Whiteside County doctor sued, patient claims sex harassment, abuse, assault during 2022 examination

MORRISON — A lawsuit has been filed against a Fulton doctor and his employers that accuses him of sexually harassing, sexually abusing and sexually assaulting a female patient three years ago during a physical examination.

The lawsuit filed March 3 in Whiteside County Circuit Court names Dr. Stephen D. Harrison of Fulton, MercyOne, MercyOne Fulton Family Medicine, Mercy Health Network Inc., Trinity; Trinity Health, Trinity Health ACO Inc., and Trinity Health Corp. as defendants in the case.

According to the lawsuit, the female patient was at Harrison’s office for a medical visit on Aug. 4, 2022, when he sexually harassed, abused and assaulted her.

The plaintiff also alleges in the lawsuit that Harrison “had a history of inappropriate sexual behavior with female patients” and that MercyOne and Trinity knew or should have known about that history, which she learned about subsequent to her Aug. 4, 2022, office visit.

MercyOne officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit as the company does not comment on pending litigation, MercyOne spokesman Todd Mizener told Shaw Local.

The lawsuit lists three counts: battery/lack of informed consent, naming Harrison, negligence – institutional negligence on the part of MercyOne and Trinity, and negligent supervision and retention on the part of MercyOne and Trinity. The plaintiff says she has suffered personal and pecuniary damages, including, but not limited to, pain and suffering and loss of normal life, according to the lawsuit.

Count 1 alleges that as a physician, Harrison owed the plaintiff a duty not to perform inappropriate acts upon her and that he breached that duty and battered and failed to obtain the plaintiff’s informed consent when he sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and sexually abused her on Aug. 4, 2022.

In Count 2, which names MercyOne and Trinity, the plaintiff states that the two companies had the duty to implement policies and procedures, screen physicians and supervise physicians so as to prevent sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual assault and battery by physicians.

She alleges that prior to Aug. 4, 2022, other female patients of MercyOne and Trinity had told the defendants that Harrison had sexually abused and sexually assaulted them. She claims she believes those reports were investigated, but not in an adequate manner.

The plaintiff claims that if those reports had been adequately investigated, Harrison would have been terminated, and that law enforcement and the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation would have been notified.

Count 3 alleges that MercyOne and Trinity did not properly supervise Harrison in light of other reports of inappropriate examinations of patients and that they had negligently retained him when they knew or should have known “he had engaged in inappropriate examinations of patients prior to his assault of plaintiff” and “he had been reported as engaging in sexually inappropriate examinations of patients.”

The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and is seeking a sum in excess of $50,000 in damages on each of the three counts, the costs of the lawsuit and all other relief permitted by law.

The defendants have not filed a response to the lawsuit and its allegations.

A case management conference is set for 9 a.m. June 4 at the Whiteside County Courthouse.