Doctor indicted on felony sexual assault charges

A Fifth Circuit Court grand jury indicted Kaua‘i doctor Jon Van Cleave April 19 on charges of third-degree sexual assault, alleging that a teen-age boy was molested in 2002.

Van Cleave, 55, an osteopath, was originally arrested in February for the same charges.

Van Cleave was re-arrested Friday on one count of third-degree sexual assault, a class-C felony, and is scheduled to be arraigned and plans to plead not guilty this morning in Circuit Court, said his attorney, Michael Green.

Once a person is indicted by a grand jury, a bench warrant is issued for their arrest, regardless if they have been arrested on the charges already, said county Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Craig DeCosta. It is a formality to make sure the same person who was arrested is indicted. It also allows police and prosecutors to keep all the court records together, he said.

The indictment claims that, on February 1, 2002, Van Cleave touched the boy’s sexual organs, when he was less than 14.

“It’s all very bogus,” Van Cleave told The Garden Island yesterday. When asked for further comment, he provided Green’s name and number.

Green continued to insist that there is no evidence against his client, and the indictment was merely a formality.

“They can indict a coconut” in this state, Green said yesterday. “Certainly there isn’t any evidence or proof of” the allegations.

“All somebody has to say (is) it happened and you’re arrested,” he said. He said he has not heard of one case in the past 10 years in Hawai‘i where an indictment has not been handed down when asked for, since there is no opportunity for the defense to witness the proceedings, let alone provide testimony.

He blamed the family of the boy named in the case for pressing the charges.

“They are trying to get money out of this guy,” Green claimed.

The parents, whose lawyer, Robert O. Kratovil, filed a civil suit in Lihu‘e Circuit Court in February, claim in the suit that Van Cleave provided “useless and unnecessary medical treatment so he could see their son.”

They claim that they suffered emotional and economic harm as a result of Van Cleave’s treatment of their child. They are asking for unspecified general damages, special and consequential damages, and punitive damages.

According to the lawsuit, the mother of the child said she brought the youth to Van Cleave’s office for treatment of chronic fatigue starting in August, 2001.

The boy was 13 at the time.

According to the suit, Van Cleave put the mother behind a screen in his office so that she could not see what treatment her son underwent, a normal procedure. But after the treatment ended, the mother claims, the boy was upset and ran from the doctor’s office. Months later, the son told his mother that he had been sexually assaulted.

Following the running incident, during treatment over the next five months, Van Cleave insisted on buying expensive gifts for the youth, the lawsuit contends.

Van Cleave allegedly bought the boy an expensive gold necklace, opened a savings account with $10,000 in it for the youth, and paid for the son to attend a private school, according to the suit.

When the youth asked why Van Cleave was offering to help him with school, Van Cleave told him that he had provided scholarships for other children at the same school, the lawsuit says. The school was not identified in court documents.

The lawsuit further claims Van Cleave asked the youth what he wanted for Christmas, and asked him to make a list, later buying gifts on the list for him.

Osteopathy is a school of medicine and surgery involving diagnosis and treatment, and puts emphasis on the relationship of muscles to the skeletal system.

Van Cleave was released on $10,000 bail Friday. He is continuing to practice medicine out of his Kapa‘a office, he said yesterday.

Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.