Michigan ‘Hockey Doc’ to face trial on sexual assault fees linked to youth hockey physicals

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — A health care provider who says he acquired the nickname “Hockey Doc” after spending greater than twenty years offering medical help to youth hockey groups in Michigan and Minnesota will stand trial on fees that he sexually assaulted sufferers.

Zvi Levran faces 22 counts of third- and fourth-degree prison sexual conduct involving 10 former hockey gamers. He denies any wrongdoing.

Some witnesses testified throughout his preliminary listening to that ended Tuesday in Farmington Hills District Court close to Detroit that the sexual assaults occurred after they have been teenagers and adults.

Each state of affairs had one function, which was to “satisfy the sexual desire of the defendant,” mentioned Judge James Brady, who famous that the victims had positioned loads of belief within the physician.

Defense lawyer Jonathan Jones argued in court docket that solely touching an individual’s genitals in a medical setting is just not against the law, The Detroit News reported.

Levran, 66, additionally faces fees in close by Bloomfield Hills District Court. He has not been charged in Minnesota.

He was arrested in October and arraigned in November on a number of prison sexual conduct fees involving a number of sufferers who instructed police their examinations have been in a roundabout way linked to youth hockey.

Levran later was charged with extra counts of prison sexual conduct after police acquired 33 further suggestions in regards to the urologist from different Detroit-area communities and from folks from California, Georgia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Arizona and Canada who say the physician abused them after they lived in Michigan.

Some accusers allege that Levran groped their genitals throughout sports physicals after they have been youngsters. One man mentioned that he was requested to strip bare and do leaping jacks, The Detroit News reported.

Another accuser testified that he later noticed Levran for a medical concern as an grownup and that Levran watched him urinate and caught an ungloved finger in his rectum.

Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor whose workplace is dealing with the instances in Farmington Hills and Bloomfield Hills, issued an announcement Tuesday applauding those that testified towards Levran.

“I hope their bravery will inspire others to come forward,” she mentioned.

A trial date hasn’t been set for the instances in both group, which could finally be mixed.

Levran’s declare in regards to the time spent working with highschool hockey groups in Michigan and Minnesota is on a webpage about his medical observe. The web site additionally states that Levran works with many groups to “help condition players to avoid sports related injuries” and that his expertise with highschool hockey groups earned him the nickname, “Hockey Doc.”

The function of sports docs and their interactions with athletes have come underneath scrutiny in recent times.

Former Michigan State University sports physician Larry Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in jail after he admitted to molesting a few of the nation’s prime gymnasts for years underneath the guise of medical remedy. He was accused of sexually assaulting tons of of girls and women.