By Samantha House - NYUP - 04/01/2024 - [USA] - [Paul M. Giacopelli]
A doctor has been accused of using anesthesia to repeatedly sexually assault a woman last month in the Hudson Valley.
Dr. Paul M. Giacopelli was arrested last week and charged with a “series” of sexual assaults, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
Deputies started investigating Giacopelli, an anesthesiologist, on Dec. 29 after a woman reported the doctor had drugged and sexually abused her, the sheriff’s office said. The woman knows the doctor, who had access to drugs, deputies said.
The doctor is accused of placing a rag containing Sevoflurane — a drug used to put patients to sleep before surgery — over the woman’s face on four separate occasions and fondling her, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported.
Giacopelli, of Southeast, was arrested one day after the investigation began and charged with four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree assault, all felonies. He was arraigned in Southeast Town Court, where his bail was set at $150,000 cash or a $500,000 bail bond.
As of Thursday afternoon, Giacopelli was not listed as an inmate in the Putnam County jail.
Giacopelli was employed by Northwell Health with privileges at Putnam Hospital Center at the time of his arrest, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies have asked anyone with information about the doctor to call (845) 808-4377.
Northwell Health removed Giacopelli’s “patient care duties”, a spokeswoman told the Rockland/Westchester Journal News, and is taking his arrest “very seriously”.
Giacopelli graduated from New York Medical College in 1990 and was licensed in 1993, according to the state’s Office of the Professions database. As of Thursday, no disciplinary records linked to Giacopelli appeared in the state Department of Health’s Professional Misconduct and Professional Discipline database. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.