The Truth About David Verity, DDS
(aka David Roy Phipps)

The Truth About David Verity: Criminal Background

The following is a summary of events regarding Verity’s criminal actions when the subject was known as Dr. David Roy Phipps, operating as a dentist in Northern California and centers around a case in 1994 “People vs David Phipps” which charged him with Attempted Sexual Battery by restraint – a felony, and misdemeanor sexual battery. Dr. Phipps pled ‘Nolo Contendere’ to the sexual battery charge. This plea has the similar legal effect as pleading guilty. Verity served a year in Placer County jail for the crime. Reference and links to the court docs follow. 

 BACKGROUND: 

On April 5, 1994, David Phipps was practicing in a partnership called Family Dentists of Roseville with fellow dentists Mark Phipps (David’s brother) and Robert Shorey. (References to “Phipps” hereafter are to David Phipps.) Kimberly Altenburg Fisch and Robin Stevens worked for the partnership as chairside dental assistants. 

In the 1980’s, Phipps incurred criminal and professional penalties for molesting female patients during dental procedures.  A criminal complaint was filed against Phipps in 1987, alleging acts of sexual battery against six patients during the period 1984-1985 (Pen.Code, § 243.4, subds.(a), (b)). 

He eventually entered a plea of nolo contendere (no contest) to two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery involving two of his patients V.P. and L.N. (Pen.Code, § 243.4, former subd. (d)(1), now subd. (e)(1).)

In 1987, the Dental Board of California undertook disciplinary proceedings against Phipps. After he stipulated to negligence as to victims V.P. and L.N., the Dental Board suspended his license for seven months and put him on five years’ probation; during the first year of his probation he could not treat female patients, and during the last four years could do so only with a chairside assistant present. 

By April 1994, he was no longer under any restrictions in his practice.

Then on April 5, 1994 he molested a patient known as Marie Y.  and was charged with attempted sexual battery by restraint, a felony. The complaint also alleged misdemeanor sexual battery as to another patient known as B.C.

THE EVENTS OF APRIL 5, 1994

Marie Y. (the victim) testified under oath in the civil, criminal and related disciplinary proceedings against Phipps, as follows:

She went to Phipps’s office for dental treatment on April 5, 1994. He administered nitrous oxide to her. It made her extremely relaxed, with her muscles and eyelids heavy; during the two-hour session, her eyes were closed and she did not speak.

During the procedure, Marie Y. felt Phipps’s hand go underneath the dental bib to give her breast a sudden squeeze or caress, putting his hand completely over it; he squeezed her right breast three times and her left breast once. She did not consent to these touchings and considered them inappropriate. Phipps then put his hand under Marie Y.’s shorts and slid it four inches up her right thigh to the panty line. He also put his hand on top of hers as it rested above her pubic area.

According to the testimony of Kimberly Altenburg Fisch, Phipps’s chairside assistant, in deposition in the underlying action and in the disciplinary proceeding against Phipps, he asked her to leave the room and bring a tray of instruments to the sterilization room. She turned and saw him with his hand under Marie Y.’s dental bib, making circular motions. When Fisch walked back into the room, he jerked his hand away.

Later in the procedure, Phipps asked Fisch to take Marie Y.’s chart to the reception area. As Fisch went that way, she asked Robin Stevens, another chairside assistant, to keep an eye on Phipps. According to Stevens’s testimony in deposition and in the disciplinary proceeding, she saw Phipps slip his hand under Marie Y.’s dental bib, then move his hand in a circle for about 15 seconds; she did not intervene.

THE CRIMINAL COURT PROCEEDINGS

In December 1994 a criminal complaint filed against Phipps in Placer County Superior Court alleged attempted sexual battery by restraint, a felony Penal Code, §§ 664/243.4, subd. (a), and misdemeanor sexual battery (§ 243.4,subd. (d); see fn. 5, p. 934, ante ) as to Marie Y. The complaint also alleged misdemeanor sexual battery as to another patient known as B.C.

The case went to trial in 1995. Marie Y. testified at the trial. On November 14, 1995, Phipps entered a plea of nolo contendere (no contest) to two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. 

He served 365 days in Placer County Jail as a result of his plea.

THE DENTAL BOARD PROCEEDINGS 

After the chairside assistants told Robert Shorey what they had seen, Shorey reported Phipps’s conduct to the Dental Board on April 9, 1994. In June 1994, the Dental Board began new disciplinary proceedings against Phipps.

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Keith Levy heard the matter in a contested proceeding beginning in December 1995. Phipps and the Dental Board were represented by counsel; witnesses testified under oath.

Marie Y., Fisch, and Stevens testified as indicated above. A psychologist retained by Phipps’s counsel testified that Phipps admitted he “felt” Marie Y.’s breast and experienced “some arousal”; although he knew he should not have done it, he saw himself as a “pleaser” who “wanted to please [Marie Y.] in a bizarre way,” and it made him “feel good” that he could make patients “feel good sexually.” Dental Board investigators Lynn Thornton and Gayle Betzing testified that during an interview in May 1994, Phipps admitted touching Marie Y.’s breast with the intent to please her and without any therapeutic purpose; he felt “guilty” and remorseful afterward. Phipps also admitted to the investigators that he had inappropriately touched other patients between June 1993, when his probation ended, and April 1994.

ALJ Levy issued a proposed decision on May 17, 1996, which included an order revoking Phipps’s license. On June 6,1996, the Dental Board adopted the proposed decision, effective July 6, 1996. The decision included the following material findings of fact and law:

The Board found that Phipps committed “acts of sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct” toward Marie Y. on April 5, 1994, while she was under the influence of nitrous oxide but “conscious and aware of what was going on in the treatment room and what [Phipps] was doing to her.” These acts were also crimes of which he had been “convicted on a plea of nolo contendere.”  Phipps had admitted to Dental Board investigators that he touched other patients inappropriately between the end of his probation and the Marie Y. incident. Although he had been under going treatment for a psychiatric disorder, there was no evidence that the treatment would guarantee his good behavior in the future. The seriousness of his misconduct and his record of discipline, combined with the lack of a consistent successful treatment record and the substantial potential risk to the public, required his license to be revoked. (Bus. & Prof.Code, §§ 726, 1670.1, 1680, subd. (e).)

CIVIL ACTIONS

On August 30, 1994, Marie Y. filed a complaint for damages against Phipps, Mark Phipps, and Robert Shorey “as individuals and dba Family Dentists of Roseville, a partnership,” and 30 Doe defendants.

The complaint stated counts (labeled “cause[s] of action”) of negligence, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The trial court (Judge Michael G. Virga presiding) found that Phipps negligently touched Marie Y. and negligently failed to ensure that the effects of nitrous oxide did not cause her to misperceive his touchings. 

The court entered judgment against Phipps in the amount of $1,032,276 plus interest and costs. 

LINK TO COURT DOCKET