A North County doctor contracted by the VA was stripped of his medical license, ordered to register as a sex offender, and will spend the next three years on probation for sexually exploiting patients.
Dr. Edgar Manzanera faced five felony counts of sexual penetration of his patients. His victims came forward in June 2018 to report they had been sexually violated by Manzanera during medical exams.
Four of the five victims were military veterans.
Manzanera pleaded guilty and agreed to a 3-year prison term; that time is stayed, so he will serve probation instead unless he violates the terms of his deal.
One of his victims, Jane Doe 4, shared a victim impact statement describing how the assault changed the course of her life.
"After sexual assault I became ill from anxiety and found it impossible to keep up with the demanding pace of my job," she said.
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Jane Doe 4 said the trauma forced her to take medical leave from work.
"It never occurred to me that you can break an oath until someone broke their oath to me on June 15, 2016 during an exam for my neck," she said. "Edgar Manzanera, a doctor for the veteran affairs broke his oath as a physician to do no harm."
The District Attorneys Office said the VA did an extensive investigation of all the patients from where Manzanera worked, and said all that wanted to come forward have but there may be more that never spoke up.
