Doctor, 80, indicted for sexual assault
Prosecutors: Doctor exploited patient
By Jacqueline Ingles
MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) – A Burnet County grand jury indicted Dr. Barlow Smith, 80, who runs a psychiatry practice in Marble Falls, for sexually assaulting a patient.
He’s accused of sexual assault by a health care service provider.
Prosecutors said back in 2007, Smith had a non-consensual sexual relationship with a female patient who had a history of sexual abuse.
We told you last summer that the Texas Medical Board disciplined Smith for the relationship.
Legal experts told KXAN prosecutors must prove the woman did not consent to sex and that Smith exploited her.
“What the law is saying is that if you are exploiting the patient, then, that is not consensual and that is exactly what the state is alleging in this situation with this indictment, that there was sexual contact and it was by explotitation,” said Eddie Arredondo, an attorney who is not involved in Smith’s case.
Smith told us last summer that the woman was a former patient when the relationship took place.
Neither Smith nor his attorney immediately returned our calls
