Area doctor receives second five year sentence for abusing patients

KENNETT, Mo. -- A former Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Malden, Mo., doctor was sentenced to another five years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to inappropriately touching a female patient. Dr. Martin McDonald, 52, of Wappapello, Mo., pleaded guilty to felony sexual abuse before Presiding Circuit Judge Stephen Sharp, according to Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Sokoloff. McDonald's plea preempted his trial, which was set for Friday.

After McDonald waived having a sentencing assessment report done by Probation and Parole, Sharp sentenced McDonald to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Sokoloff, who recommended the five-year sentence.

The judge, Sokoloff said, ordered the sentence to run concurrently with another five-year sentence McDonald received last week in Butler County and recommended McDonald be placed in a 120-day shock incarceration program.

"(The defense) had the ability and did argue that the judge should put him on probation, or in the alternative, give him 120, which is what the judge did," Sokoloff said.

Butler County Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett also recommended the 120-day shock program.

By recommending placement in the 120-day shock incarceration program, Sharp and Pritchett retain jurisdiction. Both judges, who will receive a report from prison officials, can place McDonald on probation or leave him in prison after the 120 days.

Originally charged in Dunklin County with two felonies of sexual abuse involving two women, McDonald was accused of providing what authorities described as unrequested breast exams. The other charge was dismissed at the time of McDonald's plea.

Sokoloff said McDonald will have to complete the Missouri Sex Offenders Program. He also will be required to register as a sexual offender.

"They may start him up there (in the program), (and) if the judge lets him out, he'll have to complete it while on probation," Sokoloff said.

The Dunklin County charges against McDonald, who at the time was a family practice physician at the Pehlman Family Clinic on North Douglas in Malden, were filed in October after the sheriff's department there received complaints from three women.

The Butler County charges stemmed from an investigation by the Poplar Bluff Police Department, which was initiated after McDonald was charged in Dunklin County.

Three women provided police Lt. David Sutton with verbal and written statements regarding incidents, which were alleged to have occurred when they sought treatment from McDonald at the Plunkett Family Care Center on Three Rivers Boulevard.

After he was charged in Dunklin County, the State Board of Registration for Healing Arts suspended McDonald's medical license in November, saying he had violated his probation agreement to treat female patients in the presence of chaperones and to perform proper breast exams only as needed.

At the time of his October arrest, McDonald's medical license was on a 10-year term of probation through the State Board of Registration for Healing Arts for engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient for 30 days in 2005 and for inappropriately and unnecessarily performing breast examinations.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, MO

Malden, MO

Wappapello, MO