Michael Banks, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Middleburg Heights, Ohio-based Southwest General Health Center, is facing disciplinary charges over alleged sexual misconduct with a teenager, WKYC reported April 15.
The girl, then 17 years old, reported the alleged misconduct to police in 2011, the report said. Dr. Banks was never charged, but reached a financial settlement with the girl. Hospital administrators have known of the alleged conduct since 2011, the report said.
According to the police report, the girl first met Dr. Banks when she was 14 and worked as a hospital junior volunteer. She said he later brought her to his home, and soon afterward their relationship allegedly involved consensual sex, the report said.
Police were also told about Dr. Banks and the girl having allegedly consensual sex in hospital exam rooms, the report said.
"As the Ohio State Medical Board has chosen to now examine this decades-old matter, out of respect for the work and authority of the Board, Dr. Banks will make no further comment until the conclusion of the Board proceedings," Banks' attorney, Victoria Vance, said in a statement to WKYC.
The medical board's new citation repeats the allegations first levied in 2011.
"Based on allegations that the doctor directed a seventeen year old child to take and send to the doctor obscene and nudity-oriented pictures of herself, and on the doctor repeatedly engaging in sexual activity with the child, which, as alleged, would individually and/or collectively constitute the commission of an act that constitutes a felony in this state, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the act was committed, to wit: Pandering obscenity involving a minor or impaired person, and/or illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance."
The hospital's human resources officer and chief of medical affairs both told detectives that Dr. Banks admitted sending graphic images of his genitalia to the girl, the report said. Still, he continued to practice at the hospital and was elevated to chief of surgery in 2017, a role he served in until 2020.
Dr. Banks will face the medical board at a hearing in September, the report said. The board will vote on whether to suspend or revoke Banks' license, or take no action.