former UC Berkeley doctor has been sentenced to five years of probation for sexually exploiting four patients, behavior that his attorney and a judge attributed to side effects from a drug he took for restless leg syndrome.

Robert Martin Kevess, 56, pleaded no contest in February to five felony counts of sexual exploitation by a doctor under the state business and professions code.

On Friday, Judge Jon Rolefson of Alameda County Superior Court denied prosecutor Chris Infante’s request to sentence Kevess to 16 months in jail, saying he didn’t believe Kevess would re-offend. Rolefson also declined to order Kevess to register as a sex offender.

The judge said he found persuasive evidence submitted by the defense showing that Kevess’ conduct was caused by side effects of a medication he was taking for restless leg syndrome. The drug has been shown to cause hypersexuality and problems with impulse control, said Kevess’ attorney, Robert Beles.

“It seriously increases libido,” he said an an interview.

Kevess had originally been charged in 2011 with 19 felony counts for allegedly assaulting six male patients since 2006 while working at the University Health Services Tang Center on Bancroft Way just south of the campus.

Some counts were dismissed after an alleged victim died, and Rolefson dismissed a count of sexual penetration with a foreign object and four counts of sexual battery, saying there had been a legitimate medical reason for Kevess to touch his patients.

Relatives of the man who died said he committed suicide and was found floating in the Dominguez Channel in Carson (Los Angeles County) in 2012 after being molested by Kevess.

Beles denied any connection between the death and conduct by Kevess. A civil suit filed against the UC regents was settled for an undisclosed sum.

Beles said some of the incidents giving rise to the criminal case involved activity between consenting adults. But the attorney acknowledged that Kevess’ actions were “unethical, immoral and unlawful.”

Kevess resigned in 2011 from the university, where he had served as a primary care physician since 1989. His license to practice medicine has been revoked, records show.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee